Okay, I came to see what all the hubbub was about because I remember reading the first 2 chapters of this a few years back and dropping it for obvious reasons. Having reminded myself of the story by going back to the first chapter, I will say one thing. The "twist" at the end, with her being the actual "rapist" and not him, seems unplanned at best (and at worst it looks to be a sloppily designed "whoa, look your hypocrisy in the mirror, reader. Women can rape too and now you've been supporting a perpetrator all this time" moment), which can work when done thoughtfully and CAREFULLY, but what exactly are the logistics and likelihood of her raping him while literally being pinned face down to the ground from the beginning of the flashback to the end? Even if the justification is made for it by saying that that's not actually how it happened (I wouldn't know since I'm not gonna read the reveal chapter as I'm dropping this shit, so it could be a case of unreliable narration), that's the story given to us, so our anger towards her "rapist" is completely justified, so what now is the point of spitting on the reader's feelings by making her the actual "villain" and turning him into a martyr who was unjustly persecuted by us? It feels like a lazy way to close off what was probably supposed to be a deep and compelling story of romance, redemption and reconciliation by making the bad guy someone who didn't actually need redeeming because he was never bad in the first place, and making the reconciliation a simple matter of resolved misunderstanding, which is wild when you open up a romance story with RAPE for God's sake.
Okay, I came to see what all the hubbub was about because I remember reading the first 2 chapters of this a few years back and dropping it for obvious reasons.
Having reminded myself of the story by going back to the first chapter, I will say one thing. The "twist" at the end, with her being the actual "rapist" and not him, seems unplanned at best (and at worst it looks to be a sloppily designed "whoa, look your hypocrisy in the mirror, reader. Women can rape too and now you've been supporting a perpetrator all this time" moment), which can work when done thoughtfully and CAREFULLY, but what exactly are the logistics and likelihood of her raping him while literally being pinned face down to the ground from the beginning of the flashback to the end?
Even if the justification is made for it by saying that that's not actually how it happened (I wouldn't know since I'm not gonna read the reveal chapter as I'm dropping this shit, so it could be a case of unreliable narration), that's the story given to us, so our anger towards her "rapist" is completely justified, so what now is the point of spitting on the reader's feelings by making her the actual "villain" and turning him into a martyr who was unjustly persecuted by us? It feels like a lazy way to close off what was probably supposed to be a deep and compelling story of romance, redemption and reconciliation by making the bad guy someone who didn't actually need redeeming because he was never bad in the first place, and making the reconciliation a simple matter of resolved misunderstanding, which is wild when you open up a romance story with RAPE for God's sake.