kutsuwamushi | I will call this post "illayarainessecon," the act of discussing Wraeththu.

I should have known that a book I found clumsy and amateurish when I was a teenager would be even worse now.

Yes, I am talking about Wraeththu. Why did I pick it up again? Curiosity, I suppose. Despite the bad writing, I did enjoy it enough to finish it back then--and that's saying something because the thing is damn long. I can still see the appeal now.

But oh my God, I somehow managed to block out the floofy fantasy name syndrome even though it's right in the title. I did remember the hilariously flowery portrayal of everything sexual, though.

(Icon so totally appropriate for this post.)

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From:

lady_ganesh

They are so ridiculous! And yet I still check every used bookstore I see so I can finally get a decent copy of the second book. (I have the first and third, and ahemed a version of the second, but I want the damn book okay.

From:

kutsuwamushi

If I did a statistical analysis to design a story that would appeal to the greatest number of teenaged yaoi fangirls, I would end up with something a lot like Wraeththu.

I made it to page sixty or so and I've bet the mystical properties of "essence" has come up at least five times already.

From:

lady_ganesh

Especially by the third book, where it turns out the girls are magic hermaphrodites too, they've just been quiet about it.

Don't forget the rainbow colors!

From:

kutsuwamushi

I think I have to finish it. If I give up now, I'll miss out on the next five thousand froofy fantasy names for different types of magic hermaphrodite sex, and that would be tragic.

From:

lady_ganesh

It really would be. The first book's really the weakest, though. (And it's amazing how non-explicit they are, considering they're pretty much completely about sex.)

From:

kutsuwamushi

So, I had forgotten the rainbow colors and I rediscovered them today.

I picture every single sex scene as being in wavery, eighties pastel soft focus. Like a flashback scene on The Golden Girls, or something. I'm not even sure they're actually having sex, rather than sitting around and tripping while wearing feathers in their hair.

It's fantastic.

The writing style in the second book is much improved but it's not any less ... Wraeththu.