Best Contemporary Novel (3° place): That’s What Brothers Do… by Derekica Snake

[reviews_and_ramblings]

This is not a simple book to like; it goes too much against the ordinary rules to leave bland feelings on readers. I think that, in the end, you love or hate it, but you can’t be in the middle. One of the first reactions is probably to think that it’s not possible, that it’s not real, mainly since the good doesn’t win over the evil… but, truth be told, how many time does it happens in the real world? Actually it’s more fairy-tale like to think that there will be always a positive resolution of the story, since in reality that seldom happens.

What probably will create more trouble to the reader is the relationship between Brant and Wilber; at first the reader thinks that Brant is the victim of Wilber, and he is probably right. Brant was a 14 years old boy who offered himself in lieu of his father’s debts; the alternative was for one of his four sisters to do that, and the older of them was 12 years old. So no, that was not a choice, and in the end, protect your sisters is what a brother do. Wilber was the man to whom Brant offered himself, he was the man who raped him and videotaped it to sell it to the porn movie industry. That was enough reason for Wilber to be the villain and to make him the antithesis of the romance hero; but if the reader can overcome the issue of Brant’s age (and no, usually he can’t), and the non-con sex (and again, he can’t), there was a slight chance for Wilber to become a romance hero: in the pink glasses perspective of the romance reader, if Wilber took good care of Brant, making him his lover, well, maybe… and instead no, the first scene we read is about a now 24 years old Brant who is first sold to a customer more or less how you would sell a doll without soul, and then it’s raped again by Wilber. It was almost enough for me to stop the book right there, but there was a factor that kept me from it and pushed me to read more: Brant has an almost visceral attachment to Wilber, he considers Wilber all his world, and when he is near the moment when he can “gain” his freedom, he is put in front of a choice, continuing to be Wilber’s lover (no more a whore, now he will be Wilber’s boy toy) and so paying for all his sisters’ needs, or be free to go away. Again, the classical romance hero would probably choose the freedom, he would convince himself that he can provide for his sisters even without using his body, but I think that Brant’s decision to stay with Wilber is not only lead by his desire to provide for his sisters, but also from his fear to be alone, to break that bond with Wilber that now it’s his only security, the only thing he knows. Brant was subjected to an imprinting, when he was in that moment in life when usually young men learn how to be independent and how to recognize their sexuality, Brant instead knew only Wilber, and now everything is related to him.

Little by little the reader starts to see Wilber in two different ways: from Brant’s perspective, and so he sees the lover and that side of Wilber that makes him the focus of all Brant’s life, and from an outside perspective, that makes the reader realize that Wilber had no choice. In a twisted way, Wilber did the only thing he could to protect Brant. The author is so good that in the end, the reader starts to feel for Wilber, starts to understand this twisted world. And the author is little by little preparing the reader to accept the end of this novel, that is far from being ordinary, and that again pushes the boundaries of romance, to probably fit it more on reality. There is no Black and White perspective here, there is no right and wrong, it all depends on the perspective you are seeing things, and you can understand it only if you admit that there are shades of grey in between. Be aware of that you choose to try this book, and be aware of what I said before, you can love or hate it, both with all your heart.



http://www.lulu.com/content/paperback-book/thats-what-brothers-do/2255859

Reading List:

http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bottom.php?tag=reading list&view=elisa.rolle


Cover Art by Rianti

Comments

[girlofavalon.livejournal.com]

Erm, although I wrinkled my nose at first when reading your review, sounds like a book I would like... Will see.

[elisa-rolle.livejournal.com]

Be aware, as I said, it's not at all a simple book. And it's a self-published book, so there are some typos, but the story is enough to make up for them.

There is also a thing I noticed: the feelings was of a story set in a East world, like Japan, but instead it's a Western society... I think that some of the behavior in it would have been more believable if the story was set in Japan.