Sent by anonymous

‘Forever upset MAH didn't get a sequel. I know it doesn't necessarily "need" one, but I would've loved more content with the gang and closure on Perdita.’

POST/CONFESSIONS DO NOT REFLECT THE MOD’S PERSONAL OPINIONS!

Cadybear's Reviews- Murder at Homecoming

Welcome to the thirty-seventh official Cadybear's Reviews! Today I'll be talking about Murder at Homecoming, which I have ranked on the "Platinum Tier" at 9 stars out of a possible 10. My last and only playthrough of this was during September-December 2022.

This is definitely one of the better, if not the best release, of 2022, and it’s easily among my personal faves. 

A MC who is proactive and gets shit done, multiple LIs, highly compelling story. How can I not love that? All three of the LIs are amazing characters– and Tyler especially is just precious. I think he’s the first love interest I have ever adored nearly as much as I’ve adored Aiden. I miss when we had male LIs that are just so babygirl. 

The incorporation of mature topics and queer themes was especially excellent. MTFL, take notes! Because THIS is how you write a teen story that talks about queer sexuality and mature behaviors. Besides maybe BiBound I mean BloodBound, this is probably the first book in Choices where each LI has some degree of confirmed sexuality outside of their LI option status for the MC. 

One thing that’s especially notable is how Tyler will talk about how he used to think he was straight if you romance him as a male or enby MC. I normally don’t mind much when LIs in GOC stories are made with the “playersexual” style of writing, but these sort of little changes are a good show of effort and give Tyler more character.

But of course, it’s not without a handful of problems. 

Like COP (1), the story is incredibly linear and none of the clues or choices really affect your story. Sure, they give you a bit of extra background, but that’s about it. 

The only choices that really have any impact are the stuff related to the queer discussions, Tyler’s romance route, and how the options for how your MC can talk about their queer experience can change based on your MC’s gender and romance choices. Which is still highly praiseworthy, don’t get me wrong, but I’d have loved to see some variation in the other elements of the book too.

And as much as I did enjoy this MC and do consider them one of the more refreshing ones, they were also a bit too rigid and pre-set for me at times. I get that some MCs will need to have pre-set details about them, and to some degree that does apply to this MC, but it was a bit much at times. Like, there was especially no need to give them a default first AND last name. I do like the aspect of MC preferring to go by their middle name, but we still could have been allowed to change their first and last names too, to be honest. 

I found it really hard to feel for the loss of Perdita for this reason; the traumatic event backstory didn’t feel as well established, compared to that of ILITW and ACOR MCs. Though to be fair, I do remember there being a handful of premium scenes to see a memory with Perdita, and I do remember skipping all but two of them. 

But even then, I never felt she had quite as much importance as the writers clearly wanted her to have? Outside of being a motivator for MC to solve Gabbie’s case and allowing MC to connect with Donovan better. Maybe my opinion on this might change after I give it a replay, though. 

That being said, I’m actually fine with the story not telling us what really happened to Perdita, as much as I’d have loved a continuation for this book. MC not knowing what happened to Perdita is what motivated them to solve Gabbie’s case, and in that regard, the two cases kind of juxtapose one another. Whereas MC is able to get closure for Gabbie’s case, they don’t do that for Perdita’s case.

That makes the ending a little more nuanced in my opinion. Sometimes, we don’t always get closure for these kinds of things. While I’m still mixed on how well the story integrated Perdita, this message was handled decently and didn’t feel like it was in bad spirit. 

So if there were a continuation for this story, I wouldn’t mind it being centered around MC finding Perdita, motivated to work on that case more actively after their success with Gabbie’s case. But rather than having them solve the case, it can mostly center around them struggling between whether they should keep up that search, or leave it as a cold case and move on. 

Overall, definitely a higher-tier and very respectable story that definitely deserves a replay. 

i haven't yet gotten to book 2 but i read the wiki just in case and then i got to this part... WHAT. like literally what. i'm guessing what's happening here is one of two options

what they actually mean is "the third option depends on your character's pronouns, unless they use they/them pronouns, in that case it depends on their body type" but they didn't actually word it like that because it'd seem transphobic as fuck

they really do mean it depends strictly on mc's body type, not pronouns at all, meaning an mc that looks fem according to body type but uses he/him pronouns will still be called "queen" by the game and viceversa

long ass rant incoming lol

and it's not even specifically this fuck up in a supposedly "inclusive" book that makes me so mad but the fact that there's also the one MAH scene, the scene that discusses queer identities openly and maturely in a book that's supposed to be one of the most inclusive and queer friendly in the entire app, that when it's mc's turn to speak on what they've experienced, if they have a body type that doesn't match their pronouns and have romanced a li with the opposite pronouns (ie feminine body type, he/him pronouns and romanced stevie, or masculine body type, she/her pronouns and romanced a male li) the game treats mc like a cishet person by default and completely ignores body type. i don't know about y'all but i certainly find it ironic that, again, in one of the most queer friendly books, the only option to be considered queer "by default" by the game (and thus get the question of what you've experienced) if you're playing as a trans mc is to date someone of the same gender.

but let's go back to crimes of passion for a moment, eh? specifically the very first chapter. despite the dialogue here depending only on body type instead of pronouns, in the case of the first chapter (specifically the scene where trystan and mc first meet) it's a completely different situation, here it does depend strictly on pronouns even if it literally doesn't make sense. in my first ever play, i played as my usual mc, a nb!mc romancing m!trystan, and me being nb, trystan called me "a stranger". not particularly unusual, right? after all, "stranger" is gender neutral, and so i thought that was the dialogue in all cases. well... it's not. i decided to play differently, specifically with the masc body type, she/her pronouns, and f!trystan. she literally called me a "strange woman" despite not being able to guess that mc's pronouns are she/her just by looking at her, because obviously there's only two body types, fem and masc, and it's not like we ever get gnc clothing styles. that, and in all cases mc never tells trystan their pronouns, so even in the nb!mc play i got quite startled at "they're a private detective". yes, that can be interpreted as trystan simply not wanting to assume genders or it being a case of culture shock from drakovia, but then what about my masc f!mc?

and that's because pb never intended to add inclusivity in terms of binary trans mcs, or even just queer mcs beyond "gay, lesbian, bi, or non-binary BUT if they're nb they have to be either fem or masc" (see: option to pick specific sexuality for mc only appearing in the elementalists and then never again, except in the royal masquerade but they removed the option to be ace so that doesn't count for me). they never intended for players to play as a masculine looking mc that uses she/her or a feminine looking mc that uses he/him.

if they really cared about inclusivity, they would let mcs be androgynous. they would add skirts, dresses, stereotypically "fem" clothing - or just clothing that isn't just a plain t shirt or a suit in formal situations for amab or masc looking mcs. they would add more pants, baggy clothing, more stereotypically "masc" clothing - or just options that aren't always incredibly revealing slinky dresses or crop tops and short skirts meant to "emphasize your sexy feminine curves" for afab or fem looking mcs. THEY WOULD ADD NON BINARY LIS AND MORE TRANS LIS. they wouldn't have the only option to play as an explicitly trans mc (or, well, the closest thing to "explicitly trans" there can be given there's absolutely no dialogue or even implication about mc being trans in any pronoun of choice book, save for MAH but i already complained about my problems) be playing with an extremely feminine/masculine body type and having the pronouns as the only indication mc is trans, completely ignoring the dysphoria that'd give many actually trans players.

no, that's not their intention and it's never been that. their sole reason for adding the "body type separate from pronouns" is to categorize mcs that use they/them and tell them they have to be either feminine or masculine, no androgynous or gender non conforming options at all. basically the question "but are you a GIRL non binary or a BOY non binary?" they would've probably forced she/her or he/him mcs into their respective body types and only ask "but are you a pretty feminine afab enby or a handsome masculine amab enby" to they/them mcs but they knew they'd get the backlash of their lives for that so they just went "we'll just ask for body type regardless, it's not like players will actually pick he/him pronouns while playing as a WOMAN right???"

conclusion/tldr. if pb actually wanted inclusivity, they can actually put in the work and acknowledge that people do want to play as an explicitly queer mc beyond just same gender relationships and performatively adding they/them pronouns to only SOME goc books, or else just don't do anything and show they don't care at all. not pretend they care but only add the bare minimum and pat themselves on the back for it.

I just finished murder at homecoming and WHY DID NO ONE TELL ME IT WAS SOO GOOD??????

And the way this story actually makes your choices feel important. All of the characters were well fleshed out. Hell I was sad for even the minor characters like Claudia and MC's parents. The way they navigated the conversation around sexuality, death, grief and sexual abuse. God. It all felt so real. And unfortunately I could relate to all that uwu

Ik people here were disappointed with the finale but it felt pretty complete to me. Yeah maybe they were setting up for a sequel and couldn't due to budget cuts. But I still feel like it was a bittersweet goodbye. Idk what people were complaining about honesty. I cried my eyes out at our last conversation with perdita. I lost my dad, who was my best friend in this whole wide world, when I was 16 and gosh that "I'm still the child who lost you" line fucking got to me okay??????

Yeah it sucks that there won't be a sequel and yeah maybe I'm just emotional rn and miss my dad, but that was one of my favourite books ever.

Just got a book pass for Murder at Homecoming so I’m finally reading it. I’m so pleasantly surprised they’re talking about the queer experience like homophobia and labels and actually saying lesbian, bi, asexual etc. And I’m glad that it actually plays a part in the story as well instead of most stories where they don’t even acknowledge the characters’ sexualities let alone incorporating it into the character’s/story’s plot. It’s just so refreshing to see and I wish PB did this more.

Is this the first time a queer mc/li romance has been explicitly talked about in a Choices story? At least with a goc mc…

Me: ugh I hate when PB tries to make us spend diamonds on random reused side characters. It’s so greedy and stupid and I simply do not care.

Joanna Morgan: So my girlfriend got murdered and my parents kicked me out and severed ties with me and I don’t have any extra clothes because this is all I own :(

Me: Joanna. My dear. My angel. You sweet lil sapphic. I will get you all you desire and more. You deserve nothing but the absolute best. 😭

Gabbie Navarro but she's not a reused sprite

my murder at homecoming mc, kyla stone!! <3

i headcanon that her beauty mark gives her away any time she tries to go undercover for intel ;)

Murder at Homecoming 2

The ending left us all pretty sad and we got some unfinished buisness (looking at you, Perdita! and we all would like some true closure).

So me and my friends had some ideas and well, if any of you are interested please comment down below. If we find enough people willing to work, we can actually make it true! And I know you do because we all need answers and the more people helping the better.

FINALLY PLAYING GOOD BOOKS AGAIN

Sent by @loveloveoliver

‘im never going to get over donovan navarro. im sobbing right now murder at homecoming was so good 😭’

POST/CONFESSIONS DO NOT REFLECT THE MOD’S PERSONAL OPINIONS!

☆ My Art Commission ☆

Painted by IG @/melitrees

My MC: Valentine "Niran" Stone

Book: Murder at Homecoming

Original character belongs to: @playchoices

So…we never found out what happened then? 😒

Listen I just started playing MaH (im on ch3 now) but oh god it's already so good???? The characters are so fleshed out and messy and act like humans for once instead of the cookie cutter "It's okay MC, do whatever you want everyone loves you uwu"

I loveeeeeee donovans reaction to the MC trying to interrogate him while his family is still grieving and I love love lovee how he is kinda all over the place. One sec he is snapping at the MC and next he's smiling and talking to her and then he's angry again like YES!!! THAT is exactly how a person would deal with death cause guess what!! Grief is weird! Anc complicated! And messed up!! And you rarely get out of it unscathed.

Good on you pb

like and share if u agree🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺❤️❤️