Bad Wolf

[gement]

I'm two thirds of the way through A Companion to Wolves and I'm finding myself frequently moved to tears and stomach-twistingly squicked.

So, this is the best expansion I can imagine of the real ramifications of the Pern setting. Except with more Vikings. That part is fabulous. And with the massive gay subculture, which is also fabulous.

And the main character isn't gay, and is basically being pressed into whoring for his wolf, just like his dad was afraid of. I don't find this sexy. I find the duress mildly sexy in a momentary fun-to-get-off-to way, but no one who's not actively into the mansex and interested in practicing every day for a month before he goes to the mandatory orgy should get bonded to a bitch. Sorry, author, That's Not Fair and That's Not Fun.

Having a slow time getting into accepting his feelings because of his ingrained homophobia, sure. The bitches only picking guys who will, in the long run, really be into this, that would make good sense. But nothing about him says to me that he'd ever have looked at a man if he'd stayed at home, and that's well and truly into "They made me be gay" territory.

[Edit: situational homosexuality, that's the phrase. Usually only brought up in the context of military and prison sex. And even then, it's either a non-con dominance game or an agreed-upon practical stopgap for the unavailability of women. This is being presented as honor and duty and something other than... than whatever it is that's making my stomach twist.]

I really really really want to like this book. It is hypothetically saturated with honor porn in a quite literal sense. And yet, every mating has moved me to tears, not good tears. It's good writing. It's very moving, and very believable. And mostly it's moving me to be incredibly angry at the authors.

I can't put it down because otherwise I'll go to bed angry, so I think that's a win for the authors. I really can't tell yet if it's a win for me or not.

Edit, 3:01 a.m.: Not a win. Can't sleep, wolf vikings will... yeah.

Comments

[cow.livejournal.com]

That was pretty much my reaction to the book, yeah, except I didn't finish it.

[gement.livejournal.com]

Haven't finished it yet, and can't tell if it will help me close this box in my brain to follow it through or not. The last page tells me that he ends the book on not-good terms with his wolf (though knowing they would mend fences in the long run), so it's possible he drew the line somehow at their next mating, ran for the hills and let her mates' brothers just... cope amongst themselves or something.

Or maybe I'll just quit reading and tell myself that's what happened.

[cow.livejournal.com]

That's more or less what I did; I decided to just invent the rest of the story.

I absolutely love Monette's novels, but .. this one just wasn't my kink, I'm afraid. :)