#curtis ash

(I like these books, but)

I know this is just me venting but I seriously bristle something fierce at queer books that have hang-ups about threesomes and open relationships. Just be together. All of you. What is the big deal?

Okay, this is primarily directed at my own frustration at shipping Victor x Jacob x Crash from the PsyCop series and scowling into the void has me feeling better.

Here goes.

Nothing says limited pov to me like the coveting of a two person romantic ideal. In my opinion that particular fixation (and obvious distrust of alternative options) leads to writing that's afraid to take chances on exploring the complexity and complications of adult relationships. Full disclosure: I have rolled my eyes at characters in romance who want threesomes and turn down threesomes because capitulation would mean their relationship was dead. I don't know many couples who haven't been in a threesome. It's not a dire death-knell. It's a pretty mundane human experience. Jealousy can be worked through. Jealousy should be worked through, whether polyam or not.

I can handle underdeveloped romances in a romance series if the other books flesh it out later. It's not going to turn me away from a story. However, when it came to Vic and Jacob... I love Victor way more than I cared about his relationship with Jacob. That's not to say I didn't like Jacob. I did, but Victor's romanticism of Jacob and my observations of Jacob didn't correlate. Which was fascinating when I thought the writing was heading for a Victor/ Jacob/ Crash romance, but became frustrating when I realised it wasn't. I was interested in the dynamic because Crash knows how not-perfect Jacob is, and Vic and Crash's mutual attraction was building in a way that Jacob and Victor's relationship never got the chance to.

The dynamic felt like a story that was going to be told and it filled all three men with definition. Rather than going through the motions of relationship milestones, it gave me hope for a continuing, series-wide development between Vic and Jacob. If that had been the case, I'd classify PsyCop as romance because it took me on a romantic journey. Rather, I'd say it's more erotica because Jacob's fetishism of Vic seemed to be the point of Jacob and Vic's dynamic.

I was also frustrated because Red's relationship with Crash is so underdeveloped and unnecessary it felt like what heterosexual writing does to homoerotic tension on tv— hastily pairing them off with love interests of a different gender to cut off the unconventional romantic tension. Crash and Victor had obvious sexual tension. Jacob had flaws when it came to his romantic dealing with both men. That tension didn't dissipate. That tension needed to be dealt with. And, yes, one option was navigating a polyam relationship.

Those relationships exist. I'm in one. Happily. Many in the queer community are in one. When you question one romantic social convention you question more of them. It works as any relationship involving people— communication and self awareness being the key to success. It would have been nice to see those three characters reaching the potential I saw in them to bring out the best in each other.