It hit me really hard too! So many moments of pain and sheer horror- and then the relief when Conor and Simon got their happily ever after was indescribable. I’m so glad someone else loves this story too!
I read it and it was a heavy read. The topics were so raw and close to heart. I started it thinking it will be just a cute romantic story and i was in for a treat.
Thanks for doing this review, I was looking for new bl stories to read. ❤ love how you explain everything carefully, i tend to read both lighthearted and dark type of stories, so this fits for me 😊 also….Thanks for saying that the ending is a happy one, I read too many stories with bad endings, and it messes me up for weeks, it’s really hard for me to deal with that so happy endings are what I need 😅❤I hope you do more reviews on different stories, I’ll definitely try it out!!
You’re welcome, glad to assist 💕 you should also check out Zenty’s comment in the thread below, they’ve kindly provided a whole list of BL stories! Same, bad endings mess me up so much 🤧 We have enough unfairness in real life to deal with, let our fictional characters be happy 🥲
Interesting video, was a good watch but I doubt i'll end up reading it myself. For some reason I'm never able to really enjoy these kinds of 'urban' (I don't know how to describe it) kind of stories that feel too real. Any dark and gritty story taking place in what feels like our real world mostly just gives me a sense of dread and anxiety while reading. I dunno, probably why I mostly just read fantasy so I can pretend the world we live in isn't as fucked up as it actually is in some places. Also why I never watched Banana Fish, can't stand stories about mafias, gangs, criminality etc, I'm already unconfortable reading works about such things while knowing that things are usually 10x worse in real life than what's portrayed in media. I'm already lucky enough to live in Scandinavia where such things are as uncommon as they possibly could be, but they still get to me and it's just worse when the characters going through terrible things are gay. Nice video though, completely agree with you about the top/bottom stuff, always hate that troupe to the point of not being able to read BL stories that are obviously using them!
Thanks for sharing your thoughts! I completely understand the need for escapism in stories- the great majority of my bookshelf is fantasy ☺️ I’m personally not adverse to dark stories in real world settings, with two conditions- there has to be a happy ending, and the villains have to be punished- thankfully Dark Heaven meets both conditions 😁 But yes, if your personal tastes are not for gritty stories then I would say to avoid it. It really throws the horror of the evil character’s actions in your face, and visually it can be quite shocking. Oh boy, I wanted say a LOT more about the BL top/bottom stuff but I restrained myself in the video to stay on topic 😅 buuuuuuut now that you’ve opened that door, so I’m going to walk right on through 😂 The fact that the bottom (fuck, I hate even using the terms!) is usually feminised in appearance, physically powerless/passive and tends to give only dubious consent to the top bothers me. As someone born into the XX chromosome camp, it annoys me when these stereotypical markers of ‘femininity’ are projected onto male characters who take the physically receptive role. Likewise I don’t think these stereotypical traits do masculinity any favours either. 😔 I have also dropped too many BL stories midway for these reasons. At the end of the day, if I’m reading BL, I want to see two guys together who look and act /like guys/, and who love and respect each other. Why is that so difficult to find in the genre? 🥲 If you have any recommendations I would love to know about them 🙏
@@ARTEMIAZ Always up for a good rant about top/bottom dynamics. You're spot on with what you said, the part about dubious consent is THE worst, it's as if the authors for these kinds of stories all think that as long as you continue to push yourself on to someone and treat them like shit they'll eventually come around and like it. It's mind-boggling. As you said, these stereotypical traits don't do masculinity any favors, all it's doing is promoting toxic masculinity as if that's what a relationship between guys would be like. I also personally don't like how they often also add an age difference, putting a younger vulnerable guy together with an older, taler and abusive guy as if that's the dream. And let's not get into omegaverse type of BL, that shit gets me livid, all the omega, alpha & beta bullshit and "pheromones" as an excuse for why it's okay to sexually assault someone. Even adding in mpreg stuff to further devolve the 'bottom' into a female replacement. // A BUNCH OF RECOMMENDATIONS BELOW, YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED // oh boy do I have suggestions! Well, it depends on what format you're looking for, webtoons,manga,manwha,webnovels etc. So i'll suggest a bunch of my favorites from different media. Let's start with webtoons; Currently i'm really liking 'Summer Boo' and 'Boy Girlfriend' who are both quite decent and cute. But i'd also recommend 'Vanilla Bliss', 'Obviously In Love', 'Ghost Lights', 'Shiro to Kuro', 'Until You Confess' and I guess 'Dear Us' (the only omegaverse series I actually like, since it's about a bunch of younger boys and it's so cute), '(BL)okes' If you want ridiculous & dumb fun between two idiots who are too dumb to realise they like each other. As for manga; 'Hikaru ga Shinda Natsu' is really good, it's more of a horror, mystery series but it's really intriguing. 'Kimi ni Wa Todokanai' & 'Ah Lü and Ah Mo' are two of my favorites, they are both really cute. 'Sasaki to Miyano' you probably already know about since it has gotten pretty mainstream with the recent anime. 'I Want to Think I'm Not In Love' is pretty cute, 'Harukaze no Étranger' Is good too, I think it got an anime movie recently too, I have not watched it yet but I hear it's actually really good. There's a few more I like alot such as 'Kirakira Shitemo, Shinakutemo', 'We Met in Ueno', and 'Senshun Kansoku' but they are all either too new or don't have a dedicated translation team so there are very few chapters and slow updates. Manwha; Let's see, there's so much here, 'The Best Smell' is decent, 'Nonfiction Phrase' from the same author too. 'Someone else's Bl Manwha' is one I finished recently, it's was really good. 'Star X Fanboy', 'Beyond Memory', 'Guang Xiang', 'The Devil Eats Love', and 'Dress Him Up' are all pretty cute. 'The Eyes of Sora' & 'Where the Dragon's Rain Falls', both from the same author are quite interesting with more supernatural/fantasy elements. 'Spinach Bouquet' is probably one of my current favorites, season 2 just started yesterday. 'Pond Snail Robber' and 'Could the Boy Next Door be a Vampire?' are also two of my favorite weekly ongoing ones right now, both are super sweet and cute, especially pond snail robber. 'Vanguard of fencing' is yet another one I look forward to weekly, but it can be a bit frustrating sometimes because of their terrible communication but they are sooo cute together. 'Salad Days' is another really good one. These are probably some of the better ones I can think of. Novels; A bit harder for me to find decent ones since it's hard to tell if it's gonna be good unless I end up reading them, and I typically just go for novels with no romance at all since good BL fantasy is extremely rare. 'The Legendary Master's Wife' was one of the first BL novels I read, it's sadly one of those top/bottom type of bl series, and the ML was quite annoying and unlikeable, especially at the start of the series, I don't know if it was that he got slightly better as the series progressed or of it was the face that the MC that got a bit more proactive, brave and confident but the relationship didn't end as one sided as it began. Normally i wouldn't even recommend a series like this, HOWEVER, this is one of few fantasy/cultivation BL stories I know that actually has a plot outside the romance, a magic system to delve into etc. Besides, the MC is super endearing and cute, and seeing him get used to this fantasy world and slowly getting confident and powerful is really fun. (even though I often wished he would have gone for any of the other cute guys he ran into along the way) So if you want a decent fantasy series that also have a BL main couple then this one is actually worth reading because it stands out. 'Necromancer Survival' is another fantasy/action BL story, I actually don't like the ML in this one, he's quite the asshole, I wished MC would get together with the second guy instead as they are much cuter together.. But at least this is a decent fantasy BL, just like the previous recommendation it has it's own plot going on outside of the romance hence why I recommend it. Just today I finished book 1 of a webnovel 'The Brotherhood' by 'The Writer X', and it was surprisingly good and not quite what one would expect from it's initial premise. It's really intriguing, that's all I can say without spoiling anything. I guess I'm also obligated to recommend my personal favorite 'Legends of Gods. Tale of Vjaira' since i'm on good terms with the author on discord. If you decide to check it out on royalroad.com I'd recommend taking a look on my review there from 2017 first to see if that's something your interested in. The main boys have a bit of that synergy Yuu & Mika has, though they basically fell in love and got together the second they saw each other for the first time. There's also a few quite spicy and detailed chapters that make one blush. I recommended one of my favorite novels on Ons reddit the other day, it's not technically BL (but could very well turn into it in the future, but atleast the MC isn't showing any interest in any female character currently). I'll just copy what I wrote on reddit since i'm starting to get tired from all the writing: "Kingdom's bloodline is one of my personal favorites (though the translation is currently discontinued) as the MC himself is quite queer, which the author even makes side characters point out every once in a while (mostly since he never seems to pay any attention to females, but do comment on the looks of handsome guys internally). Though the MC does end up getting entangled with 2 female characters who have stolen a kiss from him without consent (one even being a loli vampire queen who he could not resist, and the second one being him taken off guard by some random unimportant character he meets for a short time) but otherwise he doesn't really pay attention to any female characters advances, even the one girl who appears later that could be viewed as a potential FL if it were any other novel and who end up having feelings for him, he doesn't seem to treat her any different from a younger sister. But I must warn that the series isn't for everyone as It's a very slow-paced series with looong chapters and a heavy focus on politics & mystery. The MC has some special powers and has the potential of being Op in the distant future but is currently mostly just going with the flow trying to survive a political hellscape while being a weak prince." You just had to open the can of worms that is asking me for recommendations.. Now i'm so exhausted I can't be bother proof reading my comment before posting... Well, hopefully you find something you like among the suggestions!
@@Zenty7 That’s an interesting point you raise- I hadn’t really noticed age differences as an issue in BL before 🤔 But I have definitely noticed power imbalances, which I suppose cross over with age - like boss/younger employee. Yeah omega-verse isn’t for me either 😥 I’ve read a couple of decent fics involving it, but there’s so many bad ones out there compared to the good, I generally steer clear. Regarding dub-con in general, I think it can have its place if it’s deliberately exploring issues of consent- but it needs to be explicitly addressed as an issue by the characters, not glossed over. That list 😍 thank you so much! I haven’t heard of many of them so I’m going to have a lot of fun the next few weeks reading these ☺️ Etranger I know and love- I really recommend the movie! Sasaki and Miyano was OK- I watched the anime, and I think their relationship is very sweet, but I did feel like Miya was coming across more and more feminine as it went on- I might need to pick the manga up instead 🤔 The novels you mentioned sound really interesting, particularly the one published on Royal Road. I really like it when there is a story outside of the romance. One that I was in to a long time ago was Kyo Kara Maoh which is a light novel series (sadly never officially translated) then adapted into an anime and manga- fantasy isekai, comedy with light shonen ai, MC learns he’s destined to become king of the demons and ends up accidentally engaged to a demon prince. (Would recommend the manga > anime as the anime is a bit dated now… actually I might review it 🤔)
@@ARTEMIAZ Omg, you just remembered me about Kyou Kara Maoh! It had completelly slipped my mind when I wrote the recommendations (probably since I didn't include animes), never read the manga/light novel series but I watched the anime quite a few years back, twice actually. It was one of my favorite isekai before isekai as a genre was even a term, it was also hillarious since he was transported to the other world through a toilet, quite the novel & creative way. I remember really liking Wolfram, probably since my greatest weakness happens to be cute blonde anime boys.. On the note on animes, I also recommend 'Hoshiai no Sora'/'Stars Align' if you haven't watched it, it also quite light shounen ai, the same for 'Nabari no Ou' if I remember correctly. I probably have a lot more anime recommendations that i've just forgotten about since it has been a few years since I was at the height of my anime watching days. You might find something decent just by going through my MAL @Zentyy
I'm still crying over this story and I wish it got more love.
It hit me really hard too! So many moments of pain and sheer horror- and then the relief when Conor and Simon got their happily ever after was indescribable. I’m so glad someone else loves this story too!
I remember reading this a couple of years ago, and it has a special place in my heart.
Glad someone else knows about this amazing story, this is undoubtedly my favourite BL to date ☺️
I read it and it was a heavy read. The topics were so raw and close to heart. I started it thinking it will be just a cute romantic story and i was in for a treat.
What that certain someone did to them is something not even scaphism(the worst way to die) can rectify.
Thanks for doing this review, I was looking for new bl stories to read. ❤ love how you explain everything carefully, i tend to read both lighthearted and dark type of stories, so this fits for me 😊 also….Thanks for saying that the ending is a happy one, I read too many stories with bad endings, and it messes me up for weeks, it’s really hard for me to deal with that so happy endings are what I need 😅❤I hope you do more reviews on different stories, I’ll definitely try it out!!
You’re welcome, glad to assist 💕 you should also check out Zenty’s comment in the thread below, they’ve kindly provided a whole list of BL stories!
Same, bad endings mess me up so much 🤧 We have enough unfairness in real life to deal with, let our fictional characters be happy 🥲
@@ARTEMIAZ thanks for the tip! Will do! And yup, exactly, some characters deserve happy endings!😉
Interesting video, was a good watch but I doubt i'll end up reading it myself. For some reason I'm never able to really enjoy these kinds of 'urban' (I don't know how to describe it) kind of stories that feel too real. Any dark and gritty story taking place in what feels like our real world mostly just gives me a sense of dread and anxiety while reading. I dunno, probably why I mostly just read fantasy so I can pretend the world we live in isn't as fucked up as it actually is in some places. Also why I never watched Banana Fish, can't stand stories about mafias, gangs, criminality etc, I'm already unconfortable reading works about such things while knowing that things are usually 10x worse in real life than what's portrayed in media. I'm already lucky enough to live in Scandinavia where such things are as uncommon as they possibly could be, but they still get to me and it's just worse when the characters going through terrible things are gay. Nice video though, completely agree with you about the top/bottom stuff, always hate that troupe to the point of not being able to read BL stories that are obviously using them!
Thanks for sharing your thoughts! I completely understand the need for escapism in stories- the great majority of my bookshelf is fantasy ☺️
I’m personally not adverse to dark stories in real world settings, with two conditions- there has to be a happy ending, and the villains have to be punished- thankfully Dark Heaven meets both conditions 😁 But yes, if your personal tastes are not for gritty stories then I would say to avoid it. It really throws the horror of the evil character’s actions in your face, and visually it can be quite shocking.
Oh boy, I wanted say a LOT more about the BL top/bottom stuff but I restrained myself in the video to stay on topic 😅 buuuuuuut now that you’ve opened that door, so I’m going to walk right on through 😂 The fact that the bottom (fuck, I hate even using the terms!) is usually feminised in appearance, physically powerless/passive and tends to give only dubious consent to the top bothers me. As someone born into the XX chromosome camp, it annoys me when these stereotypical markers of ‘femininity’ are projected onto male characters who take the physically receptive role. Likewise I don’t think these stereotypical traits do masculinity any favours either. 😔
I have also dropped too many BL stories midway for these reasons. At the end of the day, if I’m reading BL, I want to see two guys together who look and act /like guys/, and who love and respect each other. Why is that so difficult to find in the genre? 🥲 If you have any recommendations I would love to know about them 🙏
@@ARTEMIAZ Always up for a good rant about top/bottom dynamics. You're spot on with what you said, the part about dubious consent is THE worst, it's as if the authors for these kinds of stories all think that as long as you continue to push yourself on to someone and treat them like shit they'll eventually come around and like it. It's mind-boggling. As you said, these stereotypical traits don't do masculinity any favors, all it's doing is promoting toxic masculinity as if that's what a relationship between guys would be like. I also personally don't like how they often also add an age difference, putting a younger vulnerable guy together with an older, taler and abusive guy as if that's the dream. And let's not get into omegaverse type of BL, that shit gets me livid, all the omega, alpha & beta bullshit and "pheromones" as an excuse for why it's okay to sexually assault someone. Even adding in mpreg stuff to further devolve the 'bottom' into a female replacement.
// A BUNCH OF RECOMMENDATIONS BELOW, YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED //
oh boy do I have suggestions! Well, it depends on what format you're looking for, webtoons,manga,manwha,webnovels etc. So i'll suggest a bunch of my favorites from different media.
Let's start with webtoons; Currently i'm really liking 'Summer Boo' and 'Boy Girlfriend' who are both quite decent and cute. But i'd also recommend 'Vanilla Bliss', 'Obviously In Love', 'Ghost Lights', 'Shiro to Kuro', 'Until You Confess' and I guess 'Dear Us' (the only omegaverse series I actually like, since it's about a bunch of younger boys and it's so cute), '(BL)okes' If you want ridiculous & dumb fun between two idiots who are too dumb to realise they like each other.
As for manga; 'Hikaru ga Shinda Natsu' is really good, it's more of a horror, mystery series but it's really intriguing. 'Kimi ni Wa Todokanai' & 'Ah Lü and Ah Mo' are two of my favorites, they are both really cute. 'Sasaki to Miyano' you probably already know about since it has gotten pretty mainstream with the recent anime. 'I Want to Think I'm Not In Love' is pretty cute, 'Harukaze no Étranger' Is good too, I think it got an anime movie recently too, I have not watched it yet but I hear it's actually really good. There's a few more I like alot such as 'Kirakira Shitemo, Shinakutemo', 'We Met in Ueno', and 'Senshun Kansoku' but they are all either too new or don't have a dedicated translation team so there are very few chapters and slow updates.
Manwha; Let's see, there's so much here, 'The Best Smell' is decent, 'Nonfiction Phrase' from the same author too. 'Someone else's Bl Manwha' is one I finished recently, it's was really good. 'Star X Fanboy', 'Beyond Memory', 'Guang Xiang', 'The Devil Eats Love', and 'Dress Him Up' are all pretty cute. 'The Eyes of Sora' & 'Where the Dragon's Rain Falls', both from the same author are quite interesting with more supernatural/fantasy elements. 'Spinach Bouquet' is probably one of my current favorites, season 2 just started yesterday. 'Pond Snail Robber' and 'Could the Boy Next Door be a Vampire?' are also two of my favorite weekly ongoing ones right now, both are super sweet and cute, especially pond snail robber. 'Vanguard of fencing' is yet another one I look forward to weekly, but it can be a bit frustrating sometimes because of their terrible communication but they are sooo cute together. 'Salad Days' is another really good one. These are probably some of the better ones I can think of.
Novels; A bit harder for me to find decent ones since it's hard to tell if it's gonna be good unless I end up reading them, and I typically just go for novels with no romance at all since good BL fantasy is extremely rare. 'The Legendary Master's Wife' was one of the first BL novels I read, it's sadly one of those top/bottom type of bl series, and the ML was quite annoying and unlikeable, especially at the start of the series, I don't know if it was that he got slightly better as the series progressed or of it was the face that the MC that got a bit more proactive, brave and confident but the relationship didn't end as one sided as it began. Normally i wouldn't even recommend a series like this, HOWEVER, this is one of few fantasy/cultivation BL stories I know that actually has a plot outside the romance, a magic system to delve into etc. Besides, the MC is super endearing and cute, and seeing him get used to this fantasy world and slowly getting confident and powerful is really fun. (even though I often wished he would have gone for any of the other cute guys he ran into along the way) So if you want a decent fantasy series that also have a BL main couple then this one is actually worth reading because it stands out. 'Necromancer Survival' is another fantasy/action BL story, I actually don't like the ML in this one, he's quite the asshole, I wished MC would get together with the second guy instead as they are much cuter together.. But at least this is a decent fantasy BL, just like the previous recommendation it has it's own plot going on outside of the romance hence why I recommend it. Just today I finished book 1 of a webnovel 'The Brotherhood' by 'The Writer X', and it was surprisingly good and not quite what one would expect from it's initial premise. It's really intriguing, that's all I can say without spoiling anything. I guess I'm also obligated to recommend my personal favorite 'Legends of Gods. Tale of Vjaira' since i'm on good terms with the author on discord. If you decide to check it out on royalroad.com I'd recommend taking a look on my review there from 2017 first to see if that's something your interested in. The main boys have a bit of that synergy Yuu & Mika has, though they basically fell in love and got together the second they saw each other for the first time. There's also a few quite spicy and detailed chapters that make one blush.
I recommended one of my favorite novels on Ons reddit the other day, it's not technically BL (but could very well turn into it in the future, but atleast the MC isn't showing any interest in any female character currently). I'll just copy what I wrote on reddit since i'm starting to get tired from all the writing: "Kingdom's bloodline is one of my personal favorites (though the translation is currently discontinued) as the MC himself is quite queer, which the author even makes side characters point out every once in a while (mostly since he never seems to pay any attention to females, but do comment on the looks of handsome guys internally). Though the MC does end up getting entangled with 2 female characters who have stolen a kiss from him without consent (one even being a loli vampire queen who he could not resist, and the second one being him taken off guard by some random unimportant character he meets for a short time) but otherwise he doesn't really pay attention to any female characters advances, even the one girl who appears later that could be viewed as a potential FL if it were any other novel and who end up having feelings for him, he doesn't seem to treat her any different from a younger sister. But I must warn that the series isn't for everyone as It's a very slow-paced series with looong chapters and a heavy focus on politics & mystery. The MC has some special powers and has the potential of being Op in the distant future but is currently mostly just going with the flow trying to survive a political hellscape while being a weak prince."
You just had to open the can of worms that is asking me for recommendations.. Now i'm so exhausted I can't be bother proof reading my comment before posting... Well, hopefully you find something you like among the suggestions!
@@Zenty7 That’s an interesting point you raise- I hadn’t really noticed age differences as an issue in BL before 🤔 But I have definitely noticed power imbalances, which I suppose cross over with age - like boss/younger employee.
Yeah omega-verse isn’t for me either 😥 I’ve read a couple of decent fics involving it, but there’s so many bad ones out there compared to the good, I generally steer clear. Regarding dub-con in general, I think it can have its place if it’s deliberately exploring issues of consent- but it needs to be explicitly addressed as an issue by the characters, not glossed over.
That list 😍 thank you so much! I haven’t heard of many of them so I’m going to have a lot of fun the next few weeks reading these ☺️ Etranger I know and love- I really recommend the movie! Sasaki and Miyano was OK- I watched the anime, and I think their relationship is very sweet, but I did feel like Miya was coming across more and more feminine as it went on- I might need to pick the manga up instead 🤔
The novels you mentioned sound really interesting, particularly the one published on Royal Road. I really like it when there is a story outside of the romance. One that I was in to a long time ago was Kyo Kara Maoh which is a light novel series (sadly never officially translated) then adapted into an anime and manga- fantasy isekai, comedy with light shonen ai, MC learns he’s destined to become king of the demons and ends up accidentally engaged to a demon prince. (Would recommend the manga > anime as the anime is a bit dated now… actually I might review it 🤔)
@@ARTEMIAZ Omg, you just remembered me about Kyou Kara Maoh! It had completelly slipped my mind when I wrote the recommendations (probably since I didn't include animes), never read the manga/light novel series but I watched the anime quite a few years back, twice actually. It was one of my favorite isekai before isekai as a genre was even a term, it was also hillarious since he was transported to the other world through a toilet, quite the novel & creative way. I remember really liking Wolfram, probably since my greatest weakness happens to be cute blonde anime boys.. On the note on animes, I also recommend 'Hoshiai no Sora'/'Stars Align' if you haven't watched it, it also quite light shounen ai, the same for 'Nabari no Ou' if I remember correctly. I probably have a lot more anime recommendations that i've just forgotten about since it has been a few years since I was at the height of my anime watching days. You might find something decent just by going through my MAL @Zentyy