Reading report - late March
Another week of shoujosei brainrot...
Books
Sally Rooney, "Normal People"
If she was different with Connell, the difference was not happening inside herself, in her personhood, but in between them, in their dynamic.
Litfic + coming-of-age romance between two characters who are designed to be polar opposites—Marianne is financially privileged, thoroughly traumatized, and indifferent to society, while Connell, though cherished by his mother, struggles financially and is unhealthily conscious about his reputation. And then... that's it. They're both very passive and don't have any real personalities, at least not much beyond whatever is shown in the first few chapters. When their circumstances inevitably reverse, it doesn't feel very significant.
Uncharitably—it's a lot of introspection and social commentary without real depth or direction, and it suffers so much from Connell's PoV. Mainly because towards the end of the novel they just keep piling stuff on him. I mean, what is up with the writer route??? I know he's an English major, but we don't actually see the interiority behind that. Marianne's arc, at least, followed a logical path, down her using global issues to affix a sense of purpose to her privileged white life, and continuing to hang on to a male figure who was clearly not good for her but not as vile as the other boys.
Charitably—this was very easy to read, to the point I eventually finished it on my phone. And there certainly were parts that resonated strongly with me (particularly the passages about life happening outside someone's body). In some ways, the writing style was reminiscent of thoughtful fanfic, it just needed to convince me more on the strength of the characters' relationship.
Notorious No More: The Villainess Enjoys Feigning Competence (vol 1–2)
This has strong "wanting to have its cake and eat it" energy. The FL is OP because it's her third life and she gets to reap the benefits of her previous lives. In this lifetime she has been severely abused by her birth mom and moderately abused by her fiance the Second Prince. The powerful men in her life let it happen but they are supposed to be good guys because they dote on her now and the FL thinks their lapses are NBD??? The FL does call them out for being enablers, but in an overly benevolent way because she's Mature like that. But her mother literally tried to murder her several times in her childhood and her fiance laid hands on her (on top of ostracizing her so badly that everyone thought she was fair game) at the beginning of the first chapter. The fiance's brother, a love interest, never says anything??? And worse, we are expected to just accept her biodad turning a blind eye over all of the abuse because he's quirky or something.
Manga
Wotakoi (DNF)
Office slice-of-life romcom between two childhood friends who reconnect when they end up in the same company as adults and decide to start dating: He is a bachelor by choice, married to his gaming life and various waifus; she is a cute but disastrous closet fujoshi who keeps her otaku life secret.
I was hoping I'd love this, but I'm allergic to the brand of wish fulfillment that has people being BFFs with their coworkers. The side ship is the ML's work buddy (a casual nerd) and the FL's work buddy (a crossplayer). The group hangs out at work, at home, and at cons, and don’t appear to have other friends, which frankly makes me claustrophobic lol.
Firefly Wedding (DNF)
Dark Meiji-era shoujo romance between a sickly noble lady whose lifelong dream is to marry for the benefit for her family and the assassin who participates in her kidnapping and is hired to kill her. Far away from home, the FL bargains for her life by offering her hand in marriage, and the ML acquiesces.
This definitely ticks all the shoujo boxes. There is a huge brothel storyline as the FL is stuck in the pleasure district of an island. The only way out is to enter a brothel as a courtesan, which triggers a series of classic heroine tropes—being bullied by rival courtesans, befriending the bullies, and allying with the gangsters (the same ones who kidnapped her). The sheltered lady gets a lesson in class struggles while uniting different factions and becoming the hope for societal change. Unsure how far she'll get because I dropped it. 😂
Manhwa
A Simple Guide to Surviving as a Stepmom
Wow this was so dumb??? On one hand, there's no tension or relationship drama whatsoever, which is good for me and my low stress threshold. On the other, it's so dumb??? The entertainment factor in the FL being in charge of "purifying" the Emperor's "holes" could only go so far.