Reviews with content warning for Toxic relationship - Captive Prince

Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

Captive Prince by C.S. Pacat

41 reviews

dragonbloom's review against another edition

medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

0.75

This is a controversial book. After years of hearing from other people what I should think of the book, I decided to form my own opinion.

I hated it.

Fundamentally, I feel it is too horny to be an adventure story, but not horny enough to be erotica. My issues with the plot only compound it.

Laurent, our love interest, is gifted Damen as a sex slave. The court he is surrounded with is hedonistic and sexual, with courtiers regularly having sex in public.

Despite this, there is only one actual sex scene,

when Laurent has another sex slave force oral on a tied up Damen.

If you are looking for some dark erotica, perhaps find it elsewhere, this is lacking in sex.

Despite ordering Damen’s abuse at the hands of his servants,

Laurent never personally lays hands on him.

I can only assume, as

we are supposed to find him more forgivable than if he had personally beaten and raped Damen. I do not. Rape fetish fiction is not my thing, but I understand people like it. However, it would be nice if we didn’t pretend the abuser is not an abuser, as he abuses by proxy.

I found the story predictable. On several occasions, the chapter would end with Laurent dramatically informing the ever oblivious Damen something I had guessed chapters ago, much to Damen’s shock. In these moments, he comes off, not unfamiliar with the venomous court of a foreign land, but stupid.

The regent’s, who’s name escapes me, “pet”,

a 13 year old boy, plotline, feels a lazy effort to make Laurent look better in comparison to his uncle. “Oh, sure, he’s a violent abuser, but look! He’s not a child molester!” I have not read further, but I suspect Laurent was molested by him also. Just a guess.

Regardless, the pedophilia is not romanticised, but is not handled with the sensitivity such a… Well, sensitive, topic demands.

The only thing I can give the book credit for is consistent characterisation, and good use of showing instead of telling.

If you like slow burn, abusive noncon fanfiction, this is probably the book for you. For me? God, no.

Content Warnings

diana_raquel's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

[The following review contains descriptions of content warnings that can be triggering and spoilers. Those descriptions are hidden as spoilers.]

“A golden prince was easy to love if you did not have to watch him picking wings off flies.”

Around 2018-2019, I was looking for fantasy series that would have LGBTQIA+ characters and ended up finding this trilogy. I remember that, at the time, I started reading and was immediately hooked. Captive Prince was the book that made me love Pacat but also explore less-known authors. So, when I finally got my hands on physical copies of this trilogy, I decided to read it again. And although I knew what was going to happen, I found that I still loved this trilogy as a whole.

However, over the years, I also read a lot of negative reviews about this trilogy, especially about this book. And although I understand part of the backlash, there was this particular recurring argument that never made much sense to me, and lead me to think that the person using that argument only read the first book without giving the benefit of the doubt and continue reading. Which is totally fair - I also have abandoned series that I didn't like. What I didn't understand was that even when other people would defend the book and the trilogy as a whole, the first person would accuse the other of being a horrible person for not thinking that the trilogy was worthless trash with no value. So allow me to defend this book and this trilogy.

Make no mistake, this book is what people would call "problematic". It's a really hard reading, full of themes that can be triggering, such as slavery, rape, sexual harassment, pedophilia, physical and emotional violence, torture, etc. It's really bad. I completely understand why people may dislike/hate the book and why it can be triggering. I'm in no way dismissing that. What I don't understand is why some people say that the book romanticizes these elements, because the book never romanticizes these elements.

Look, you are entitled to your opinion, and I will respect it, however, in my opinion, just because a book contains darker and horrible elements, doesn't mean that the book is problematic. Just because this book contains horrible elements that doesn't mean that it romanticizes those elements. Yes, slavery and rape are accepted parts of the culture of Vere, however, the book never gives the impression that this is in any way acceptable. Yes, Laurent also takes part in this, however, we later discover that this is a way to revenge his brother's death (it doesn't excuse his actions but it does provide some needed context). And don't even get me started on Damen. Yes, he is a victim. And, no, nothing that happens to him in this book is in any way excusable. However, he isn't a damsel in distress with Stockholm syndrome (side note: Stockholm syndrome isn't considered a mental disorder, so can we stop it using it?). He never accepts what's happening to him and he resists every step of the way.

I think that when using this argument people forget that the slave culture is also a part of Akielos culture (Damen's country) (although there are differences, it's still a slave culture). And this is important. Although Laurent is against any type or form of slavery, Damen isn't because he sees the culture of Akielos as a more acceptable form of slavery. However, after being subjected to slavery, Damen starts to see that his own culture isn't acceptable. That's why this book is so hard to read. The main character has to experience slavery and the violence that comes with it to understand that no form of slavery is acceptable. At its core, this is a story about dismantling power structures and understanding why those power structures have to be dismantled.

Another argument used to prove the "romanticization" of this book is that, from the first chapter, is clear that Laurent and Damen are endgame. And yes, they are. However, it should be mentioned that they are mortal enemies, from enemy countries (yes, it's very Shakespeare, I know), and their relationship is one of hate, at first. However, the romanticization of their relationship only starts when they start to trust each other. With time, Damen is no longer Laurent's slave, he is a friend, and that's when feelings start to appear.

So, as a first book, this is quite a difficult book, due to its subject matter (that's why I decided to give it a 3 stars rating). However, it's a well-structured book, with well-developed characters and an intriguing plot. The pacing is perfect and the narrative flows in a very natural way. I guess that the only thing that I ask is this: if you are willing to read this book (and have read the content warnings list- seriously, do it), please, give this book the benefit of the doubt to this book and read the second one. I promise that its worth it.

Content Warnings

tangerinetea's review against another edition

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adventurous dark fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

Content Warnings

johnnytest's review against another edition

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dark fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.0

gross tbh, feels like torture porn most of the time and rape the rest

Content Warnings

eleanorrae's review against another edition

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Read all the trigger and content warnings. Then remember that was all before chapter three.

Content Warnings

mspilesofpaper's review against another edition

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dark medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

Pinterest sold me the book as enemies-to-lovers with a gay/bi couple. I was aware that Damen would be a slave but everyone praised it as beautiful romance.

It isn’t. It is a glorification of sexual violence. Endless abuse (mental and physical) as well as rape. Also: paedology since the boy was a sex slave since he was 10/11. The fact that the sex slaves in two kingdoms give up their free will (WHICH IS WHAT MAKES US HUMAN!) for a life in luxury is sickening. The more demure and submissive they are, the higher their worth. Like wtf? W t f.

I don’t understand how a publisher allowed this book to be printed because the editor should have told the author a strict „no“. There’s no plot, no world-building, no character development. It’s just written glorification of sexual violence and I feel utterly sick.

Content Warnings

5aru's review against another edition

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challenging dark sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Content Warnings

20sidedbi's review against another edition

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dark tense slow-paced

Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

0.25

This book is sexual violence posing as plot.

Content Warnings

ailsaod's review against another edition

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challenging dark fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Haha I read this in a single sitting! I have been curious about this book for a while as I was drawn to the secret identity aspect and the controversy about whether this series is problematic. All the reviews I've seen here are either saying this book is disgusting or romantic but I personally found it very t e n s e. The setting is extremely messed up (going into it I had no idea just how messed up it was going to be and I cannot stress enough that it gets a bit grim in places) but all the depravity allows for especially convoluted court dynamics and when you realise certain characters' motivations all I could think was OH NO! I'm almost left wondering if Pacat wrote this purely so they could write the courtly intrigue.

The interactions between Damen and Laurent are interesting as while I can tell from a mile off that they are going to eventually have a romance from what kind of story this is there was barely any hints at that in the whole book and instead the focus is on how much they hate each other and Laurent being horrible in the strangest of ways. Everyone in this story is to some degree awful - even Damen, who is much more sympathetic than everyone else because we see exactly what he is thinking has moments that when you have the whole context are not great. I really liked how Pacat turned everything on it's head in the third act and I look forward to reading book 2!

Content Warnings

alb_pa's review against another edition

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adventurous dark tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? N/A
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

1.75

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