But my feelings!

I wanted to like this book, because representation matters. But the more I read, the more frustrated I got, until I was mentally screaming at the book. In caps lock. This book treats FEELINGS like they are the most important thing in the world. Yes, everyone's feelings are valid. But your feelings do not give you the right to harm other people, or to overlook/override the feelings/experiences of others. And the narrator (slash author, because the author admits this is a semi-biographical story) treats HIS comfort level as the most important thing, more important than regicide, patricide, genocide, terrorism, grand-theft-dragon... But no, everyone should apologize for shouting around Wyatt because he's uncomfortable! Boo freaking hoo! There is definitely a threshold where comfort has to make way for safety. Wyatt is a danger to everyone, sometimes self-deprecatingly, but mostly spitefully and unapologetically. Know what they say about two wrongs not making a right? I know I sound like the jerks during Black Lives Matter who said rioters had it wrong; I'm not trying to argue against an oppressed person standing up for themselves. I am arguing against the global levels of sympathy and pity the author expects Wyatt to receive after acting like a jerk. He murders his parents, and his sister consoles HIM, Wyatt never apologizes for taking HER parents away! That's messed up! Briar tries to banish all Fae to a realm with feral Fae ready to slaughter them, and Wyatt doesn't tell Emyr, his best friend, a prince of the friggin' fae, she just leaves him to find out on his own, because it FEELS AWKWARD to tell him what her human friend did! And she keeps the secret of Briar's witchcraft, even though it will lead to a Fae genocide, because it FEELS BAD to share a secret........ No! No no no! You don't get to harp on about how oppressed you are and then enable/machinate the deaths of an entire race of people! No!

Getting off my Murder > Feelings soapbox; I think this book is just bad queer fiction in general. EVERY conversation is "Hey, what label are you?" "Hey, when did you know your label?" "Hey, what's your level of sexual experience?" Everyone's personality is wholly watered down to their gender. There isn't a single character who says, "Eff you, I don't owe you a label or a brief history of my sexual awakening. How about you ask me a real question, like whether I like live jazz or not?" The characters are not characters, just walking pride flags who exist to make Wyatt feel better.

Lastly, I don't think this is a good work of fiction, period. The twists are sensational, not earned. The messages and metaphors are forced in and over-explained. It's repetitive, the characters don't really grow, and as I said before all the characterization clashes with the disingenuous motive they all share of wanting to make Wyatt feel better.

There is better representational fantasy out there. Skip this emo self-pity fest.