Customer Reviews

The Lonely Egotist (Yaoi novel)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

It is often said that mixing business and pleasure is not a wise thing to do, but what about situations where it cannot be helped? Kasuga is a young architect who gets employed to design the interior spaces of a new hotel, only to fall into the trap of its beautiful, yet somewhat strange owner, Asakura.

This book is not really the sort that will be enjoyed by every yaoi fan out there. If seduction and non-con situations make you nervous, you should skip this one. The writing is well done, but at times it seems things happen too quickly. I will give Masaki-sensei extra points for intensity. The accompanying illustrations by Masara Minase are as elegant as the rest of her work. The translation flows nicely and there is a bonus color page.

A final word of advice to my fellow yaoi fans: for whatever reason, major retailers (Borders and Amazon included) usually get books of this type rather late, sometimes weeks after the announced street date. As I write this review, the products page states that it would take Amazon 1-3 weeks to ship the book and there are several offers of used copies, starting at $75 and going all the way up to $999! Please do not pay that much for it - this simply isn't worth more than $9. Every time a yaoi title is late there are ridiculous offers from third-party sellers, even for items like this one, which shouldn't be out of print.

Instead of spending all that money, I suggest that you look for a small local comics shop or anime retailer, if there are any around. That's how I managed to get this title and many others right when the publisher said they would be available. You'll have your book on time and at the normal retail price and you'll be able to help the local economy and support your favorite artist/ publisher.

A 23 years old virgin raped at first encounter with 30ish old male and then have to work together! The nerve of Asakura looking at Minami the next day like nothing happened!

I must say that I read this novel twice! I got so in love with Minami and Asakura that I could not breathe while reading this. At first, I did not like the drawings but while reading the book I can see the resemblance of the characters in them. I do not give this a five stars because I found some misspelling, misused verbs, and I feel that some things were lost in the translation.

First the positives:

Pretty good translation- text is not choppy, and though there are some editing errors, there is some style in the translation. Excellent when compared to some other yaoi novels.

Art is gorgeous- I have always loved Minase's work, and this book is no exception- scenes are well chosen and beautifully drawn.


Negatives:

I figured that there would be noncon, so that wasn't what bothered me, as it is common in yaoi and I was expecting it. However, this book walks a fine line- in most yaoi, everyone seems to accept noncon to a degree where it doesn't eve seem strange- in this book, refreshingly, many people are aware that it is wrong. But despite rape being portrayed negatively, it still went for rape -> physical response = true love. This bothered me even more in a format where rape is seen badly. (I have never liked this in manga- but most of the time the situations are so unreal that the wrongness I can just ignore.) I suppose it would have been too much to expect a single novel to break the one of the most common tropes of yaoi, but it led to a weird melding of reality and fantasy that came off as uncomfortable to read, at least to me. I didn't even want to finish the novel, I just skimmed it after a certain point.

this book is strange and funny.It is well written. If you enjoy yaoi you will like this one. I am very happy with my purchase.

I liked it because it was fun and very sexy. After my finals, I wanted to sit back and enjoy something that was erotic and a real page turner, and I luckily found this novel. I thought it was very enjoyable for a yaoi novel.

It was a pretty good read. It had the uke, unwilling but unsure, and the seme, dominating and proud. It was a little shorter than I would have liked but it was still pretty good <3

I actually bought this novel on accident. Somehow I thought it was a manga by Masara whom I really love.

In any case, this is my first translated yaoi novel I've read. Compared to American erotica yaoi works, this novel was relatively a simple light read.

Unlike others, the NC elements of the story didn't really bother because so many yaoi stories often protray some sort of NC.

The text itself was very simple, and compared to real english yaoi works it doesn't convey the heated sensuality that those type of fictions here would normally. It's almost like reading a yaoi in actually. Where you only get a 1 dimensional protrayal of characters and surface level descriptions.

Regardless of direct translations, it still bothers me that the "Mr." got translated so literally. It's strange to be calling out "Mr." during sex.

The few panels that Masara did are gorgeous. I wish there were more.

After reading this novel, I may look into other yaoi novels.

I'd recommend this novel, if you're an avid yaoi reader.