oh god yes okay (warning, ima be a little bit of a hater and a little bit of a bitch)
genuinely the biggest difference is that the bad writing is switched for good acting, and it changes both characters so much. The core story is the same and quite faithful adaptation, but the pacing is a little different. As an example, the kiss on the vegas rooftop happens a lot later in the book.
the writing is very fan fiction like, and I don’t dislike fanfiction, but it’s an entirely different genre to a published novel, mainly because fanfiction exists in the context of a canon. In writing fanfiction you don’t have to create deep characters with meaningful stories, because the preestablished canon altered did. You can say „this is blorbo bleepus from your favourite show“ and you go „oh I know blorbo bleepus! I know what he’s like and his backstory, so you don’t have to explain that to me anymore! :)“ and it’s fine if fanfic blorbo bleepus is written as a more shallow character because you know how he’s like in canon, and all the blanks and details just fill each other in your head. The blorbo bleepus that’s a real character with real depth already exists, and it’s not the fanfic authors responsibility to build that character anymore. And I think that’s my problem with published fanfiction and the fanfiction-ication of publishing, it’s that most fanfiction only works with the canon in mind. Reading heated rivalry genuinely feels like reading a fanfiction to a canon source material that you don’t know, which makes the characters extremely flat and shallow. Now, shallow characters that aren’t explored deeply are a thing that can serve the narrative positively, but you can tell that that’s not the purpose in this book. Especially because it’s a third person all knowing narrative book, which means you as the reader know the characters feelings and desires, but they are not actually written as stand alone characters, but as a vessel for these thoughts and actions. The only thing we know about these people is their basic general attitude (grumpy, mean, kind, ect),the way they look, their names, that they play hockey, and basic family dynamics (Ilya parents bad, Shane parents nice). That’s all. Another thing is the time skips: this works a lot better in the show than the book. There’s like a time skip for months every three pages, and between these months, the characters simply stop existing. We have no idea how they spend that time, what events they go through, how they change, ect. Which leads to them not changing or growing at all. And I get why they wrote it like that, they wanted to focus on the relationship between the characters, but that’s like, really offsetting to read, because so much context from their lives is missing, which is another thing that makes them not feel like real characters.
Ilya is changed a lot in the show, I’m really subtle ways, that make him so much more likeable and enjoyable. Mainly because of small changes in the scripts and the amazing acting. Book Ilya is an asshole from day one, and nobody likes him. Which, interesting dynamic! If it was written well. Show Ilya is just an ambitious teenager, maybe a bit cocky and blunt and rude and sure of himself, but not actively mean or trying to hurt anyone. And it’s not that I hate assholes, but he stays an asshole for a really long time, and you can tell that the author was trying to change that, but didn’t succeed, because they cannot write meaningful dialogue or monlogoue if someone held a gun to their face. Not even descriptions of characters feelings or expressions are well done. harsh I know, and it might have improved in their other books, but it is like that here. The major changes in the script are most importantm, and I’m gonna try to list as many as possible. while he tells Shane about Sasha (his coaches son who stays unnamed in the book) briefly, they don’t meet again in Russia, and it doesn’t show their dynamic. In the show their meeting shows the viewer that he is actually scared to be caught with him in Russia, that while he likes trouble , he knows how seriously dangergous it would be for them in Russia. it shows that he cares about that, which helps to further deepens and explains his relationship to his country. Secondly, the phone call. When his dad dies and then call, he talks in Russian to Shane. This happens in the book, but the chapter focuses on Shane, and Ilya never expands on what he said so we never get to know what he actually said. While in the show, it’s one of the first moments that let him be vulnerable, that lets him show his struggles and that he actually cares, which is the most important. We don’t see book Ilya care like, ever, even in the chapters that are focused on him and his pov. It also shows the dynamic to his family, how he feels that no one actually wants him there, how he regrets not being with his father more, how his brother keeps pushing for money, how Swetlana is the only one who actually likes him there. While book Ilya is just upset that he has to pay for the funeral. I feel like especially this change does so much for his character from the watchers perspective, because yeah, he’s scared to say that to Shane directly, especially the “I don’t love her like I love you” part, but the watcher knows, because of the magic of subtitles. It lets us know he cares, which the book completely lacks. The next thing is the scene where Shane tries to talk about their feelings. And Ilya tells him that it’s not anything and can’t be, and they hug on the bed. I hated that scene in the book. I believe it’s from his pov but we get none of his feelings in this situation. He’s just being an asshole who tells Shane he doesn’t want him and doesn’t elaborate, neither to him or the reader. There’s no connection to his family or his fear of Russia. In the show, you can see how badly it hurt him to say that, and you can tell that he didn’t really mean it, and mostly you can tell that he’s scared. And more importantly, Shane can tell too. Shane knows in that moment why Ilya says these things, and what he actually means, and the hug is him proving he understands what he’s saying without saying it. I honestly don’t remember if they hug in the book, but I think not. If I remember correctly Shane just leaves hurt, because Ilya just told him there’s nothing between them, without the underlying message of his fear in the show. Those things are really little but do so much to make him a likeable character. So so much. Again, bad writing vs good acting.
alrighttt next section, this one pisses me off especially as a queer guy. It is very obviously for straight (women) people by straight (women) people. You can tell the most in how the characters are described. This is a thing that bothers me a lot in a lot of queer books and never sits right with me. Ilya is described using adjectives such as muscular, handsome, rugged, tall, experienced, outgoing, blunt, generally things you associate with stereotypical masculinity. Nothing wrong with that! Shane is described by things like, pretty, doll like, cute, short, shy, inexperienced, beautiful. And on a surface level, I have nothing agains that. Let a guy be stereotypically feminine for all I care. But my problem is is how obvious it is which one is the female reader insert character, especially because Shane also bottoms. It is jarringly obvious that Shane is “the girl” of the two. Especially confusing because they do the same sports, they should be both the same amount of muscular and rugged, they literally do the same training and have the same body type? But no, Shane’s muscles are barely ever mentioned, while Ilyas are every five seconds. And again, I don’t have anything agains more femme guys, femme gay guys or whatever. But I genuinely believe that you cannot write a queer romance story by writing a straight one and changing one persons gender. Not because men and women are inherently different, but because queer relationships come with inherently different struggles and feelings than straight ones. That’s a hill I’m dying on, that straight women writing these books love to ignore. Because at its core, it’s still a straight romance.
If you wonder if your yaoi (same sex relationship sucks, ask yourself, would the story change in any way if we switch one persons gender? Would it still make sense? And if the answer is no, the story would basically stay the same, then your yaoi fucking sucks!
The change that made me like the show is that both of them get to be boys. Maybe not extremely stereotypically masculine boys, and yeah, femme gay men exist and they’re great and I love them, but sometimes men just like men like them. Not a female insert character. They get to be boys in love, emphasis on boys, and gay books written by straight people never really work that way, at least I haven’t read one. Maybe it’s on purpose so female readers have one character to relate to and one to thirst after, maybe it’s because straight writers can’t put themselves in the shoes of the gay experience outside of heteronormative stereotypes. I don’t know. I want my gay boys to be in love with gay boys and not the warped perspective of a straight women. And I’m sick of straight people writing queer romance like that.
I just got home from an 8h work day where I got to spend 8 hours thinking about yaoi so I have a lot to say lol. I hope it’s not too deranged and understandable. I thought about it a lot and I actually like the show. And I want to set the book on fire.
thanks for listening/reading!
