Captive Prince and my thoughts and ramblings
So I just wanted to get my thoughts down on e-paper regarding Captive Prince. I have seen a lot of media about it, both good and bad, and I wanted to take the time to write my thoughts out in full.
My journey through Captive Prince and it’s two sequels was just that: a journey.
I started by inhaling Captive Prince. I read it in a few hours over about a day or so. I don’t know what it was but I adored it. I think I liked the dynamic of hatred between Damon and Laurent, even if I was uncomfortable with the racism there was prevalent in the book.
Book 2, Prince’s Gambit, was a little stranger for me - and yet I still inhaled it so quickly. I couldn’t put it down. The dynamic I had loved in the first book was changing in what seemed to me at the time to be organically and I loved it. And yet, I was distinctly more uncomfortable with this book than the first. From memory, and I haven’t read it again since the first time, this is where more of the paedophilia comes into the story and I did not like reading it. Not at all. I remember being horrified when I understood the hints and the phrases. And not in a oh-I’m-shocked-that-the-character-went-through-this way: in a I’m-horrified-this-is-even-included-as-a-plot-point. If it was meant as a way to show how disgusting The Regent was then it certainly worked: but had the added effect of starting to turn me off of the book. There are other ways to have a disgusting uncle.
And yet at the end I was overjoyed at Damon’s reveal and I was chomping at the bit to read the third one and see the resolution.
And so I started Kings Rising. I remember being so enthralled with the first half and the coming together of Damon’s army and Laurent’s army that I sat on my couch in my living room, doing nothing but reading it on my kindle app. I was annoyed with the plot because Laurent’s situation at the start of the book was out of left field compared to where he was at the end of Prince’s Gambit. He rides off to war and then suddenly he’s captured? Where’s the link? But I let it go as I enjoyed watching their armies come together. The moment when Nikandros sees Damon’s scars and questions him and Laurent comes in admitting it is still a scene I admire to this day, despite my current opinion of the book. The racism was still prevalent and I was getting more and more uncomfortable with it as the story went on. The paedophilia was still horrific.
And then the second half of the book started and not only were the problems still there, but everything I did still enjoy vanished like a flash. The story went as flat as a dead balloon. They spent all that time joining their armies and suddenly Laurent and Damon go at it ALONE? I don’t want to read that. It’s not better than Stephanie Meyer in Breaking Dawn where all the action was in Alice’s head that we DON’T EVEN SEE!
I was furious at the ending too. It just stopped. There was no ending, no wrapping up of loose ends. No satisfaction. I was furious and genuinely threw my kindle to the bed in disgust. They had a tiny fight with the two Big Bads, one in a basement where no one was around! And then the book just ended. THAT IS NOT HOW YOU END A STORY. I SHOULD NOT HAVE TO BUY MORE ‘SHORT STORIES’ JUST TO READ THE END OF YOUR BOOK!
Add to that the problems that I was uncomfortable with from the start. The rape. The racism and treatment of Damon’s darker skinned country as ‘lesser’. The paedophilia used as a major plot point.
And I hate it. I detest those stories.
And I do not understand how people can adore it, how they can list it so high on their favourite book series, whether m/m, fantasy or otherwise. I don’t understand how people recommend it with the same gusto as I might recommend Megan Derr. Where does the love come from?
And why was I so enthralled? The problems were always there. The plot, however, wasn’t that bad until it got to the ending. Then it was up there with the worst endings I’ve ever read.
But I partly wish I could go back to when I did read Captive Prince. Both to stop myself from reading it and becoming both disgusted and angry by the end, but also to ask myself why I did enjoy it when I did.
It’s a curious thing, how reading to the end of something may actually cause you to hate something in its entirety. Although in this instance, I would say it’s well deserved.
My journey through Captive Prince and it’s two sequels was just that: a journey.
I started by inhaling Captive Prince. I read it in a few hours over about a day or so. I don’t know what it was but I adored it. I think I liked the dynamic of hatred between Damon and Laurent, even if I was uncomfortable with the racism there was prevalent in the book.
Book 2, Prince’s Gambit, was a little stranger for me - and yet I still inhaled it so quickly. I couldn’t put it down. The dynamic I had loved in the first book was changing in what seemed to me at the time to be organically and I loved it. And yet, I was distinctly more uncomfortable with this book than the first. From memory, and I haven’t read it again since the first time, this is where more of the paedophilia comes into the story and I did not like reading it. Not at all. I remember being horrified when I understood the hints and the phrases. And not in a oh-I’m-shocked-that-the-character-went-through-this way: in a I’m-horrified-this-is-even-included-as-a-plot-point. If it was meant as a way to show how disgusting The Regent was then it certainly worked: but had the added effect of starting to turn me off of the book. There are other ways to have a disgusting uncle.
And yet at the end I was overjoyed at Damon’s reveal and I was chomping at the bit to read the third one and see the resolution.
And so I started Kings Rising. I remember being so enthralled with the first half and the coming together of Damon’s army and Laurent’s army that I sat on my couch in my living room, doing nothing but reading it on my kindle app. I was annoyed with the plot because Laurent’s situation at the start of the book was out of left field compared to where he was at the end of Prince’s Gambit. He rides off to war and then suddenly he’s captured? Where’s the link? But I let it go as I enjoyed watching their armies come together. The moment when Nikandros sees Damon’s scars and questions him and Laurent comes in admitting it is still a scene I admire to this day, despite my current opinion of the book. The racism was still prevalent and I was getting more and more uncomfortable with it as the story went on. The paedophilia was still horrific.
And then the second half of the book started and not only were the problems still there, but everything I did still enjoy vanished like a flash. The story went as flat as a dead balloon. They spent all that time joining their armies and suddenly Laurent and Damon go at it ALONE? I don’t want to read that. It’s not better than Stephanie Meyer in Breaking Dawn where all the action was in Alice’s head that we DON’T EVEN SEE!
I was furious at the ending too. It just stopped. There was no ending, no wrapping up of loose ends. No satisfaction. I was furious and genuinely threw my kindle to the bed in disgust. They had a tiny fight with the two Big Bads, one in a basement where no one was around! And then the book just ended. THAT IS NOT HOW YOU END A STORY. I SHOULD NOT HAVE TO BUY MORE ‘SHORT STORIES’ JUST TO READ THE END OF YOUR BOOK!
Add to that the problems that I was uncomfortable with from the start. The rape. The racism and treatment of Damon’s darker skinned country as ‘lesser’. The paedophilia used as a major plot point.
And I hate it. I detest those stories.
And I do not understand how people can adore it, how they can list it so high on their favourite book series, whether m/m, fantasy or otherwise. I don’t understand how people recommend it with the same gusto as I might recommend Megan Derr. Where does the love come from?
And why was I so enthralled? The problems were always there. The plot, however, wasn’t that bad until it got to the ending. Then it was up there with the worst endings I’ve ever read.
But I partly wish I could go back to when I did read Captive Prince. Both to stop myself from reading it and becoming both disgusted and angry by the end, but also to ask myself why I did enjoy it when I did.
It’s a curious thing, how reading to the end of something may actually cause you to hate something in its entirety. Although in this instance, I would say it’s well deserved.