incoherent bitter ranting below i’m still enjoying this read but im also tired…
forgot how much i hate katelina’s storyline…the thing is in isolation she’s a complex, smart and competent character but there’s a pattern in dunnett where smart and competent women are outsmarted by the hypercompetent hero (so Nicholas/Francis) to show how incredible he is. And that in itself is fine! I wouldn’t be reading dunnett if i didn’t want a hypercompetent hero. but it’s just gross when every single woman (it feels like) they come across is bested by them not just intellectually but sexually - by seduction not assault obviously, but there’s a weird element of ‘putting them in there place sexily’ which someone ( @stripedroseandsketchpads ? or on one of your posts maybe?) brought up in context with joleta and it just grosses me out…i just read the scene where nicholas and katelina sleep together for the first time and apart from her whole arc of course just furthering his development vis a vis simon and you know, dinnett’s general as much trauma as possible for her heroes, it’s such a weird scene where he’s like oh…she’s been arrogant and superior to me but now i guess i have to sleep with her out of pity because she thinks she’s unattractive…just grosses me out and i know it’s a ridiculous thing to complain about in a series where romance is such a huge thing but i’d be happier if there was none bc so much of it is so gross…not to even get into the vaguely implied ‘nicholas is so good at sex because he was sexually abused as a child’ thing??? which to be fair it’s been a LONG time since i read that part so maybe that wasn’t intended at all but…yeah im really really enjoying this reread but. i’d love to read an arc where nicholas outsmarts a woman but she’s not simultaneously overcome by his sexual power. it’d be nice.
