#misunderstanding is such a frustrating and frankly annoying trope

[celestialscarlet]

Alicent misunderstanding Viserys…. Aemond not meaning to kill Lucerys…. Daemon not actually telling B&C to go after Helena and the kids….

[writer-citation-needed]

Beach Read by Emily Henry

January Andrews is quite frankly doing pretty horribly. Her father recently passed and left behind a myriad of secrets, leaving January to spend her summer cleaning out his second house which he shared with his childhood lover (an affair which seemingly everyone but January knew about). What's worse, in the house next door lives her college rival- Gus Everett, a mysterious and cold literary fiction writer who never seemed to understand why January would spend her time writing happily-ever-afters. Both facing writer's block, they agree to a bet: they'll swap genres and theoretically prove that their own viewpoint is valid. What else could go wrong?

I went into this novel incredibly optimistic, since I had read Happy Place last month and enjoyed it a lot. Because of this, my review will contain a lot of comparison between the plots of the two novels as I believe my experience with Happy Place impacted my view of Beach Read significantly. Below the cut you can find my full, long thoughts- though there will be spoilers!

The Weaknesses

Typically, I would prefer to start a review positively, but for Beach Read it makes more sense to start with the weaknesses (in my opinion) as not only do I have more to say here but my opinions will be more chronological in this order.

To begin, this story does not function well as an enemies to lovers trope. During the first third or so, I found myself so incredibly frustrated by the constant bickering of the main characters because it was not promising of a satisfying romance. See below:

In the beginning, January had absolutely no interest in learning about Gus. She assumed she knew everything she needed to know about him and nearly always made unnecessarily snarky comments because of this. Later, she gets upset that it turns out she didn't know everything about him/ he wasn't as simple as she imagined him to be.

Re:above, January thought that Gus always hated her (the way she apparently hated him if you ignore the massive crush she also harbored), this is not true and creates very annoying misunderstandings

With the second point, I think it's important to mention that I generally disliked January throughout the whole novel. She is incredibly contradictory, presumptuous and tended to misinterpret every single scenario to prevent her happiness from the very moment they met in college until Gus tells her that he doesn't want to get back together with his wife. These two only have an enemies to lovers concept if you fully believe in January's feelings from moment to moment and ignore any possibility that Gus could be a complex character until the plot demands it.

To be more specific, the line dancing scene is a great example of one of her misunderstandings. At this point, Gus is finally beginning to lighten up and expose his true self (a sign that maybe he could be the kind of person January could be in love with), but when he says, to quote, "Cheers... to your happy endings," she loses it and reverts to her belief that he looks down upon her (I swear, it took her way to long to realize that he didn't hate her). I can't find a way to imagine this as condescending given his loosening up at this event. Was is so impossible that he really was beginning to believe in happy endings?

In summarizing the weak points of this novel, I found the misunderstandings to be too frequent, too unbelievable and to have gone on far too long into the story. The relationship setup is completely disproven in the second third of the plot and is difficult to sit through.

The Comparison

Given my frustration with the enemies to lover aspect of this novel, it may surprise you to hear that I really enjoyed this trope in Happy Place. I find it strange, since the couples in both stories have similar history (both having known each other for a long time, having been interested in each other to some extent, both being very different and having to overcome those differences, both being prone to misunderstandings and poor communication). In my opinion, the enemies portion of Happy Place is more realistic because, well, they did call off their engagement. Obviously something was wrong with their relationship. Gus and January... didn't make sense as enemies, especially since she kept bringing up the intense feelings she had had for him in college.

The Strengths

This novel genuinely has a very intriguing premise! I absolutely adore both the sort of fake-dating elements that January brings for her 'lessons' and the dive into New Eden which Gus explores. The clear split of their interests leads to a very heartwarming ending with each of them having written a sort of mishmash of genre. It was really nice seeing the characters learn more about each other on their research days and support each other on their working days (again.. why did they need to be enemies?)

Generally, the last 60 pages saved this novel for me. Despite my many grievances with January, it was so sweet to see her grow as a person and expand her worldview after sorting through all the mess in her life. Her eventual acceptance of her father's cheating and associated imperfect view of love was something I didn't realize was so crucial to my enjoyment of the novel, but it really allowed her to accept her ending which I so desperately wanted her to appreciate (seriously.. for a romance author she sure made it hard for herself to believe in a second chance at love). Additionally, I was so incredibly happy that Gus ended up making a good life for himself; I actually cried when he was talking about a happy-for-now and how perfectly it coincided with January's healing process.

Since I pointed out a specific scene that frustrated me the most, it's only appropriate to mention a scene that I loved (which is also in the last 60 pages). I absolutely swooned over Gus dancing in the rain as a way to show his love for January. That was really the perfect scene to show his growth and ability to care and listen- which he struggled with in the past. So so heartwarming.

Overall Opinion

Beach Read, for me, was a beautiful general fiction book bogged down by all the annoyances of romance tropes. There was such a great look at the complexity of love, loss and forgiveness but it was only found after 200 pages of a will-they-won't-they that could have been solved at multiple points during the events of the novel had the characters communicated beyond notebook messages and brief moments of passion. Had the ending been less perfect, I would certainly have rated this read at 2 stars for frustrating me beyond belief. I do hope to read more from Emily Henry in the future!

[atopearth]

The Men of Yoshiwara: Kikuya Part 5 - Iroha Route (S1 & S2)

WOW, that was an intense first chapter lol! I’m not sure if Iroha is really interested in Misao because of how innocent she is, or it’s because of how innocent she is that he desires to sully her. Anyway, although his motives are questionable, undoubtedly, Misao in this route is evidently more bold and “thirsty” LOL, she legit was expecting to sleep with Iroha when she was so shy in the other routes!! As I thought though, Iroha is more of a manager of sorts, so he doesn’t sleep with clients, but…I guess kissing is okay LOL. I don’t know what it is about them, but I have to admit, I love the trope where the guy drinks sake or whatever and then kisses the heroine to give the drink to her mouth to mouth. Like dang, that’s the trash I love LOL. I’m already so hyped about Iroha because he seems to really understand the curiosity and interest Misao has in sex etc and finds it cute how innocent she is but also how “dirty” she can be lol.

It’s kinda crazy how persistent Misao is on Iroha, I kinda feel sorry for him loll! I guess he kinda gave up and decided to like “train” her into becoming more like a woman by teaching her things and then she can choose another guy if she wants. Lmao at them playing games, and if she loses, she has to kiss him and vice versa, I’m not surprised she lost most of the time haha. How beneficial for Misao though! Since Iroha isn’t a courtesan, she doesn’t even need to pay him and he teaches her all this stuff haha, I’m sure heaps of women would want Iroha to “teach” them stuff lol. Well, umm, Iroha turning into an ogre and having white hair and horns is so random LOL. Do we really need such a thing in this story??? Anyway, Iroha pushing her to giving her first time to Kagerou was not nice to either of them when they both obviously didn’t like the idea, it was expected that Iroha would take her back last minute but seriously lol, Iroha is silly. LMAO when Iroha told Misao that he becomes an ogre when he’s emotional (and when he has sexual desire lol), and Misao asks (you can pick the option) if he can make fireballs🤣🤣🤣🤣 It’s really hard to take the situation seriously with that option lmao! Not surprised that Iroha has to deal with gentlemen sleeping with clients that aren’t theirs and so his job actually involves physically hitting them with a stick to punish them. But wow, seriously, Tokiwa is taking advantage of this and manipulating Misao into asking for him, otherwise he’ll tell the higher ups that Iroha as a manager is playing with someone like Misao for free etc? Yeah, I think I’ll just think of this Tokiwa as like an alternate timeline Tokiwa from his route LOL, I’m so disgusted with how the guys act outside of their routes, sigh.

It felt pretty weird how Misao needing to have a baby to succeed her mother’s shipping company was enough to make her think maybe she should listen to her mum and get another husband (since Iroha doesn’t want children who will be an ogre like him). Like, it was such random and unnecessary drama that they’ve barely cared about and now suddenly it’s a deal-breaker?? Anyway, I guess it was expected that Iroha would leave Kikuya to be with Misao and have kids with her, but it was so rushed that it just felt whatever to me lol. On the other hand, I feel like the happy ending is much more understandable in terms of their relationship. Since in this ending, Iroha stays at Kikuya and Misao becomes his wife and manages it with him, dealing with all the troublesome guys lol. It does feel pretty slack to the mum though…. But yeah I just found Iroha leaving Kikuya so easily in the super happy ending questionable, since, would they really let him go that easily? And it seemed so easy for him to leave behind one of the only places that accepted him as an ogre and is his “home”. But yeah, oh well, I’m not a fan of the second half in general so I don’t really care that it feels a bit weird loll.

LMAO at the sequel, Iroha is so childish for running away from home because he didn’t like her mum putting bean sprouts or whatever in his miso soup hahahah. I’m glad he’s fitting in well with Misao and her mother though, enough that they would argue over silly things, get mad at each other, but end up making up in the end. I think it’s pretty cute since Iroha lacks a family (well it probably applies to all the guys lol). Being able to communicate with another person so frankly is a blessing in itself after all.

Overall, I honestly thought Iroha would present a more mature perspective to the story and show how even if you’re retired, you’re still stuck in Yoshiwara somehow or whatever, but instead, I got some supernatural ogre story and Iroha only stays there because for some reason people over there aren’t really that scared of Iroha being an ogre lol. I also thought the story would be more similar to the first chapter where Iroha would teach her all sorts of things about Yoshiwara but no, after the first few chapters it became too focused on the ogre thing and Misao worrying about whether Iroha wants kids or whatever like ughhh, wasted potential on Iroha! Especially since he looks so much better with black hair than in his ogre form zz. I doubt the second season could be any better if the first is like this but I guess I’ll go through it and see anyway…

Season 2 It’s crazy, but I honestly thought I could just see more of Misao and Iroha struggle in being a couple and having couple arguments etc in this season, BUT NO, we’re stuck with another random new ogre guy that has no purpose than to cause trouble for the couple and be an accurate fortune teller saying that their relationship won’t last. Lol, wow Azusa is such an ass. He’s the one causing trouble at Kikuya for not wanting to do anything leading to Iroha having to take care of him, and yet he has the right to complain that Misao is the one causing Iroha to be so tired since he’s forced to work until late and go home just to see her? Dude, I’m not sure if you’re telling fortunes anymore when you’re the one that’s straight up just trying to destroy their relationship and even bad mouthing her to her face.

Wow, I know Misao is demure and easily influenced, but the way she got so affected by the fortune and Azusa’s words annoyed me so much, especially since she ended up saying such hurtful words to Iroha and then she has the gall to cry about it! She’s lucky that Iroha understood why she was like that and I’m glad he finally acted and made the decision to leave Kikuya and Azusa to themselves because his priority should be with Misao now. Misao ALWAYS hides stuff and lies thinking it’s for the best blah blah so that everyone won’t get hurt or whatever, but in the end her decisions always ends up hurting everyone including herself and it annoys me that even after they’re practically married, she still doesn’t understand how important it is to be honest and to talk things out properly. I hate how she always thinks Iroha is going to leave her, like seriously woman, if I was him I would have left you, but since he’s been okay with it all this time, I doubt he would suddenly get tired of you without any reason! Ugh. I’m honestly amazed at how dumb Misao is and how much more frustrating she can get. I was so annoyed when she prioritised hiding the fact that the fortune made her insecure and would rather have Iroha misunderstand what happened between her and Azusa. As usual, Iroha knows she’s too dumb to really do anything, but seriously!! Every decision she makes, everything she does, everything she hides and lies about, she has no excuse to do all these silly things! I find it absolutely crazy that she always prioritises stupid things over communicating with Iroha in this relationship, I don’t know how Iroha can deal with her.

Well, the leader of the thieves (who steals ogre skulls) being Iroha’s mother wasn’t surprising, but it seems that Azusa might be his half brother? And yeaaah, it was obvious that Azusa liked Misao and was jealous but I’m still not into him lol. And lol at Iroha’s mother doing all this to get revenge on Iroha for being distant and not wanting to live with her, like okay lol, you’re causing a lot of trouble for something so silly. The laws were pretty dodgy in this world already, but it was funny to see that a little petitioning etc could get Iroha’s mother out and she could go back to the mainland with Azusa lol. I guess it’s nice that at least Iroha and Misao had a wedding party at Kikuya with everyone as a sweet way to end everything~ oh and Azusa coming back was obvious but unwanted lol.

Overall, the second season was honestly unnecessarily draggy. I feel like a lot of the time, I want the second season so that I can see the couple enjoy their relationship and get through problems relating to stuff like living together etc, but I find it really boring when stories like to put in outside factors causing problems especially stuff like unnecessary love triangles, which in this case is Azusa and the ogre thing again. I’ve never been a fan of the ogre part of the story so it was honestly boring, especially when it doesn’t really talk about how difficult life is being an ogre etc, it’s really just an “excuse” for things to be difficult in the story, so it really makes it bland. So yeah, I really wanted to enjoy Iroha’s story but I think I only liked the first chapter LOL. I thought I’d be getting a nice mature story, but no, it degenerated into a story about Iroha satisfying Misao’s persistent whims and liking how annoying she is, and I honestly couldn’t relate by the second season lol. I like Iroha but I just couldn’t take Misao after a while lol, and the story really doesn’t make it better with how random it is, like the sudden need for a baby being a problem near the end of the first season, yet no one cared by the second anyway lol.

[devilstrip]

Do Will and Richie get along with each other's friends and which one from the other group do you think is their favorite one?

okay. yes. i love this ask.

[i wrote will’s as if he’d moved to derry, and richie’s as if he’d moved to hawkins. just because there are certain town-specific things mentioned.]

will + the losers

bill - will loves bill so much, okay? like, he loves all the losers. but he really loves bill. he’s such a soft and kind leader. and will knows what it’s like to get a little caught up in your own words. plus he’s an artist. he and bill bond over sketch books and techniques and will patiently listens as bill tells him stories about when he and richie were growing up. he never once makes it seem like bill’s stutter annoys him or, frankly, that he notices it at all. bill really appreciates that.

ben - oh my god, these boys totally bond over music. you can pry the “will byers has a secret love for boy bands” trope out of my cold, dead hands. every time they find a new song they think the other would like, you can bet your ass they’re on their way immediately. they make each other mixtapes and/or playlists (depending on when you want to imagine this is set) and play them loud at the quarry and scream along to the lyrics.

stan - stan likes will because will is a calming presence to be around. stan gave up on taking richie birdwatching with him years ago, but he takes will with him sometimes. they sit in the grass together and pass the binoculars back and forth. they barely talk— the only noises that are constant are the bird songs and will’s pencil scratching against the pages of his sketchbook as he draws whatever bird has caught his attention on that day. sometimes, if stan seems to really like one of his drawings, he pulls it out and gives it to him. stan has a whole collection at home.

eddie - WILL LOVES EDDIE. eddie is this little pent up ball of rage and excitement and sarcasm all at once, and will loves that. he’s never seen one person feel so many things so intensely before, and it’s just kind of wild to watch. plus, i think eddie would really love joyce. he knows what it’s like to have an overbearing mother, but joyce is the more healthy version of that. he probably spends a lot of time at the byers’ household, just hanging out with will and his mom (richie is almost always there too, of course).

mike - mike is probably will’s favorite of richie’s friends. he’s kind and smart and has a smile that could light up the whole world if the sun decided to take a day off. plus!!! he works on a farm!!! and he lets will come over and help out and draw the animals while he works which is so cool! will spends a whole summer at the hanlon farm, doing some chores and stuff, but mostly just getting up close with the animals and learning how to draw the finer details of them. and mike is just such a calming person to be around (sort of like will is for stan). he has such a commanding presence, but in such a kind and sweet way. if will is feeling stressed out, mike will take him on drives through town in his truck. they talk a little, but only if will wants to. and when they pass by certain derry landmarks, mike will point things out and tell will the history of them.

beverly - will and bev initially bond over the fact that they’re richie’s two favorite people in the world. the best friend and the boyfriend. it’s only natural they’d become friends. but will, my sweet baby will, wants their friendship to be more than that! so he invites her over one night and they drink and hang out and soon they’re bonding over their own respective daddy issues (sorry guys, i know it’s cliche but trust me it’s what happens). they can’t exactly relate to each other’s situations, but they both just kind of like to bitch about their dads and have the other’s support. plus!! bev is really into fashion! she likes to design clothes, but she can’t always portray what she wants through her own drawings. will gets really good at interpreting whatever it is bev is seeing in her head and getting it down on paper. and bev always throws an arm around him and is like, “yes, will! that’s exactly what i meant!”

/

richie + the party

mike - okay let it be universally known that i am never writing mike and richie as related unless i specifically say so. that being said, there’s of course going to be some weird rivalry between these boys at first because will is mike’s best friend and now he’s dating someone who a) looks just like mike and b) is kind of a dick. so mike is all pissed that will is spending all his time with richie now. cliche, i know, but mike wheeler is a goddamn cliche. but after a while, richie is determined to find something for them to bond over, just for will’s benefit. mike is planning a new campaign and richie offers to help and you know mike is like oh my god no this is my thing stay away, but richie actually has some good ideas!! so it all works out! plus, when richie says something about being bisexual, mike is like oh my gOD SO THAT’S WHAT I AM.

dustin - there’s not a lot to say here simply because these kids would be best friends, pleASE. they’re so similar in so many ways. they’re always cracking dumb jokes at each other, and high-fiving when it’s a “really good one.” plus you know richie helps dustin get ALL the girls (and/or guys). richie is literally The Best wingman. when they get together, they just end up annoying the fuck out of everyone, and they love it.

lucas - richie and lucas bond over video games, pure and simple. they play at the arcade and at each other’s houses. they’re so fucking competitive and constantly try to kick the other’s ass. they’re constantly betting dumb shit like richie’s last pencil or one of the comics lucas doesn’t give a shit about. and richie LOVES lucas’s parents. they always invite him to stay for dinner, and richie and erica will banter back and forth across the table. richie always wanted a sister, so he enjoys spending time at the sinclair house.

jane/el - richie is so goddamn patient with el. it’s insane. like, even at points when the others start to get a little frustrated, richie is always right there to keep explaining or to listen. he constantly teaches her new phrases (both good and bad), and smiles like a proud mom whenever she uses them correctly in casual conversations. and el likes richie because he never ever seems to misunderstand anything she says, even if she sort of fucks it up. and also because he looks like mike, whom she trusts more than anyone else in the world. so it’s nice for her to have a comforting face.

max - okay max is definitely richie’s favorite. like??? a badass redhead skateboarding chick? sign him the fuck UP. first of all, just like mike, richie loves badass women. that’s his favorite kind. plus she reminds him of bev whom he misses very dearly! and richie can’t skate for shit, so he enlists her help in learning. he continues to be terrible but, with her guidance, starts to get at least slightly better. he falls a lot and max takes him home and tells will all about his epic face plants while will sort of patches richie up as best he can. oh yeah, and richie and max definitely love to get high together and dream up dumb stories about monsters and demons and the like.

//

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[darylandbethfanforever9]

This isn’t surprising

Alicent misunderstanding Viserys…. Aemond not meaning to kill Lucerys…. Daemon not actually telling B&C to go after Helena and the kids….