KV > Recent Status Updates

Why is labeled lesbian if it's m/f romance.

Very cliche kind of over-the-top villain, but I continue. Also why are the present love interests the same starting letters in their names?

Look. We're already starting with terms like "diluting" being thrown around for mixed children or whatever is happening in this world and I'm not loving that. I don't even really like heists so this is going to go a type of way I think.

A chunk in, mystery begun, I have a complicated mix of feelings on the matter and I'm debating if I'll lean into the rubric or not yet.

I'm already slightly put off by the asinine vitriol between the two women, but that is the nature of rivals to lovers so I need to just buckle up.

I think it suffers with the split pov, at least as a mystery.

The thing is, if this was a less pushed book, I would accept it as kind of pulpy genre work and move on, but unfortunately if it's pushed through by illumicrate, I do hold higher standards for it and it's just not meeting those standards.

Ngl I feel like some of the potential mysteries were revealed too quickly, told to us too much in the text rather than folded out, which doesn't have to be so horrible in a short book, but considering this is 400+ pages, I would've liked to build it more.

I know Aila's working on it with Tanya, and it is good the narrative pointed out these problems, but I also feel so terribly for Tanya and so frustrated with Aila, as well as exhausted w the therapist black best friend trend, so even trying to unpack it is frustrating, especially with her constantly calling her animal names.

Get this white boy out of here.

I wanna dnf so badly. The racially charged language is a lot. The contemporary romance writing style is frustrating. I don't see what's cozy about any of this--the high school dialogue and conflict, the stress of how the animals are treated and regarded, the looming pressure of Aila's self-absorbed anxiety. I'm having a really hard time with this one and the most interesting part--the animals--do not get enough time.

"She'd recognize that dulcet accent anywhere, the caramel tone with savage curls and painted nails lurking underneath."

Do not talk about a brown woman this way, especially as our first descriptor, hello???

Actually, I'll put the quotes properly.

"skin dark as walnut wood and stature equally trunk-like" so I'm picturing thick, I'm picturing maybe even tall, I'm picturing sturdy but then

"Theodore pouted, flexing an arm in demonstration--and visibly struggled with the weight of cat and carrier. As an equally noodle-armed individual, Aila commiserated"

now I'm confused, and that confusion frustrates me.

skin like walnut --> trunk-like in appearance (body?), but then... not tall nor particularly thick (noodle arms) so... what is the description of this man??

We begin.

Approaching this as a book for younger audience makes a lot of things far more tolerable ngl.

Coming in with low expectations actually seems to be helpful here--so far I'm relatively fine with the book, and while some of it is a bit contrived and simple, it's something that matches what I would expect for the age range and reminds me of some books I read in middle school. Keeping that in mind, so far I'm fine with it tbh.

I'm so disappointed by "feminist retellings" that collapse and simplify gender to represent a modern perspective of it, especially when the existing agency or power a woman may have had in a myth is ripped away from her to make more comments on some structure that instead matches to align with colonial expectations.

It's kind of just meh for me tbh, like it's not even like I am steaming in rage or particularly upset so far, it's just not particularly engaging and it skips over some of the aspects that would probably build more in the book so far, but I don't care enough to be bothered it failed to build that more.

Tbh I want to explore the relationship between Taohua and Ruying far more than I want to explore a relationship with Baihu or the-as-of-yet-unnamed-green-eyed-Roman. I'm worried she's going to die or something, but that would be a far more compelling romance for me.

I'm so... I won't say what I want to say, but I cannot wait to be done.

Decided to read a little more after dinner. It's feeling like a one star ngl. Also the oxford comma would be very helpful in this but we won't get too into that and that is not why it's heading towards one star.

I'm just so frustrated. It's easy TO read, it's just frustrating. Kind of simplistic, spoon-feeding some things, trying to obscure others, and the whole time I just. Feel like it's so. Ugh.

Probably heading towards one star. I'm so... Ugh. I can't put it into words.

I'm having a miserable time.

My sense of dread is going. We've seen three perspectives (maybe all three, I guess?) and I still feel this foreboding sense of anti-revolutionary sentiment.

I started it yesterday morning. I got through the first chapter. I feel such a strong sense of dread and frustration where I think this is going already. I feel I am not going to agree with anything that will happen. I was on such a roll with reading, and now... ugh.

Read a bit more, the tension is rising and I'm having a lot of fun.