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A review by iam
When the Third Moon Rises by Howl Avery
2.0
This could have been fun, but wasn't.
There were some cool ideas for the aliens, but it was all surface level and refused to add any depth or put any more than surface thoughts into the worldbuilding.
There was no emotional investment, the characters couldn't even talk for 90% of the book other than yes/no questions only one of them could ask, and they had bascially no interactions other than the initial rape (and it absolutely was rape, even if the main character convinces himself otherwise) and the non-stop cuddling afterwards.
Rex was an incredibly passive main character. He gets abducted, sold, raped, and then just lays around in bed getting cuddled and waited on by aliens. At no point does he really question anything. I usually don't mind characters that go along with the bad hands they have been dealt and try to make the best of it, I usually even really like such charactes, but Rex truly did nothing. He was such a blank.
The romance was pretty much non-existent. It, again, is based on the alien buying and raping Rex and laying eggs in him and I guess then cuddling him???
There's also the whole thing of Rex insisting he has free will, because after he finds out about the eggs WEEKS after it happened the alien offers him an abortion if he really wants it. Nevermind that he wasn't even asked for consent at any point before. There even is a whole scene at the end about Rex making a speech about how he is chosing all this. It felt bizarre.
The one thing I liked was some ideas about the aliens and their communication with light impulses on their skin. Aside from the lack of worldbuilding, this was however also ruined by the added telepathy they have.
For anyone who wants to read a well executed alien romance featuring tropes of alien abduction, tentacles, egg laying, cute alien babies, language barrier/cultural misunderstandings and such, I highly recommend to read Earth Fathers are Weird instead.
There were some cool ideas for the aliens, but it was all surface level and refused to add any depth or put any more than surface thoughts into the worldbuilding.
There was no emotional investment, the characters couldn't even talk for 90% of the book other than yes/no questions only one of them could ask, and they had bascially no interactions other than the initial rape (and it absolutely was rape, even if the main character convinces himself otherwise) and the non-stop cuddling afterwards.
Rex was an incredibly passive main character. He gets abducted, sold, raped, and then just lays around in bed getting cuddled and waited on by aliens. At no point does he really question anything. I usually don't mind characters that go along with the bad hands they have been dealt and try to make the best of it, I usually even really like such charactes, but Rex truly did nothing. He was such a blank.
The romance was pretty much non-existent. It, again, is based on the alien buying and raping Rex and laying eggs in him and I guess then cuddling him???
There's also the whole thing of Rex insisting he has free will, because after he finds out about the eggs WEEKS after it happened the alien offers him an abortion if he really wants it. Nevermind that he wasn't even asked for consent at any point before. There even is a whole scene at the end about Rex making a speech about how he is chosing all this. It felt bizarre.
The one thing I liked was some ideas about the aliens and their communication with light impulses on their skin. Aside from the lack of worldbuilding, this was however also ruined by the added telepathy they have.
For anyone who wants to read a well executed alien romance featuring tropes of alien abduction, tentacles, egg laying, cute alien babies, language barrier/cultural misunderstandings and such, I highly recommend to read Earth Fathers are Weird instead.