every day is like Wednesday

[jinian]

• What are you currently reading?

Deliverer. I had expected this reread to go faster. I think we're at a point now where Bren isn't growing so much, which is disappointing, though I can hardly ask for more plot than Dramatic Kidnappings and Pursuit. Still love Jago, really enjoying Cajeiri.

• What did you recently finish reading?

HOLY SHIT SKIP BEAT JUST GOT SEXY

I was worried it was rapey for a minute, but no, it immediately became okay. (Well, Shou still needs to get his ass kicked, but that's not new. Darker scarier Ren is still not someone I have to hate, and Kyoko is doing fine managing him.) The author's sidebars were sheer wibbling for those chapters, and I can sympathize. How did she get away with that in a shoujo magazine?

Also the best Skip Beat fic ever, yet again, although I now feel it has been rendered noncanonical because of not accounting for the o'erweening sexy. Possibly not, though; I almost feel like I am more traumatized than Kyoko was.

Chrysanthe was only just interesting enough to finish for magic-geeking's sake. I didn't care about any of the people, and the ending was completely unsatisfying.

• What do you think you’ll read next?

Well, I just got this new novel by Justina Chen (formerly Justina Chen Headley), so I think that's bedtime reading now. Plus there's a PM Press collection by Nalo Hopkinson. More atevi are a given, of course.

Comments

[skygiants]

MY FEELINGS ARE SO CONFLICTED ABOUT NEW SKIP BEAT! Like, Kyoko can totally handle it and I love Kyoko handling things and I am always SO ENTERTAINED by Sexy Games of Acting Chicken, but I miss mature sane respectful Ren, I am reeeeeally not enamored of and am not really comfortable with new dark controlling throw-the-phone-across-the-room-in-a-fit-of-rage Ren. But, like, I still have so much built-up affection for everyone and everything that I want to be talked into finding him okay so I can just go "yay, forward progress!" instead of being uncomfortable! CONFLICTED.

Haha that fic is totally AU now, though. "AU to a time when I was not weirded out by Ren!"

[jinian]

Having just done the full reread, I can definitely see that this is where Nakamura was going all along with Ren's Dark Past -- though the actual hickey lessons were a shock! -- but I do not WISH him to become a controlling jerk. I am hoping for a crisis of conscience to happen real soon now. If the lovable, hilarious, mature Ren is not a real part of him that sticks around, I am going to be Very Put Out.

When I've made personality changes, there's definitely a pendulum swing back and forth before balance happens, and Ren needs to revisit the bad parts before he can integrate them instead of just converting to doomsparkles. He's still not acting out in a way that really harms anyone. (The true danger is to us, who are SO FUCKING SICK of alpha-male bullshit in our stories. But maybe it's going somewhere this time?) I also think there's a lot of great potential for "our acting roles as parts of ourselves" reflection, which is a thing I love. This could be a good way for the story to go, but Nakamura has to really nail it. So far, I have no real evidence that she has it in her to stick this landing, but I know it is possible!