cyanide_latte's reviews
1609 reviews

I have to say, I do enjoy this volume a lot. It's a delight to see Naruto working on developing the rasengan while we get more of a look at Tsunade and a segue into the relationships between the three sanin as they are now.  Even with meta knowledge for the series and understanding where things end up going, I really appreciate seeing the way both Orochimaru and Jiraiya interact with and view Tsunade.

And for what it's worth, while I sit in the camp of wishing Kishimoto wrote his women better, I don't think he did horrible with Tsunade. Everything with her starts off pretty strong and I appreciate the balance of showing us her trauma versus her will to keep going at where she is at this point.

YES HELLO, THIS WAS SO CUTE AND I NEED A PHYSICAL COPY LIKE, YESTERDAY.
(Major major thanks to the author for being awesome enough to send me a digital ARC!)

I never had the opportunity to check out this series in high school but it always caught my interest. Between the fantasy setting, a weird story hook, and the very 90s art style, it's never totally left my mind. I lucked out when I found someone on eBay selling the entire series as a set.

From the off, this is interesting.
Following along with the summary/plot hook listed on the back of the book, we're introduced to the great-granddaughter of Phelios, and we spend the majority of this first volume with her. While we do meet Duzell and have the opportunity to learn a tiny bit more about the world and the lore in this volume, it's really focused on meeting Ishtar and getting to learn about her.

All-in-all, it's a very fun first volume, much more so than I'd been anticipating! I really hope I enjoy the rest of the series just as much!

Oh boy oh boy, I've got thoughts.

I enjoyed the first book far more but this one's left me with a lot of concerns, particularly because I've looked over some other reviews for this series when I was trying to search for a specific term.

Let's start with the easiest thing. There is graphic depictions of sexual assault and non-con/rape in this book, and if that is a trigger or deal-breaker for you, don't read this. If not but you still want a warning of what to skip and you are reading a paperback copy by Seven Seas of this, here is your warning to skip chapters 51, 52 and 53, and tread cautiously with chapter 54, which is the immediate aftermath. I want to make something abundantly clear, and I apologize if this review starts to go into spoiler territory even mildly, but I was aware at the offset that this was going to be a book series that dealt with a toxic relationship and imbalanced power dynamics. I am not at all surprised that this content is within these books, especially such a dire emphasis is placed (even from the first book) on the fact that both of these characters aggressively consider themselves straight and tout their homophobia on the page. And again, I am not surprised that this sort of content exists within a story about the toxic relationship between a doctor and his former mental patient in a danmei. I've read enough yaoi in my lifetime that my overall response to this being here is more of a "Disappointed but not surprised"; what I will say, what I am getting at, is that I'm a bit stunned that it happened this early on in the story (let alone that it was drawn out for three chapters, what the actual hell.)

The thing is that most of the reviews I saw that were criticizing this book for that content were somewhat alarming in their own right. Many of them felt like they were so solely focused on this, and very few acknowledged that 1: both characters feed into the toxic and unhealthy aspects of their relationship, 2: this series makes no effort to hide the fact that that is what you're getting into with it, or 3: the way that ableism is so deeply rooted in the issues present in that relationship, and that that is a theme being highlighted.

Perhaps this is somewhat pessimistic and negative of me to say, but with the previous installment in this publication, I had been wondering when (if at all) the conversation of ableism existing within the relationship between the Main Character and the Male Lead was going to come up. The seeds were present throughout the first book, so I'd been waiting for the other shoe to drop and in this part it has. The book itself drags it out into the light and points out how the ML's ableist mindset and fear of mental patients, including those seeking treatment from him, has caused harm, isn't okay, and it now has a drastic impact on the MC.

But I don't see people bringing that up when they cover their grievances with Bing An Ben. It almost is like they're trying to ignore or divorce that from the discussion, and I don't think that really is fair. It's so interwoven into everything here that to leave it out feels inadequate. Sure, the MC's mental condition is fictional (much like DC comics with their dreaded MacGregor's Syndrome,) but a lot of the symptoms, struggles, experiences and need for coping mechanisms that the MC faces are very reflective of a multitude of different neurodivergences. It's so integral, so much a part of what's going on in this story and so vital to it, I feel like it needs to be acknowledged.

And I'm not saying forgive the MC for any of the shit he does, or forgive the ML for any of the shit he does. But we know for a fact the MC struggles with mental illness, and there are heavy signs that the ML also struggles with an undiagnosed mental illness/neurodivergence of his own, and I don't think those things should be discounted or left out of the discussion either. It impacts both their characters and their interactions with one another.

And Meatbun doesn't shy away from the fact that's what she's writing about. That's also kind of crucial.

At present, I am still going to go through this. The plot outside of the toxic relationship between the MC and ML intrigues me, and I want to see where that goes and what role they end up playing in it. I don't ship them in the slightest and can't get behind the idea that they're a romance, though. Nothing in the writing has so far convinced me of that and I don't particularly like the thought of this potentially becoming a sweet romance. I can't get behind that.

This was honestly sweet and so hopeful, and I'd love to see it become more available to trans kids and teenagers (and adults too!) who need to read it.

For what it's worth, I think this was a very good, unsettling read for what these books are. Still not a huge fan of each of the villains sounding like broken records repeating the same lines again and again, and that's probably not going to change. But I enjoyed this one for the sheer aspect of the consequences that came with making such a careless wish; very cautionary tale sort of thing, and I enjoy that!

At last, I've finished this series that I finally got a chance to read, and I couldn't be happier that it happened. From the very start to this finish, the Chronicles of Prydain have been excellent and are very special. This book shocked me several times over with the sheer amount of deaths it had, but it was still well worth the journey. I think this is a beautiful series, and it reminds me why I think older children's fantasy novels are a unique sort of magic all their own. I think everyone ought to give this series a shot.

What happened with this? I remember enjoying the first one a lot. I was hoping I'd enjoy this one. But Vhalla spends so much time crying and whining and accomplishing things too quickly with little effort, and continuously both misreading/misunderstanding Aldrik and also not communicating anything to him worth a damn, I couldn't stand her in this book. And don't get me started on Mr. Tortured Soul Dark Prince and the fact that even when he's giving signals to Vhalla that he wants to bang, he's also not communicating anything to her worth shit. Just...what even happened here? UGH.

This is one I'm going to be mulling over for a while. It's something I will need to sit with, and I think that's arguably one of the best compliments I can give a book. It's one I want to revisit again in the future, more than once, and continue to mull over as I continue to grow and learn about myself and others I love. I think more people should read this, regardless of who you are.

The sheer disrespect to one of my favorite Disney villains. I hated every moment of this book. This is a travesty.