honestly i love how technically true but utterly misleading a lot of the promotional material for Smoke/Rivages is. like I am sure we are all familiar with the english edition blurb:
"protect his love" being presented as the goal sets you up to root for him and Adam staying together. it puts you into Jules' mindset so that you are less likely to see too clearly too early on that this is never going to work. also the funniest thing is that he does end up "protecting his love and proving his loyalty", as they put it, it's just. it's bad. it's bad that he did that. we were all hoping he wouldn't do that.
and then we have this banger from the publisher Dargaud's pride month post:
"In the Chicago of the 30s, Jules, a young Italian immigrant, climbs the ranks of the local mafia, all while living out a secret and dangerous love story with a powerful mob boss."
"love story" is craaaazy. but i've made that post, that's not what i'm here to talk about. I'm here because this framing specifically makes it sound like your good ol' mafia romance. "secret and dangerous" oh so like, bad boy forbidden romance type story? no he threatens to shoot him if anyone finds out. like yeah i guess that does make it secret and dangerous but you KNOW that's not the impression you're giving. which of course is an excellent marketing tactic because it draws you in expecting one type of story, which the narrative itself wants you to mistake it for, and that ensures the maximal effectiveness of the twist.
and then there's the specific way they frame Eufrasio like here is the official blurb on Dargaud's website:
"crosses paths with Eufrasio, an impulsive mafioso who pulls him into a game that has become uncontrollable and dangerous, especially as the FBI begins taking a close interest in their affairs..."
look he was neck deep in the game long before Eufrasio. by the time Eufrasio showed up he was actively digging himself further into the game. the way this is framed naturally makes Eufrasio look like a bad influence and associates the situation spiralling out of control and the Feds closing in with Eufrasio when like. that's Adam's fault. but like i can't even call this innaccurate because even within the book itself, Jules paints Eufrasio as a bad influence on him, it's just a lot more subtle and therefore harder to argue against
anyways the english version really lays it on thick.
they get three words to describe him and they use violent as one of them. Jules already being established as being with Adam earlier in the blurb, the descriptor of "handsome" also implies an association with treachery and temptation. "insists that Adam is holding Jules back" makes him sound a lot pushier than he is. I mean, does he ever even do it outright? mostly we see Adam insisting that Eufrasio is a problem. so this primes you to expect a love corner situation where one of the love interests is trying to distance Jules from the other, but it implies this of the wrong person. once again, nothing they say here is technically untrue, it's just that they are extremely selective about what they tell you, so that you don't suspect a thing of Adam until it's too late.
i talked to Anaïs about this and she said that this was entirely the marketing departments' doing and she had basically no input, which i suppose makes sense; i would have a hard time willfully misrepresenting my story like this ahaha. but it does work incredibly well, and gives you a sense of all the themes without giving away the plot. very impressive stuff but also utterly hilarious to look back on after you've read the story
