A review by plumeriade
The Island of Excess Love by Francesca Lia Block

1.0

i couldn't give this 1 star because i really, really love how FLB writes. it's good regardless of how much i hate the actual story, lmao.

edit: i slept on it and this homophobic, transphobic, rape-apologist mess is a 1 star.

i can't get over what the message of this sequel is. i'm furious honestly.

Spoiler

basically, Pen is raped (she is literally magic-enchanted and drunk, and a man has sex with her--and i can't remember if she specifically identifies as anything in the first book but RIGHT BEFORE this happens she says she's never desired a [cis] man before, and her mind protests that she's betraying Hex but this man verbally gets inside her head and tells her they're meant to be together, she's REALLY CLEARLY being magically manipulated). but it's not treated like that-- first of all the sex is implicitly described as being better than what she had with Hex. and it's treated as a dumb mistake she made that hurts her boyfriend and she apologizes so much for it and it essentially breaks them up and i'm just so mad. OH AND did i mention she gets pregnant from that and there's no question about whether or not she keeps the baby? not even a split second "hm this guy manipulated me and now i'm pregnant and this child is going to come into a world where giants eat people, maybe i should consider not having it"?

wtf, FLB?!