my main critique+response to games (a love story by anna maria volkova) revolves around the way volkova uses politics (capitalism, socialism, and feminism) as story levers. i have no problem with this as a concept and i even think the implementation is largely well-done. the oppositional worldviews of the characters are a fantastic tension engine in the first half of the book, with lots of lively debates on foucault, the welfare state, etc. however, it really started to fall apart for me when those conversations came into conflict with the plot necessities of a romance novel. i started to feel, sometime around the middle section when they are happily not-quite-together and she has been brought fully into his world, that there was not going to be a satisfying deconstruction and subsequent refiguring of their political disconnect, which i find crucial to this kind of enemies-to-lovers dynamic (such as the falling out eli+rue have when she finds out about his past with her mentor, or the time in between darcy's first letter and when elizabeth sees pemberley). i want them to change as people and in relation to each other over the course of the story. instead of coming to understand each other differently, the politics all but disappears from the conflict animating the final third of the book. that's a story problem, not a political one, but it unfortunately gave me as the reader way too much time to consider the gaps in reason around the book's politics in the first place.
nb: i strongly resist diaretic/self-insert readings of romance novels. lili and aleksandr are very specifically stated to be characters that volkova created, and my critique is of those characters’ internal logic being sound and appropriate to the plot. volkova’s politics are not my business, although i do find her suggested reading lists interesting and revealing.
first, the feminism in the book. lili is a recently 23 year old graduate student living in new york city, so of course she considers herself a feminist. her feminism is largely unconsidered and shallow, though, and does not end up affecting her thoughts or actions in any significant way. im discussing it first because its the least relevant to the plot, but as i will say about the next two points as well: it wouldnt matter so much if the book was not specifically calling attention to itself as political, and then missing its own called shot. lili's feminist thought terminates right around that "i need him in a way that's concerning to feminism" meme. early on, she calls her casual relationship with him a "feminist act of reverse objectification". but in the prior chapter, she describes her attraction to his wealth as "unfeminist" because it offers "protection, but at the cost of some possession." what i really find unfeminist about this dynamic is that lili, who is an adult, does not see herself as able to clearly negotiate terms of the relationship. i understand from her blog post about the book that volkova wanted to create a meaningful critique of tradwife feminism. i dont really think that was successful; lili comes off as someone who believes in choice feminism, despite being a grad student in socialism, which really does not ring true to me. these are pretty fundamentally incompatible idealogies, imo, as any socialist should be aware of the structural critique that makes choice feminism impossible.
my second point of interest is aleksandr as a capitalist. there are two nodes on this: the character as fanfiction, and the character as written in the novel. as with my ali+kylo critiques, i do not find it useful to hold an author to their interpretation of an existing character, especially in subsequently published work. but i do think its a useful framework for looking at what is or isnt included, especially wrt a dictatorial, genocidal origin character. that being said, it makes basically no sense to me that her version of aleksandr is a neoliberal capitalist. that is not, to me, a guy who wants to work within an existing system. in the original fic, from my skimming, he is somewhat more ruthless, but for the novel he gets tamped way down. this is the crux of my critique: what is the point of making the character unrecognizable in terms of ambition, motivation, and cruelty, if it also means sacrificing the ideological gap between him and lili? what, or who, is asking for this character to be more palatable? why are some crimes (mass murder, for one) brushed over for the sake of his function as a romantic lead? again, there is no standard of adherence to “canon” that im willing to impose on fanfiction or on the following novel. but in the name of the fantasy volkova is writing, it matters to me what is being elided. and once those villainous actions are eliminated from the plot, what remains? looking at the character as written, he is honestly quite a toothless political operator. he is high up at the equivalent of blackrock, an international asset management firm, which means he definitely has hands in arms manufacturing, fossil fuels, news media, etc., but the practicalities of this involvement rarely come up, even as interrogation from lili. he has big ideas to put up against lili's, but his political philosophy seems just as shallow and fallible as hers. at a crucial emotional point he explores fossil fuel divestment, in theory for the sake of their relationship and his commitment to her. but it happens largely off-screen, in secret, and does not really seem to impact their relationship. otherwise, he concedes very little and mostly states his personal aims in terms equal to a mafia romance: "when i want things, i tend to get them." "i dont share." but without any real bite to back up these claims, he is not menacing enough to be a real threat. in absence of that, he does not concede anywhere near enough ideological ground for me to respect lili staying with him. but that makes sense, because lili’s politics are shifting ground regardless.
finally: lili's socialism. this is the biggest failure for me in the book, and unfortunately, it is kind of the tentpole. lili is a graduate student finishing a dissertation on the protestant work ethic and its role in modern american identity formation. she works on an urban farm and is passionate about food distro. all of this would lead me to believe that she thinks about work and workers, about the material conditions of her surroundings. unfortunately, despite many opportunities, she does not. aleksandr has personal staff (a driver, a doorman, cleaners) who are named and frequently mentioned in the story. lili never spares a thought in her crowded narration for their personalities, labor conditions, home lives. his doorman and driver are fixtures in the story, always there to greet her at his building or pick her up from whatever corner of the city. do these people, working people, not have real lives or time off? again, this is not a critique i would ever offer seriously for another romance novel. its a fantasy, plenty of things work by magic plot device. but to think that lili, self-declared socialist, never spares a thought for these characters and their interior lives, makes me doubt the rigor of her worldview immensely. it would have been such a simple inclusion with, in my opinion, a huge return in terms of lili's character. but it never comes up. Volkova’s prose style is rather obsessively redundant with detail, and it got pretty glaring to me as the book went on, how often that detail focused on the sensuous joys of wealth. lili, like so many romance protagonists in this position before her, is taken aback by the comfort and safety she finds in money. she thinks, "it's embarrassing, wanting that soothing protection of wealth." and yet she never, on the page, probes that conflict deeper. speaking from personal experience, there is a lot to investigate about why wealth makes us feel safe, what kind of safety it is, and how precarious it is, especially when its not our money. it could have been an excellent point of tension, for lili to reject aleksandr's money because the safety it offers is conditional. it would also be an opportunity for her to deepen her own understanding of the class divide.
in general, for a book so focused on politics as character traits, neither character experiences significant growth in their ideaologies. lili is 23 and she went straight into grad school, and i understand that her political worldview is not going to be totally developed. no one’s is, but the way it flits in and out of the narrative does make her whole character ring a little hollow. not just bc she is often a hypocrite - she is very much allowed that - but bc it seems like her politics only become important when they come into conflict with his, which makes them solely a lever for the romance. this is the function of most beats in a romance, but here it felt overlooked and underused. from a brief review of the fic, it seems that there might have been more of this conflict in that draft, which leads me to wonder – as i often have with ali – if these are publisher edits. either way, i look forward to volkova’s next work, and i hope she leverages the success of this book and continues to explore these ideas as they interest her.
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its actually crazy like who on earth deserves to be at ali author events more than me. but they would not like me there bc i would ask long questions with subparts about parent death and the nuclear family unit and then proceed to hit on every woman in attendance
Behind the curtain of my debut novel—capitalism crumbling, the two wolves inside of me, grappling with questions without resolution
In Games, and in its two main characters, Lili and Aleksandr, I took that crack, and personified the two wolves inside of me, grappling and fighting with one another: the democratic socialist, the neoliberal capitalist. The part of me that deeply believes we need stronger safety nets so people do not fall through the cracks so easily, do not hit the ground so hard; and the other part of me that believes every failure or difficulty I experience is directly, and maybe exclusively, my own fault.
It is easy for me to speak, and explain, and feel Lili’s political perspective on the world, as a democratic socialist. It is much more difficult, and uncomfortable, but ultimately excavating, for me to admit Aleksandr’s perspective and how deeply I understand some—many—of his animating fears.
i was really happy to read this piece and dig into AMV's concepts on her own terms... she has a few other less substantial substack pieces about Games, but generally this is a type of author comment i really crave. what were the goals and intentions of this story, and how does that measure against my own understanding of the novel and its aims? what was achieved? its soooo juicy and useful to me. these passages especially point to the place that AMV found between romance writing and litfic and class analysis, which ultimately i found compelling but not quite whole. the sum was lesser for inexact mastery of each part. its a first novel and a largely unedited fanfic adaptation, which makes that understandable. but i do think it is VERY enlightening to know that the economic outlooks of each character come from personal feelings and anxiety. that makes sense, all of our economic and political outlooks are grounded in experience of the world, but it makes more sense for a 23 year old grad student than a 45 year old professional at the top of his field. it works for the novel, but it doesnt hold up to much investigation. i have more posts to make about that but!!! generally all romance novelists should make these kinds of posts for meeeee bc i cant go to their stupid author events
while im stomping around lets talk about this comment on this post about reylo, zutara, and dramione. okay, yes, i noticed. awesome. first of all pull back a bit: power imbalance in shipping is not, like, uncommon, and is perhaps related to sexualizing power imbalance in general, ie the basis of a good portion of kink and sexy roleplay and ships that are wildly popular on this very website (heated rivalry? iwtv?). shocking and crazy that this might also be true for straight ships. second, YES, that power imbalance does follow very specific gender, racial, and class patterns. what can we understand from that? what is appealing about the "abused abuser" narrative? what is sexy about patriarchal control? what cultural effect do these ships have, and who defends them? ive talked about this re: reylo over and over; i have some of ej's thoughts on dramione here. i promise that even things you think are "bullshit" can be engaged with in a meaningful way.
i guess when i say i want a "real darklina" what i mean is that canon darklina has always been so much more compelling to me than canon reylo, so i would rather read something closer to that than further from it. even in the novels themselves its obviously not realized to its full potential, bc leigh bardugo has follow-through problems/it was her first novel/not the story she wanted to tell. which, okay, but there's so many things that are hot about that dynamic - mentorship, the darkling's politics and his manipulation of the political game, their feelings for each other in conflict with their principles and goals, alina's warring desire for freedom and security... all of that IS what i love about alibooks but she has never gotten to the heights that i think you could take a darklina dynamic. and maybe its a genre thing; she doesnt write dark romance, and neither does AMV, apparently. i wanted more cat and mouse, maybe, and more of the conscious evasion that alina has... but again none of those things are as well realized in canon as they are in my imagination. basically i guess i want a book deal for vuas who writes my favorite darklina fic. or what i really want is to read deathless again for the first time
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former mutual who can’t reply again - games did start life as a darklina fic
you are correct! i had heard this and then discounted it bc the content of the book is SO fic reylo and seemed to have so little to do with darklina. but i just finally went and looked for myself and found this reddit post where someone links to an epub of the fic. i dont have a way to open an epub rn but i will be investigating when i get home from work. thanks for the nudge, i really shouldve looked it up myself before
also aleksandr from this book is bisexual in the same way lukas deepend was (kinsey 2, promiscuous enough to have been with men in the past but definitively monogamous enough that there is zero threat to the current relationship) and i donttttt think i like that as an emerging trope. i would love more bisexual men romance leads but not if its going to be couched in how much it is NOT a threat anymore :| its a bad look
ive got about a third left in games: a love story by anna maria volkovna (such a satisfying full name) and so far i would say it is Pretty Good. its really meeting one of the marketing promises, ie it is really really about capitalism and socialism and the interaction of those two as romance character avatars. i like lili especially, she feels superbly 23 in a way that is uncomfortably real and adorable, and i am very impressed by how intertwined her politics, backstory, and motivations are (orphan and beneficiary of foster care into socialist grad student.. brilliant). im very curious where the resolution is going to go bc i doubt hes going to change his idealogy significantly but i am skeptical of other emotional resolution that feels satisfying to me from a political perspective. from a narrative perspective, im open to something else, but she will have to work to convince me. but again romance is a little difficult to use as a frame for any substantial polemic, bc of the necessary arc of the story. i am very pleasantly surprised by how much real, grounded discussion of economic policy there is; its fun to read and lends a good amount of stakes. on the other hand. im really disappointed that this is not more of a darklina plot :( it reads much more fanon reylo to me... and unfortunately as has been true for every non-ali reylo ive tried, the romance itself does very little for me. he is very defanged and sweetie pie, which works for me in alibooks bc she will give him some real freak behaviors to make up for it. but here.... idk. he has so little interiority or vulnerability and its just not compelling. what else... i dont love choking as the highlighted kink, im just not seeing the connection to the narrative. imo bondage wouldve been better bc she could use the literalization of seizure and control as an added layer for the socialism/capitalism tension. but nobody ask me... i think thats most of my thoughts for now.
