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grayestofghostsSo, I finally got around to reading These Violent Delights by Micah Neverember. I remember following him on Twitter back when it was still Twitter and I actually used the site and had put this on my to-read list for a while. Then I saw this book at the local Barnes & Noble and made an impulse purchase and it sat on my desk for a while longer before I finally got to it.
What to say about this book... I suppose this is what the kids call "Dark Academia" these days, right? About a third of the way through I realized that, as an old person, I am not easily invested in the emotional lives of seventeen-year-olds. I'm sorry but that's just the way it is, there needs to be something exceptional about them for me to get into it. There was definitely a turn around halfway through, that made them exceptional, at which point it was interesting and I started reading it at a more normal pace, but by God, it took me a while to get there, and I don't think it should have taken that long to get there given the book. Like maybe I am missing something but unlike, say, Gideon the Ninth which has a slow first half and then knocks down all the setup like dominoes if you can manage to get to that reward, I do not think there were enough dominoes to justify the bulk the first half. Though then again, I think I would have enjoyed it more if I were more easily invested in the romantic lives of 17 year olds, and for me, at least, them being gay in the 1970s did not make up for this.
I feel like I am maybe being harsh in this review. It is less that the book is bad but more that I feel like I did not get out of it what I wanted to. I guess it's more that it's not the book for me, which is a shame, because I really want to love dark, queer books by trans authors. I don't know.
What to say about this book... I suppose this is what the kids call "Dark Academia" these days, right? About a third of the way through I realized that, as an old person, I am not easily invested in the emotional lives of seventeen-year-olds. I'm sorry but that's just the way it is, there needs to be something exceptional about them for me to get into it. There was definitely a turn around halfway through, that made them exceptional, at which point it was interesting and I started reading it at a more normal pace, but by God, it took me a while to get there, and I don't think it should have taken that long to get there given the book. Like maybe I am missing something but unlike, say, Gideon the Ninth which has a slow first half and then knocks down all the setup like dominoes if you can manage to get to that reward, I do not think there were enough dominoes to justify the bulk the first half. Though then again, I think I would have enjoyed it more if I were more easily invested in the romantic lives of 17 year olds, and for me, at least, them being gay in the 1970s did not make up for this.
I feel like I am maybe being harsh in this review. It is less that the book is bad but more that I feel like I did not get out of it what I wanted to. I guess it's more that it's not the book for me, which is a shame, because I really want to love dark, queer books by trans authors. I don't know.
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Date: 2025-08-02 03:20 pm (UTC)Separately but in tandem to that is… well, there are often times when I wish the source material/original work focused less directly on whatever romance was blossoming. Maybe it’s a little bit cause I’m aroace-spec, though it’s also really not. Pretty much all the fanfic I read has a big focus on romance, so I guess it’s just a weird “time and place” rule my brain’s made after spending all my highschool life reading fanfic.