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shane_the_reading_rat 's review for:
The Woods All Black
by Lee Mandelo
what the fuck was this book.
[this review contains unmarked spoilers, because frankly i’m tired and can’t be bothered. you have been warned.]
i have never wanted to read monsterfucking yet unfortunately that’s what this book had in store for me.
there’s a major problem with the marketing~ this should not be promoted as horror. if anything, as someone who has continually avoided dark romance, this gives dark romance energy.
there’s another issue that is more of a personal one that just gives me a lot of ick~ Leslie (the MC) is 30. Stevie (the “””love interest”””) is 18. they have a romance (honestly its more just lust on leslie’s part) that includes multiple sex scenes. leslie’s entire personality seemingly is “gets bitches”, so honestly its not extremely surprising, but it is incredibly uncomfortable to have to read sex scenes obviously meant to be sexy (one of these is a pretty damn graphic monsterfucking scene), between a 30-year-old and an 18-year-old.
i honestly felt bad for stevie, as for most of the book, he had zero interest in leslie. it was leslie who was creepily fixated on this 18 year old (i did not see the romance coming. i saw it as more of a mentor-style relationship, that kinda classic thing where a young trans guy find an older trans guy and just kinda gloms on. then there was a graphic sex scene and i was like “oh god”). from how it seemed, leslie was attracted to stevie’s innocence and was taking advantage of stevie’s desperation. i was really hoping that leslie wasn’t specifically attracted to stevie’s innocence, but then he calls him “brat” shortly before the first sex scene. and then this quote in the epilogue drops:
[this review contains unmarked spoilers, because frankly i’m tired and can’t be bothered. you have been warned.]
i have never wanted to read monsterfucking yet unfortunately that’s what this book had in store for me.
there’s a major problem with the marketing~ this should not be promoted as horror. if anything, as someone who has continually avoided dark romance, this gives dark romance energy.
there’s another issue that is more of a personal one that just gives me a lot of ick~ Leslie (the MC) is 30. Stevie (the “””love interest”””) is 18. they have a romance (honestly its more just lust on leslie’s part) that includes multiple sex scenes. leslie’s entire personality seemingly is “gets bitches”, so honestly its not extremely surprising, but it is incredibly uncomfortable to have to read sex scenes obviously meant to be sexy (one of these is a pretty damn graphic monsterfucking scene), between a 30-year-old and an 18-year-old.
i honestly felt bad for stevie, as for most of the book, he had zero interest in leslie. it was leslie who was creepily fixated on this 18 year old (i did not see the romance coming. i saw it as more of a mentor-style relationship, that kinda classic thing where a young trans guy find an older trans guy and just kinda gloms on. then there was a graphic sex scene and i was like “oh god”). from how it seemed, leslie was attracted to stevie’s innocence and was taking advantage of stevie’s desperation. i was really hoping that leslie wasn’t specifically attracted to stevie’s innocence, but then he calls him “brat” shortly before the first sex scene. and then this quote in the epilogue drops:
Whenever he got nervy, though, the best treatment was stealing a peek at the starry-eyed way Stevie consumed the world around him. He tried to play it cool when he noticed someone watching, but the ice-cream float had knocked even that feigned maturity loose. The boy was grinning ear to ear, licking the neck of the spoon clean once the drink was gone. The pink curl of his tongue furrowed around and slid up the silver strut. Les cleared his throat.
all in all, leslie feels like a complete creep and i despise him and feel awful for stevie.
the only reason this gets two stars is because i liked the descriptions of scenery and the setting.