#anyway I'm big mad at sexy demon boy with a perpetually erect glowing penis

[ratfacedbabyeater]

Thinking about how in the Alex Stern series Leigh Bardugo included on page sexual assault and graphic animal death and insisted on having it set at Yale and not a fictional university because her stated intent was to make a realistic portrayal of rape culture and corruption on campus and she has to include all this real Yale history because this is a Serious Adult Commentary on a Real Corrupt Institution that Exists, but when secondary protagonist Darlington is physically trapped in hell for a year he comes back Buffer and Sexier with Flowing Locks and Sexy Golden Demon Horns. And he says some shit about how he tortured people as a demon in hell but he doesn't give any details and it's extremely vague and he says he tortured the corrupt dean who the audience obviously doesn't give a shit about because he had it coming.

We have to have on page assault because That's GRITTY REALISM and we have to have graphic descriptions of animal death and abuse of corpses because that's GRITTY REALISM but god forbid ANYTHING happens to make this man anything other than Extremely Sexy All The Time.

It kind of reminds me of When No One is Watching by Alyssa Cole which was a thriller about the evils of gentrification including several cackling cartoon villain white gentrifiers, and the protagonist's love interest is this hapless white man who's only in the neighborhood because his bitchy girlfriend wanted to gentrify a house and he's not even into it but he was just dragged along absolving him of responsibility.

The trendy thing it seems like to me is Gritty Mystery Thrillers that offer social commentary on white supremacy and misogynist and real oppressive power structures, but also God Forbid these stories include ANYTHING that would make the white man love interest questionable or even slightly unsexy in any way.

I assume it's an issue of these authors being YA and romance authors for the majority of their careers so they gotta include a Sexy Unproblematic Man in all their books because that's what their audience expects and that's what they know how to write, but it just feels so tonally absurd the way the Sexiness of love interest must be maintained at all costs even when it doesn't make any sense given the surrounding text.

#for the record I think when no one is watching is way better written than hell bent #also hell bent did the impressive move of making me (a ninth house defender!) low key hate ninth house lol #because it's clear now that the sloppy bits of ninth house weren't just a stumbling block as she adjusted to adult from YA #but she doesn't actually have anything of substance to say #if leigh bardugo is capable of writing a thoughtful competent critique of power structures she has yet to demonstrate it #anyway I'm big mad at sexy demon boy with a perpetually erect glowing penis #Leigh Bardugo #alex Stern #ninth house #hell bent