Strap in, this is a long one.

I'm a huge fan of RPGmaker games, especially the more disturbing kind, like Fear&Hunger for example. Whenever I go to look for recs online (like I played the bajillion ones on my whishlist) I come across games that are often described as "its so so so good, you just have to sit trough the graphic rape fetish scenes, but I swear, its worth it!" If you are in the community you will know the ones like LonaRPG, Blacksouls etc.

Well this is basically it in book form. There is a running joke in the writing community that "The most important rule of worldbuilding is the author's thiny veiled fetish". Pacat took this as a honest word of advice, and (kinda??) pulled it of.

I pretty much hated the first 50%, and my main tought was that this book is the proof that fujoshis need to remain quaranteened to AO3 and Tumblr without any acces to the tradpub world. Pacat had the ability to approach every single sensitive topic that appeared in the book (so like, everything ever) with the gentleness of a CAT bulldozer. The first ~100 pages is the main character being abused sexually, physically and verbally in a smorgasbord of ways. I even made a list for my friend just so I can asses what this poor bloke goes trough in a few chapters. I'm not leaving my list here, since if you are reading a spoilered review, I'm gonna assume your eyes have been blessed with the same mental imgery as mine while reading. By the time I've reached the scene with Ancel, my main tought was just "can we nuke this whole court?" All of Damens suffering is pointless, and the book is not trying to make a point about it, its just "hey wouldn't it be fucked up if this also happened?" Damen's character doesn't change in any way during his torment, he only shows the signs of slight discomfort sometimes. I really wanted to see some of the effects it all takes on his mental state, but he pretty much just rolled with everything and thats it.

After that however the actual good part of the plot starts to pick up, and the story becomes a bit more interesting. There were some very interesting characters, especially Nicaise who feels like the most complex character out of the bunch, alongside Laurent, but I currently really hate his sadistic second hand-rapist ass (does this word exist? It does now, idk how to explain "didn't rape anyone, but instructed other characters to do so" in any better way) and he better have a really good redemption arc to make me give a single fuck about his wellbeing. I know he will become Damen's love interest, so Pacat better come up with something great and not just go along the likes of "ohh, he was abused as a child, so now he is evilll!!🥺🥺 he can't help it!!🥺🥺" I have high expectations, she better not ruin it with some mediocore sob-story.

The worldbuilding is actually pretty interesting, I haven't really read fantasies (especially low fantasies) set in worlds inspired by Ancient Greece and what I assume are Germanics, Goths or some kind of Saxons. I wish we learned more about the cultures, aside from their ways of suckin 'n fuckin. Hopefully this gets solved in the next part.

All in all, if you can stomach around 100 pages of the worst things happening to someone in graphic details written in a very horny way, you might end up with a story you like. My main problem was not that extreme content was there, it was more how it was treated. I'm not the type of guy who goes into extreme media and then complains that its extreme. So yeah, after you get past the torture porn (in the most literal sense) you'll get to read a very promising setup to a much larger story.

Sorry for my English, it isn't my first language, and I'm also kinda stupid and dunno how to phrase things well.