some books I read this past week
Read a bunch of novels this past week, below are several I felt like writing about. Warning, spoilers ahead:
Tsumibukaku dakishimete by Katagiri Barbara (illustrated by Enjin Yamimaru)
Oh, what can I say about this novel? I knew it sucked but kept reading hoing for an appropriately sensational ending...Only to be completely denied even that (I didn't need good! I just wanted shiny and overblown!). It starts off with uke pushing his abusive older sister of the balcony to her death. While he's standing there in shock, his sister's husband comes in dragging the next door neighbor who had witnessed the murder. The husband decides to turn it into a lover's suicide and pushes the witness off the balcony as well. After that, there is sex while watching over the sister's body, more sex when uke moves into the apartment, coerced sex with the detective who figures out uke killed his sister that still ends with uke arrested, husband breaking out uke in a hail of bullets (and two dead policemen), a life on the run that includes a little foray into pimping out the uke for money and a threesome with the client...The characters are sooo flat I only kept reading to find out if the ending would be appropriately outlandish. I was hoping for a) murder-suicide, b) husband leaving uke (husband is one of those sociopaths who cares about nothing and no one), or c) shoot out with the coppers! All are cliched to the max, but...fitting. But no, the author goes for the uke turning himself in, the police surrounding the husband, the uke going back in to talk the husband out, and the two declaring their love for each other as the police finally come in to get them...I was left with a bad taste in my mouth and a fervent desire to regain that precious hour I spent bothering with this crap.
Houritsu jumusho de koi ga saku by Kifu Kaname (illustrated by Fujiyama Hyouta)
Simpleton country boy uke goes to Tokyo, and after some various troubles mostly resulting from his horrible sense of direction, ends up working for lawyer seme. I can't quite express how lame this book was, from the one-dimensionality and retardedness of every single character to the pointlessness of the story. The joke about Nara=deer (the uke is from near Nara) and how everyone at the lawyer's office calls uke deer and wants to give the uke those wafers the deer are fed is used repeatedly and worn to death. The only remotely amusing part was when the lawyer, desperate to keep uke with him, builds him the "perfect house." Lawyer and uke initially live in a high-class hotel, but uke is terribly uncomfortable in such surroundings. The lawyer drags uke to the new residence he built...consisting of a large yard with DEER and a small thatched roof traditional hut. The uke had not lived in such a primitive house and neither did he have any kind of attachment to deer, but the lawyer thought this would make the uke feel at home. You'd think a successful lawyer who also is a member of a powerful political family wouldn't be so...patently stupid, but I suppose anything goes in these books. ^^;
Biroodo no kamen by Matsuoka Natsuki (illustrated by Sakurai Shushushu)
The BL novel take on The Three Musketeers with duels, intrigue, evil Cardinals, friendship, devotion, and sex. Very shallow, but entertaining. Arnault, the second son of a poor noble family, had been destined for priesthood. But he's sent to beg Cardinal Richelieu for his jailed older brother's life and freedom. The Cardinal makes a bargain that if Arnold serves as a spy among the Musketeers he'll eventually have the brother released. His latest assignment is to seduce the English Viscount that was accompanying the Duke of Buckingham, even receiving instruction from a prostitute on sleeping with men. So...there's sex with the Viscount, there's sex with the musketeer that was supposedly his best friend, there's betrayal and fighting and people getting hurt...and in the end Arnault is freed from Richelieu's grasp and is allowed to stay with the musketeers. If there was a sequel I'd read it. It's light, it's silly, the art is decent and frilly. No complaints here. XD
I truly appreciated the fact that though Arnault initially protests having to sleep with men (it's a sin!) once he experiences it and finds out he really likes it, doesn't protest or angst about it. He's pragmatic and understands he has to do it as part of his duty, so he just sets out to get better at it and enjoy it. The endless and eternal protestations of the uke are just too worn out. :P
I learned not to always judge novels by their covers. I tend to dismiss a lot of novels just by the style and composition of the cover art as well as titles (I try to avoid books with really bad naming sense unless it's obviously a parody or something), but one of the ones I read this past week that I'd normally not even give a second look turned out to be really good.
Tsumibukaku dakishimete by Katagiri Barbara (illustrated by Enjin Yamimaru)
Oh, what can I say about this novel? I knew it sucked but kept reading hoing for an appropriately sensational ending...Only to be completely denied even that (I didn't need good! I just wanted shiny and overblown!). It starts off with uke pushing his abusive older sister of the balcony to her death. While he's standing there in shock, his sister's husband comes in dragging the next door neighbor who had witnessed the murder. The husband decides to turn it into a lover's suicide and pushes the witness off the balcony as well. After that, there is sex while watching over the sister's body, more sex when uke moves into the apartment, coerced sex with the detective who figures out uke killed his sister that still ends with uke arrested, husband breaking out uke in a hail of bullets (and two dead policemen), a life on the run that includes a little foray into pimping out the uke for money and a threesome with the client...The characters are sooo flat I only kept reading to find out if the ending would be appropriately outlandish. I was hoping for a) murder-suicide, b) husband leaving uke (husband is one of those sociopaths who cares about nothing and no one), or c) shoot out with the coppers! All are cliched to the max, but...fitting. But no, the author goes for the uke turning himself in, the police surrounding the husband, the uke going back in to talk the husband out, and the two declaring their love for each other as the police finally come in to get them...I was left with a bad taste in my mouth and a fervent desire to regain that precious hour I spent bothering with this crap.
Houritsu jumusho de koi ga saku by Kifu Kaname (illustrated by Fujiyama Hyouta)
Simpleton country boy uke goes to Tokyo, and after some various troubles mostly resulting from his horrible sense of direction, ends up working for lawyer seme. I can't quite express how lame this book was, from the one-dimensionality and retardedness of every single character to the pointlessness of the story. The joke about Nara=deer (the uke is from near Nara) and how everyone at the lawyer's office calls uke deer and wants to give the uke those wafers the deer are fed is used repeatedly and worn to death. The only remotely amusing part was when the lawyer, desperate to keep uke with him, builds him the "perfect house." Lawyer and uke initially live in a high-class hotel, but uke is terribly uncomfortable in such surroundings. The lawyer drags uke to the new residence he built...consisting of a large yard with DEER and a small thatched roof traditional hut. The uke had not lived in such a primitive house and neither did he have any kind of attachment to deer, but the lawyer thought this would make the uke feel at home. You'd think a successful lawyer who also is a member of a powerful political family wouldn't be so...patently stupid, but I suppose anything goes in these books. ^^;
Biroodo no kamen by Matsuoka Natsuki (illustrated by Sakurai Shushushu)
The BL novel take on The Three Musketeers with duels, intrigue, evil Cardinals, friendship, devotion, and sex. Very shallow, but entertaining. Arnault, the second son of a poor noble family, had been destined for priesthood. But he's sent to beg Cardinal Richelieu for his jailed older brother's life and freedom. The Cardinal makes a bargain that if Arnold serves as a spy among the Musketeers he'll eventually have the brother released. His latest assignment is to seduce the English Viscount that was accompanying the Duke of Buckingham, even receiving instruction from a prostitute on sleeping with men. So...there's sex with the Viscount, there's sex with the musketeer that was supposedly his best friend, there's betrayal and fighting and people getting hurt...and in the end Arnault is freed from Richelieu's grasp and is allowed to stay with the musketeers. If there was a sequel I'd read it. It's light, it's silly, the art is decent and frilly. No complaints here. XD
I truly appreciated the fact that though Arnault initially protests having to sleep with men (it's a sin!) once he experiences it and finds out he really likes it, doesn't protest or angst about it. He's pragmatic and understands he has to do it as part of his duty, so he just sets out to get better at it and enjoy it. The endless and eternal protestations of the uke are just too worn out. :P
I learned not to always judge novels by their covers. I tend to dismiss a lot of novels just by the style and composition of the cover art as well as titles (I try to avoid books with really bad naming sense unless it's obviously a parody or something), but one of the ones I read this past week that I'd normally not even give a second look turned out to be really good.