this is my first read by sally rooney and i'm glad for it. it's a good introduction to, not only her stylistic choices, but the realism of the charactthis is my first read by sally rooney and i'm glad for it. it's a good introduction to, not only her stylistic choices, but the realism of the characters and the types of stories she tends to tell. it's short enough to ease you into the whole no-quotation-marks thing, but also long enough to get a feel for her style.
surprisingly i didn't hate the writing. it's simple but evocative. the lack of quotation-marks is a bit hard to keep up with, but not unreadable by any means. as a review i saw earlier stated (in my opinion) correctly, it helps you appreciate both prose and dialogue, and not skip over description in favour of the latter like you sometimes tend to. every word is equally as emphasised as the last and the next. it's really unique and honestly very immersive once you get accustomed to it.
i don't believe that mr. salary is meant to be read as a romance, per se. definitely not a wholesome one at least. it's more of a study, through a handful of characters. a study of power, and obsession, and intimacy as it relates to both the physical and social.
there's something very warped about the relationship between nathan and sukie. an unavoidable power-balance that, no matter how hard you try, is impossible to ignore. lines blur between caretaker and lover and it's clear by the end that not only is sukie devoted to him to a fault, but that nathan's reciprocation of that (to any degree) raises more questions about their entanglement than answers....more
My apprehension around the logistics of the age-regression persists! Sigh.
This is good, but the first was better.
(Edit 2I THINK I read this in 2025??
My apprehension around the logistics of the age-regression persists! Sigh.
This is good, but the first was better.
(Edit 26.03.25: Also there was a scene toward the end of either this volume or the third where Gojos drunk and they sleep together?? He wasnt blackout drunk or anything and was probably just tipsy and I only realised after re-skimming it looking for something (I skim smut when I get impatient sue me) but its still kinda. Yknow. I DONT KNOW! I dont even read this series anymore for other reasons, I just thought Id mention it ...more
This is one of those fics that you fall in love with and then notice the small questionable details after.
I still have a special place in my heart foThis is one of those fics that you fall in love with and then notice the small questionable details after.
I still have a special place in my heart for it, believe me, but the mental age-gap can be problematic.
I think it worked well enough considering that it wasnt technically time-travel, but age regression as far as I can remember?? (i.e. Gojo is physically the same age as everyone else at school, and just maintains memory of his original life)
You could definitely argue that it gets a little fuzzy there. Im willing to believe that he is mentally close to his physical age because of hormones, gaps in memory, etc. but I do find it sometimes uncomfy when I think about it too hard.
Its well-written as hell, though. No doubt about it. The entire series so far.
My only problems are with the logistics of the relationship, because after reading I realised it could be kindablegh.
I dont think its likeintended to be pedophilic or anything. Its very much presented as memories of a past-life rather than this grown mans mind in a childs body around other children?? It sounds so much worse trying to relay it, but bottom-line, its not like 35x14, because at the end of the day Gojo is offered a second-chance, and just has memories of his first one. Does that make any sense?? Probably not.
I dont blame anybody who would find it uncomfy, but in the moment, I didnt think it was CREEPY CREEPY, at least its not intended to be.
Originally, I actually stopped reading the series after the first volume because of it, but I decided to give it another chance. While I did end up enjoying them plot-wise, I really just do think the parameters of the age-regression arent developed enough for me to feel comfortable continuing it once its updated. I dont think the author had Dead-Dove-Do-Not-Eat-esque intentions, but they could have fleshed it out in a way that made it more comfortable for the reader.
(Edit 23.04.25: Thinking about this one again ...more
i like that it portrayed sex-work/stripping as mentally-draining (as i'm sure it is) and didn't hea(4.5)
couldve been bloodier, couldve been freakier
i like that it portrayed sex-work/stripping as mentally-draining (as i'm sure it is) and didn't heavily romanticise it. i'm sure some creative liberties were taken here and there, but it wasn't promoting it as some sort of easy side-hustle (which was my worry going into it), and unfortunately a lot of media does that :/...more
Okay hello! I forgot I was meant to write a review for this until now and I have nothing better to do, so!
I found Megumis perspective surprisingly cOkay hello! I forgot I was meant to write a review for this until now and I have nothing better to do, so!
I found Megumis perspective surprisingly comfortable, considering the fact that I get withdrawals when Im not in Gojo or Getos head for two seconds. I dont usually seek out Itafushi (or other modern-timeline JJK pairing) works, theyre fun but I personally just prefer Satosugu. But when I do read Itfs, Im always pleasantly surprised at how lighthearted other sides of this fandom can be. I generally tend to find myself more drawn to tragic stories, for whatever reason? A perfectly good and happily-ended romance will be right there and I will actively seek out horrendously sad fics about another pairing. Its just how I am, so I really use Itafushi fics as palate-cleansers.
Which is not to say I dont appreciate them! Using them just as that would be a major disservice to the talented authors in this fandom and the work theyve put in. And trust me, that work does pay off. This is very, very well-written. Ive found myself consistently impressed by Itfs writers whenever I find myself in their corner of fandom.
This is no exception. In fact, I think its one of my favourite portrayals of them. Im usually not big on AUs where the inciting incident is omitted (in this case, Yuuji becoming Sukunas vessel) because it tends to change character-dynamics in a way I find unappealing. Its not objectively bad, and some authors make it work, I just dont love it when Im reading.
I found this work to be somewhere between those two. While I didnt find their Megumi and Yuuji to be entirely OOC, they definitely did not feel exactly like their canon counterparts (which is to be expected from an AU, but yknow).
Jujutsu Kaisen has a weird pacing that is neither constantly filled with action nor constantly filler episodes/chapters, and finding that balance in fics that are building new romantic relationships but also rewriting an existing canon friendship can be hard. I think TBoAPSB did a decent job of not making it a slice-of-life, though it did edge on that writing-style sporadically. Slice-of-life is cool, its just not what I was personally looking for.
Bottom-line, I think this was good, but needed some more action toward the beginning. I understand that everything comes to a head in the last couple of chapters, but it couldve used some more buildup Jujutsu-wise.
Now, lets talk characters.
I liked the Nanami recognition. We dont tend to get a lot of Nanami and his influence on Gojos kids, so that was refreshing. It really highlighted the fact that Nanami was a part of their lives for such an extended period of time.
Shoko was a little forgettable, in this, to me. Im not sure if thats because it was a month ago and I didnt have any notes on her to jog my memory, or if she really was a little irrelevant, but take that as you will. I usually tend to remember Shoko and her characterisation whenever shes more central to the story.
Yuuji was a little hit-or-miss for me. Sometimes he felt just as familiar as Yuuji from the animanga, and other times he felt a bit like a filler character. I mean the whole point of this fic is him not being exposed to Jujutsu like he was in canon, so maybe expecting his character to remain so similar was stupid on my part.
Megumi is a really fun character to get the perspective of. Not just fun, but likefascinating. Characters who present as one way and think another have always been a favourite of mine, and Jujutsu Kaisen is honestly a breeding ground for those. Megumis just perpetually-annoyed enough to earn his title of Miserable Bitch, but he can also be really loving, and brave and complex.
I wasnt in love with the characterisation of Gojo, in this one. I know that hes rough around the edges and I know that raising a kid at seventeen is probably really freaking hard, but I cant help but think he wouldve done a better job at raising Megumi. I mean, yeah, Megumi ends up fine and at the end of the day, they clearly love each other very much, but the source of a lot of the angst between them is Gojos Questionable Parenting. Which, I guess is never confirmed nor denied by the canon and therefore is very much a possibility (also, people are allowed to write whatever they want, canonically possible or not, but I digress) but this dynamic between them features so minimally within the fandom that I just find it a bit uncomfortable. Maybe thats bias, maybe thats me having been too lazy to learn a new character dynamic and labelling it as annoying so I can move on. I dunno! I just personally wasnt obsessed. He and Megumi had some very sweet moments later in the story, though. Still, it felt as though this Gojo had very little identity external to Megumi and some small flashbacks. Speaking of flashbacks
Though Geto does not actually feature in this, hes easily one of my favourites in the series and so by the power of nepotism, hes getting a mention. The flashbacks to Geto are some of the only snippets we get of Gojos life before Megumi. (This could be intentional, since I know the author has a prequel planned!) The jump between Gojo as Megumis guardian and Gojos secret escapades never felt jarring, I think mainly because there was an overlap. I know canonically Gojo and Geto never saw each other for ten years, but I think we all know by now thats BS. Geto (who is objectively one of the biggest parts of Gojos life, especially pre-Megumi) was a good vehicle to learn even a little about Gojo as a person and not just a parent. I say even a little, because it really was not a lot, but for a Megumi-centric story, it was effective enough to get me by. I just personally would have liked to know more about Stsg because theyre my favourites, and the flashbacks, however short they were, broke my heart.
Romance-wise I found this to be pretty decent. If it werent characters I already know, I might not have liked it, since its not any tropes I particularly like, but it gets the job done. Megumi and Yuujis liking each other felt a little rushed, but even that wasnt a dealbreaker for me. The side-relationships (i.e. potential Nobamaki, mentions of past Satosugu) were fun and made the story feel more well-rounded and true to the canon-material where everybody kinda knows everybody.
Friendship-wise, pretty solid. I found Nobara to be slightly less entertaining than usual, but I liked Megumis more fleshed-out established relationships with the Tokyo and Kyoto students.
Plot-wise, its alright. I think it could have been a little more stable. It goes from one extreme to the other and speeds up to the point of being a little jarring, but its fun throughout. Made me realise how much of the plot hinges on Yujis becoming Sukunas vessel. (Merger, Mahito, etc.)
All in all, this is very enjoyable. Like surprisingly so! (Thats not a dig at the author or the ship, thats a dig at me for liking another ship that makes me horrendously sad and refusing to read anything else. Except this, apparently!)
I have no idea where the hell to fit in my favourite quotations, so theyre all staying in my notes, never to see the light of day as things I singled out from something I read :) Just know it made me egregiously sad and Im not subjecting you to it, out of love ...more
i watched the kdrama back when it came out and while this is really different, the dynamic between the characters makes it feel a lot more familiar. ai watched the kdrama back when it came out and while this is really different, the dynamic between the characters makes it feel a lot more familiar. and the colours!!! the colours are so pretty...more
![gh 30 [Jujutsu Kaisen 30]](https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1731891051l/219518388._SY75_.jpg)
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