the story is so good but honestly i'm basing that on mostly vibes and a general comprehension of what's happening because the translation leaves a lotthe story is so good but honestly i'm basing that on mostly vibes and a general comprehension of what's happening because the translation leaves a lot to be desired lmao no offense to the fansubs but i hope lezhinus has plans to officialy translate this soon...more
i actually feel bad about checking this book as read bc imma be honest with you chief..... i skimmed a good 60% of it. i just wasn’t interested in thei actually feel bad about checking this book as read bc imma be honest with you chief..... i skimmed a good 60% of it. i just wasn’t interested in the case at allll. the fact that it had almost no jacob and no more plot abt vic’s backstory just sealed the deal of No Interest for me....more
so i don’t like cop shows. tv in general isn’t my thing, episodic whodunnit mysteries in any forms aren’t my thing, so you see why when my parents fliso i don’t like cop shows. tv in general isn’t my thing, episodic whodunnit mysteries in any forms aren’t my thing, so you see why when my parents flicked over to criminal minds or whatever cop show it was this time, i’d just leave the room and go do something else. not for me!
because of that, i already knew i’d be having a hard time with this series. the author conceptualized it like a tv show, where each book is one episode, one murder case our cop protags have to solve while they get to know each other. i only gave it a chance because the author’s writing style in his other book, his cocky valet, impressed me (may be too purple prose-y for some, but that’s my jam). but the misgivings i had really did end up being true: i just don’t think a tv show translates well into a full fledged novel. with a tv show, we’ll have a 30 mins episode of introduction to the world and characters, hinting to larger mysteries just enough to catch the audience’s curiosity but not give everything away. it works because it’s just 30/45 minutes. an entire novel, however, doesn’t take 30 mins to be consumed; on the contrary. and investing ~4 hours in a book that just HINTS at deep character arcs and relationships, but never really delves into it, because this would just be the tv pilot.... it can be frustrating. i’m not connected to the protagonists at all, and i already read through a whole book! except it wasn’t a whole book, it was an introductory first episode that somehow has 4 hours of duration instead of 30 mins. i have to say the author is being very bold and daring here.... this is taking slowburn to a whole other level.
combine that with my already slow tolerance for cop mysteries (it’s hard to make then believable enough for me, and that was exactly the problem i had - it was going well until the murderer was revealed, and then they were so cartoonish i lost any shred of suspension of disbelief i had), you see why i’m not exactly singing this book praises.
and yet i will continue with the series. why? because the author captured me with the most important part of the book: its message. this is a cop series written by a queer poc man who was raised in a cop family, and he clearly has something to say about the cop system. this is probably the first m/m series i read that is actually thinking about its backdrop as more than just a premise to get the mcs together. the murder case isn’t just gorey for the sake of it, but is used to carry a message about the fetishization of queer bodies and self-serving allyship. the mcs also carry a clear message of what it means to be queer poc men working in a corrupted and corruptible system that strips people of their humanity. scenes where the mcs are violent aren’t just used as ~badass moments, but are instead disapproved of. the afterword of this book is harrowing, actually harder to read than the story itself. i have to say i am very impressed.
so even if the execution left something to be desired, i have nothing but compliments for the author’s intentions, and plan to continue the series to see how he’ll develop these themes. 3,5 stars....more
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