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#this is the pinnacle of my peak of my tolerance for shallow writing I want more for us
redsparko · 3 months
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I’ve come back for another Rina Kent thoughtly rant. Now disclaimer, when I make these rants, it’s not me shitting on Rina Kent. I ate up all 34 of the books in a MONTH. Do you understand how many books a day I had to read? I don’t but all I know is that they FED me in a time that I needed to feast.
But as a fellow writer and one who identifies with this area of writing and reading, I must pull through and in the hopes that the continuous talking and revelation about these things will help improve the writing in dark romance.
This rant is not just about Rina Kent, but can be applied to every other dark romance book or romance in general (considering that they’re all pretty similar).
We’re going to be talking about. Female relationships. Rina Kent being the butt end of this rant, sorry to y’all. I haven’t read much romance books or any other dark romance books so I have nothing else to recall from besides the Twisted and Kings of Sin series by Ana Huang but those aren’t exactly dark romance. But can be used in this rant. It’s just that I have better examples with explanations from RK’s books because I’m more obsessed with them.
Okay so, beginning. The female relationships in RK’s books are super shallow. Especially in comparison to the male friendships. Like, look at Cole and Aiden from the RES. They’ve got the parallels sort of dynamics. Cole is a borderline sociopath/psychopath just as Aiden is except he’s more secretive about it and Aiden is the literal embodiment of being an asshole on the outside. They have a compelling hate relationship and yet maintain a friendship (begrudgingly). Like, hell, they’ve got interactions that show off their dynamics that even go up decades when their kids are full grown (EliAva).
While the female relationships there is nothing to be really said. Like, Elsa and Kimberly. Yeah, they’re friends. Yeah, they be there for each other. Yeah. That’s it. Literally. That’s it. Maybe it’s just me and the need to always have chaos and shit but like. This is a story, isn’t having chaos bringing in more depth to the story? Making it more interesting? Problems in things make the things MORE COMPELLING.
Silver and Elsa’s whole shtick was so so good, but portrayed terribly juvenile. It’s not the worst thing so don’t come jumping to rip off my dick but I’m saying they had a lot of potential to be better friends than Kimberly, and Elsa cause. Imagine your enemy, not enemy, but someone who makes life hard for you, and you see them for their humanness and what they truly are. You guys may hate each other or despise each other but you see them less as someone to hate and more as someone to understand. Perhaps through this understanding you can find friendship.
Teal and Silver’s whole thing was interesting to. That I can justify and say that was done right to its best ability. Like, Silver and Teal using each other’s love interests for their own purposes? Sign me up, use me too.
Either way, Kimberly and Elsa are dry, maybe that’s all they are. Idk, perhaps to add more depth to their friendship we could have Kimberly being jealous and admiring Elsa for her boldness early on, and then acting differently to try and imitate her later on when she rid of her fat but not her insecurity. While we have Elsa out here, worrying for Kimberly, pointing out all the things she’s doing not as bold but as dangerous and toxic to herself and those she could possibly get in danger. Then Kimberly could claim Elsa is jealous etc etc, make the situation ugly and complicated. It won’t kill you but when the girls resolve it, trust me, their friendship and bond is stronger.
And if I hear people coming to me and being like “tHiS iS a RoMANCe GenRE nOT a SlIcE of LiFe or FrIENDshIp GenRe” THEN TELL ME WHY THE MALE RELATIONSHIPS ARE SO MUCH MORE INTERESTING. WHY HAVE ROOM FOR THAT BUT NOT THE GIRLS?????
Cecily and Ava are fine, I can eat that. There’s underlying problems there waiting to wake up I just need them to be done well.
Ava and Annika’s issues were *chefs kiss* delicious. Ava threatening Annika because of Creighton. Ava blatantly showing her bias and side, basically saying she would choose Creighton over Annika if it ever came to. I loved that. I loved it so much I ATE IT. But I just wish we got to see more of it, the after effects of it. I don’t remember if they ever did but I wanted to see and read about the apology, and the sentiments of Ava to Annika and Annika to Ava. Would it be so hard? If we got to see Ava explaining her side to Annika and yet apologizing because it was brash and stupid to throw away her friendship because Creighton was also in the wrong for doing that to Annika? Yet Annika also being sorry and understanding of why Ava cares so much.
I’m saying it rn Book of Pain is my least favorite of the five. Another rant coming on that next time. Stay tuned.
Then there’s the giant ass glaring hole that is Glyndon King. Miss Girl never talks to her friends in her book. The Foursome was a lie, it’s a threesome considering the fact she’s NEVER THERE. Like I know these books are romance based but JESUS, can we also have some more complicated and depth into the other aspects of a dark romance based story? Would it not make the romance more delicious?
I know she’s introverted but at this point like… girl being introverted is your only personality trait. Which makes me so sad because GOM was one of my favorites and Glyndon is one of my favorites.
Mia and Maya had a good relationship, I say, the only thing to improve was the portrayal of it. I like their deep rooted and twin connection. Maya is a bitch but she’s Mia’s bitch. She’s family so Mia loves her because of it, despite all of Maya’s glaring flaws. Then it all falls apart when Mia finds out the secret. Isn’t that delicious? I mean a confusing betrayal sure. Like I don’t get why Mia was mad at Maya for being the cause of her trauma and muteness, I mean, wouldn’t it make more sense for her to want to find out why too? Mia is less emotional more methodical but still emotional especially when it comes to Landon but we can use that explanation for the other girls too which will come up in a rant about poor writing of characters.
Back to Mia and Maya, their relationship is good. It’s got the ups and downs and if only we got to see the downs through it but eh, I’ll take what I can get.
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