I dont like Rina Kent.
I said it. I don't like her.
I like LOG. I have read LOG. Well, except gowar.
But there's a lot of things that I just generally don't like about her as an author. Or a little bit even as a person.
Here's some things that I just can't get over or find it a little hard to:
(TW// opinion ⚠️)
1. She's clearly mysogynistic
That's pretty clear now. Rina clearly has a thing for antagonising women. Now I'm not saying she makes no male villains. There was the Zane dude is gow and Devlin in gom, but her male villains have little to no screen time to build them up as villains, and even then they just feel flat. Now her female villains. Example being Maya. What the hell did Maya do? I know what she did, and it was pretty clear she has no malicious intent. If she was threatened as a child, that was bound to stay forever. And I doubt Mia wouldn't forgive her even after two whole years. But Rina clearly likes making female villains more. Not saying there's anything wrong with that, but you can clearly see what's wrong with the way rina does that.
2. Every other mmc is a rapist
You will never be able to convince me that that's not true. Examples are so clearly Kayden, Killian (yes, I know chapter 2 was changed, but that doesn't change the fact that she wrote it in the first place), Aiden (or so I've heard), Nikolai (yes, Nikolai. The alley scene in god of fury was not consensual. Brandon was drunk.), Adrian.
She clearly has a thing for romanticising rape and that is not okay. Her audience are mostly impressionable teens and she knows that. And it still wouldn't be okay if they were adults. She writes cnc horribly and uses it as an excuse to justify rape. The only okay account of cnc I could find was the cottage scene in god of wrath where Jeremy gives Cecily the option to run or don't, and she chooses to run.
3. Same story over and over again with different characters and slightly different interactions.
Every LoG book is literally:
Fmc is all sad and yearning for a man to call her own -> meets mmc -> he either doesn't like her or traumatises her -> the badass realises she isn't as badass as she thought she was -> lots of sex -> he shows up at her house while she's visiting her parents -> dad hates him, mom loves him -> more sex -> something bad happens -> they break up -> something bad happens to fmc -> the mmc's inner alpha comes out to save her -> theres an optional hospital scene before or after saving -> they kiss and have sex -> mmc proposes -> optional chapter of dad accepting mmc.
And let's be honest, god of fury is also up that alley, despite being a little bit more distinct and unique.
4. Lame excuses for no research
She said she has no personal experience with being a lesbian so she isn't gonna write wlw. So she has personal experience with mlm? Girl be fr. How did you write mlm, with research right? It's not that hard. Everyone can do it.
5. A very shitty excuse for not even making diverse SIDE characters.
I know Rina said she won't be writing black characters because she doesn't know about their struggles and doesn't want to be offensive, and that's valid, however, all of her side characters are pale as a sheet too, it's not that hard to just even mention a poc walking by. She has no world building, and it makes her world look like a blank slate aside from the scene she describes on the point. Other authors also write poc characters without being offensive, or just characters that aren't of their own ethnicity.
Is jlb Pakistani or Indian? No. Do the female authors who write good mlm have experience in mlm? No. Is Tahereh Mafi Japanese? No.
6. The petnames.
On a more humorous note, what are those nicknames brother?? Little monster? Little purple? Whats next, little bitch? Rina trust me, there's better things to say, girl. Like not everything needs the word 'little' in it.
7. I REMEMBER her saying Niko and Bran were based off real people who are her friends which is absolutely disgusting because why are you imagining your friends having sex. And yes, there is a difference between inspired and based, and I remember her writing based because I was weirded out by it back then.
8. She has awful stereotypes for gay men.
Now this itself I've seen many gay men say on platforms like Instagram, and now I myself can't say much on it because I'm not a gay man, but if someone with experience in that field says it's harmful, it's harmful.
9. The abused NEVER finds a single problem w the abuser.
I hate this about her. The cliff scene with Killian never got brought up, the alley scene with Nikolai never got brought up, and WHY? What were those scenes for then? To turn on your audience? To turn you on when you're writing them? What was their point if they never provided any development? A person is shaped by the things they experience in life, but clearly all RK characters experience is undiluted love and a raging libido.
10. The unnecessary women hate.
Back to this point again, because I said so. Like okay Rina, I have no problem with you writing mlm, but why are you making all of their girlfriends slutty cheaters? Like she cannot find a better way to get them to break up so that the men can get together. Clara was horrible, and the audience wanted her gone too. The book would've had a bigger impact if we didn't. What if Brandon loved her? What if he treated her like a queen? I know it's the buildup of the whole Demisexual thing, but there were better ways to do that. Other examples are Cherry, and Vaughn's girlfriend. Theyve been together for so long, there's no way she just cheated because a pretty boy with a snatched waist came along. And Gareth!!! It was 100% not okay for him to be making fun of Kayden's ex wife who was gang raped. In what world would you believe that was okay? And then Kayden goes and does the same—minus gang part—to Gareth.
11. Forced inclusivity
This has been a current issue in the community in the regards of Vaughn and Yulian, with a lot of fans agreeing and a lot disagreeing. I won't take a side yet, because on one hand, great, they're her characters, I don't get to tell her what to do. But on the other hand, it feels very forced. We didn't not know who yulian was before KTV, which resulted in absolutely no buildup of character. We saw Nikobran coming, and Jerelan was so there. Even Gayden (that's such a funny name) was implied in god of fury.
But Vaughn and Yulian came out of no where. Rina said it herself that Vaughn was loyal, and I completely understand the argument that that doesn't mean that his girl was loyal. But it was nearly about to be a decade dude! Also that makes it feel like Rina is straying from her plot, and its making it look like that she's just writing mlm because of god of fury which a lot of people liked.
And I know some people will say "There's so many straight books she wrote, let the LGBTQ+ have something" and my point does not mean that they shouldn't have something or that Rina should strictly write straight romance. But it feels like it's just forced inclusivity. If she just randomly decided to give Nikolai a straight romance, not all of us would agree to it, because that's just not what it was giving yknow? Also there's no guarantee Yulian will be anything like people want him to be.
On an ending note, you may agree or disagree with my points, any of them, all of them. This is my opinion. If you have anything to add, go on. If you have anything to say, go on. I'm willing to listen. But you can't deny that there is some things that are just not okay. And Rina doesn't seem to realise them.
