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A review by stefhyena
Blood Wyne by Yasmine Galenorn
2.0
I suspect my mistake was coming in at book 9. It’s more or a paranormal soap-opera by now than anything else. I enjoyed a few things about it.
1. The sex positivity was ACTUALLY revolutionary not just same old tired porn. There was a context that made the focus on sex relevant and that context was bringing in themes like characters being bisexual and polyamorous admittedly in limited, stereotypical ways but nevertheless these are things that do not appear in books often enough.
2. The sexuality in the book was focussed on female desire. Menolly and Nerissa typify this in a way but there was also Camille and her three husbands and attraction to others. There was no slut-shaming in portraying voracious and joyful female desire and the fact that it could be complicated and directed at more than one person. This was a definitely progressive move.
3. A very persistent theme in the portrayal of sexuality was consent. Consent was both taken for granted as the foundation for any good encounter and explicitly mentioned many times. Consent and desire were shown to be intertwined and non-consensual sex was portrayed as disordered. I was cheering for all this…it needs to be done a LOT more.
Having said all that, I found Roman a problematic character for a number of reasons. Firstly Menolly’s sex with him is portrayed as her “needing a man” (ie phallocentric “naturalness” to a woman’s sexuality) a point of view Nerissa can completely relate to (because hey who doesn’t “need” a dick? Secondly the classism, the uncomplicated ease we are meant to feel at this vampire regency (a form of bullying) comes to a head on p286 where there is one of the most explicitly classist statements I have ever read (you can’t educate a person to have “class” it is just an inborn trait of the aristocracy). This is a historically ridiculous suggestion, and I do realise that this is a fantasy story but it’s insultingly ridiculous to present that view of class untroubled by facts.
Then there is the way that Roman gradually overshadows Nerissa in the story, hijacks Menolly and controls her. By the very last page she is really just Roman’s bitch which undoes a lot of the good liberative work of the earlier chapters (and probably the earlier novels). Early on she is good on boundaries, won’t let him buy her clothes and sets her own agenda but by the end of the book Nerissa is an irrelevant background figure (more hairdresser than girlfriend) and Menolly is sparkling on the arm of a control freak.
Added to the problem of Roman is a question about the title of the book. Yeah I get that Blood Wyne is Roman’s mother and a very powerful vampire but she does not actually appear in the book. A more accurate title would be “Son of blood wyne” or something completely different. There seemed to be some sort of backhanded mother-hatred flowing through the book as an underground sub-theme.
The plot itself was indifferent. The writing was not offensively bad but didn’t blow me away. This was much better than many paranormal books I have read, but not good enough for me to seek out more of the series. Nevertheless it was refreshing to have some woman-woman romance and other ways of stirring the pot and I can’t stress enough how good the emphasis on consent was.
1. The sex positivity was ACTUALLY revolutionary not just same old tired porn. There was a context that made the focus on sex relevant and that context was bringing in themes like characters being bisexual and polyamorous admittedly in limited, stereotypical ways but nevertheless these are things that do not appear in books often enough.
2. The sexuality in the book was focussed on female desire. Menolly and Nerissa typify this in a way but there was also Camille and her three husbands and attraction to others. There was no slut-shaming in portraying voracious and joyful female desire and the fact that it could be complicated and directed at more than one person. This was a definitely progressive move.
3. A very persistent theme in the portrayal of sexuality was consent. Consent was both taken for granted as the foundation for any good encounter and explicitly mentioned many times. Consent and desire were shown to be intertwined and non-consensual sex was portrayed as disordered. I was cheering for all this…it needs to be done a LOT more.
Having said all that, I found Roman a problematic character for a number of reasons. Firstly Menolly’s sex with him is portrayed as her “needing a man” (ie phallocentric “naturalness” to a woman’s sexuality) a point of view Nerissa can completely relate to (because hey who doesn’t “need” a dick? Secondly the classism, the uncomplicated ease we are meant to feel at this vampire regency (a form of bullying) comes to a head on p286 where there is one of the most explicitly classist statements I have ever read (you can’t educate a person to have “class” it is just an inborn trait of the aristocracy). This is a historically ridiculous suggestion, and I do realise that this is a fantasy story but it’s insultingly ridiculous to present that view of class untroubled by facts.
Then there is the way that Roman gradually overshadows Nerissa in the story, hijacks Menolly and controls her. By the very last page she is really just Roman’s bitch which undoes a lot of the good liberative work of the earlier chapters (and probably the earlier novels). Early on she is good on boundaries, won’t let him buy her clothes and sets her own agenda but by the end of the book Nerissa is an irrelevant background figure (more hairdresser than girlfriend) and Menolly is sparkling on the arm of a control freak.
Added to the problem of Roman is a question about the title of the book. Yeah I get that Blood Wyne is Roman’s mother and a very powerful vampire but she does not actually appear in the book. A more accurate title would be “Son of blood wyne” or something completely different. There seemed to be some sort of backhanded mother-hatred flowing through the book as an underground sub-theme.
The plot itself was indifferent. The writing was not offensively bad but didn’t blow me away. This was much better than many paranormal books I have read, but not good enough for me to seek out more of the series. Nevertheless it was refreshing to have some woman-woman romance and other ways of stirring the pot and I can’t stress enough how good the emphasis on consent was.