Under the Oak Tree
All Reviews Contain Spoilers
Review:I do love this, it was one of my first reads on Manta. And by GOD is it a doozy. Maxi is a fresh take on the 'abused by father' FL in that she has actual lingering effects of her trauma. An FL with a stutter! Amazing! And it never just 'goes away' once she blooms into herself either, she improves, but the realism of a stutter remains in high-anxiety moments. I also love how as the story goes on, she gets more and more prideful and stubborn. She really starts to dig her heels in and speak her mind because she feels genuinely safe with Riftan, even if her anxiety tells her otherwise. We love to see it. Even if it's INFURIATING and causes UNTOLD damage later.
On the topic of infuriating, Riftan... I cannot lie, yes he improves over time, but my god in heaven is it ever a fucking SLOG to get through his shouting at Maxi all the time. He didn't know she was abused, but even after he learns, he still treats her like a sheltered baby. It only serves to fuel Maxi's recklessness, driving her (objectively correct) decision at the end of the first book, creating a rift between them that never really heals.
It's very satisfying to see them have so many discussions post-timeskip and sort out their feelings and expectations in a way that doesn't sound like they both took a crash course in psycholoanalysis, they say things wrong, they misunderstand, they lash out, they do things wrongly, it's perfect. This is before even mentioning how good the battle scenes are in the novel.
I'm going to be so fuckin for real right now. This is easily one of my all time favorites. The frustration you feel reading this is completely in line with the characters feeling the same frustration. The timeline is REALISTIC and the consequences are PERMANANT. I genuinely believe with all my heart this is an all-timer.
You know,,, despite being rofan and not OI lmfao.
Where I'm Reading: comic on bato.to, novel on libread
