Raynie

I re-read The Wonderful Wizard of Oz for the February prompt of the Buzzwords reading channel (positive words; “wonderful), and decided to read this Usborne illustrated edition that I bought a while back.

Obviously the story itself is 5 stars for me, because I have a life-long Oz fixation, but 5 stars for this particular edition because it's so stunning. The illustrations by Lorena Alvarez Gomez are so bright and expressive, and feature really gorgeous interpretations of the characters. The pages are a thick, glossy paper to really make those colors pop, and it comes with a rich green bookmark ribbon.

It's a really special edition that isn't too big or too expensive that you feel you can't actually read it, but is still a wonderful keepsake that will look lovely on a shelf too.

Gorgeous, charming, fun and funny; and some of the depictions of the villains are genuinely creepy, so it's winner for me.

It was so delightful to revisit Sailor Moon, since she was a big part of my childhood. I wasn't disappointed.

The translation notes in the back explaining what CDs and VHS tapes are... that made me feel ANCIENT though.

I had high hopes for this one — superheroes and body diversity! — but I was underwhelmed.

Engagingly fun action scenes (the superhero kind) are the highlight here, but neither the superhero plot nor the romance mix together very well, and the manipulative MC and unbalanced tone cause the whole thing to sag.
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What I liked:

The superhero scenes are fun, and feature simple yet well-described powers that allows things to rollick along without getting mired in details.

The body diversity; it's not made a huge deal of for the most part, but it's present and appreciated.
The world-building — there's quite some imagination put into describing what it's like to be a regular-degular non-powered human in a city full of supers.

While I don't think it ultimately managed to say anything terribly thoughtful or new about it in the end, I did enjoy the musings on the morality of having super powers and how you use them. Look, I'm a comics-fan from childhood, so I'm always down for the ol' “with great power...” chestnut. I wish it had explored that more.

We got a whopping two whole women characters with more than a passing mention this time, so that's a plus. Granted, one was annoying and one was the villain, but at least it made it seem a bit less of a sausage party (again, I'm wondering what I expect from gay romances...)

What I didn't like:

The main character starts off likable, but then becomes both emotionally manipulative and oversensitive, and it's presented in such a way that he's in the right. There's not really any discussion in the narrative that his behavior is shitty, and no development to be had. And given this behavior, it's hard to feel sorry for him when any conflict comes up later.

The midway/third act conflict that derails the relationship is not earned; the stakes are too high for such a short amount of time and development. They've known each other a week, and somehow the MC is so wounded by his love interest getting held back at work that the MC takes that as the ultimate rejection, completely falls apart, and then fully turns on and nearly betrays him? Is there no grass to touch in this superhero city?

The overbearing and misplaced thirst. Okay, I get that I'm just gonna have to accept that gay romance is gonna almost always be thirsty and going ham on explicit boning, but the sex talk and distracting thirstiness outside of the sex scenes was cloying and tonally jarring. I mean, sir, be serious; you're in the middle of a superhuman battle field and potentially seconds from death, and you're waxing lyrical about this guy's treasure trail? Y'all need Jesus.

The super-villain had a neat power, but no motive to speak of. Ma'am, whomst are you, and whymst are like this? I guess we'll never know. Maybe it was explained at some point, but I was too busy rolling my eyes at the MC having down-there-tingle feelings while facing impending doom.

The friend group were paper-thin caricatures and entirely unnecessary — we got the insufferable hornbag, we got the nurturing one, we got the angry one, I think there's another one who's just... there, I guess — and they served zero purpose other than to plant characters for other books in the series.
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I thought I was onto a winner with this one, and it definitely has its pros. I loved the setting and the creativity, but the unexamined flaws of the MC, uneven tone, and lack of care given to the superhero plot line left me a a bit underwhelmed. Funnily enough, perhaps this would have been better as an actual comic?

Idk, I think I need to reevaluate what my expectations of m/m romance are because maybe the problem is me. But, I've read several that I've really enjoyed, so I feel like there's gotta be more out there.

Surprisingly, I didn't love this quite so much as I was expecting. I thought for sure it would be 5 stars. Still, it was good vibes for the most part.

- Toad is an a-hole. I feel we're kind of supposed to be like “Oh, what a silly rascal!” and get behind his turning over of a new leaf, but I didn't buy it, and he didn't deserve to have Ratty, Moly, or Badger in his corner. Toad in the bin!

- Badger and Mole are sweetie-pie angels. When we were talking about it, I said “I wish I were a Badger, but I think more of a Mole” and my partner felt that was accurate. Which is not a self-deprecation; I love Moly, I'll take it!

- You cannot tell me that Rat and Mole weren't a couple. Look, I'm all for normalizing affectionate, deep, platonic relationships — soft masculinity heck yah; toxic masculinity in the bin — but this is giving Bert and Ernie before Bert and Ernie were a thing, and I said what I said.