Dark Heaven
Conor, a Korean-American, lives in a city where same-sex marriage has been legalized, but where racist and homophobic hate crimes are still frequent. He joins a band with the blonde hair, blue-eyed Simon and the two go on to create their own “dark heaven” in an abandoned church. Feelings develop between the pair, but light cannot dwell with dark, and their time together will soon come to an end. ---------- This is such an emotional roller-coaster. I've lost count how many times I got sad, angry, anxious, ... the list goes on and on. The characters are all so tangible. I kept on getting triggered at all the racism & homophobia in this one. It made me want to throw fists so much. It's such a beautiful and realistic story, but dang, does it make me angry at the world. This is so well-written in its depiction of unfairness, xenophobia, racism, homophobia, abuse, white privileges, .... The list could go on and on. But as it is so well-written, that's what keeps you motivated to keep reading it. It brings up such harsh topics and doesn't hold back for a second. The characters are all extremely well thought-through and fascinating as well. Especially Connor & Simon. Their relationship is such a deep one that I couldn't help but get invested in. It just feels so real. You can truly feel their feelings for each other the entire time as you read through each and every chapter. They complete each other, their love is such a strong one, and the author does an amazing job at displaying it. The Art's also one-of-a-kind. I've never seen anything quite like it before.If you want to read this, be aware that it's extremely triggering. But it's also absolutely worth your time. It's been quite a while since I've seen a work that'd bring up real-life problems so well. And also one that'd depict love so bluntly and honestly. I was really taken aback by how much of a masterpiece this was.
Why Is it You?
After getting a divorce, Jordyn slowly starts getting involved in the gay community with the help of Owen, his first gay friend. ----------- I'm not exactly too sure how I feel about this one. The pacing was off, not the worst, but still quite rushed. But most importantly, this plot's all about uncalled-for cheating all around. This story could've been told without anyone cheating on anybody just fine. But instead it went down this road of unnecessary drama, manipulation and lies. Every single character would not give two fucks about being unfaithful. Even the side ones would try and get others to manipulate and/or cheat their love interests/partners. It made me so uncomfortable. I did like how smoothly Owen & Jordyn's relationship flowed towards the end, as well as their verse couple dynamic. I also liked the conclusion and self-reflection that Jordyn went through towards the end. And it did make all the discomfort worthwhile to some degree. But he showed no guilt over cheating on Simon prior to Simon's own cheating. Granted, Simon's a piece of trash. But he was still supposedly in a committed relationship. Towards the end, I felt like both the pacing and the characters got better, and as it also ended on a sweet note, that was nice. But yeah... I'm not too sure about the rest because of the ride to get there. I have mixed feelings about this one. Didn't hate it per se. And I did like some aspects of it, but like I said, I have mixed feelings over it.
Playtime with Hakdo