One of the main illustrations of this misogyny is that women can’t go out to eat in a restaurant unescorted, and women are considered objects. The world Haru ends up in is not friendly to women, but it’s oddly tame in that respect.Įven as it’s billed as super misogynistic it… it really wasn’t that far off of modern times. She watches them perform fellatio on a customer and her inner monologue is “You’re doing great, sweetie, I see you!” How incredibly refreshing is that? Haru learns tricks of sex work from her peers. Haru and the other women are legitimately supportive of each other.Haru legitimately admires her peers in sex work, they have lunches together, and the other woman who is not in sex work is also proud of her craft and actively wants to improve. Moreover, Haru is surrounded by other women who are also proud of their craft.A lot of her inner monologue during encounters with paying customers is herself, working on what she does: “I squeeze in to make him really go crazy.” or “Ha! Yes! Look at my ass! Isn’t it fantastic? You love my ass.” It’s very similar to the way that someone might say “I trace the paper lightly to make a perfectly straight line” or “Ha! Yes! Look at that spreadsheet! Isn’t it fantastic?” In other words, she’s legitimately excited to improve her chosen craft. It’s exactly like we would react if we had to do something we didn’t like at work. When Haru has to do something in her sex work she dislikes – a customer she dislikes, a move which is uncomfortable, a kink she hates, or deal with Chiba (ugh), her monologue isn’t “woe is me” or anything like that.This is a good story telling choice – action up front, back story only once you give a darn. In fact, you don’t actually find out why Haru chose sex work so quickly until maybe 60% of the way through the book. There’s some time spent explaining her choices, but it’s not totally justifying, it’s mostly illuminating. She chose sex work for the actual reason a lot of people choose any kind of work: she’s allowed to do it, doesn’t mind it and she’s good at it. Spoiler alert: Haru did in fact get powers from the God – not immediately but eventually. This is a benefit of being in hard first person: the author was never allowed to discredit or cheapen Haru’s feelings and actions. And she is portrayed as someone who has enjoyed the privilege of being pretty and popular, but her feelings and emotions are never dismissed for her former privileges. Haru is a pretty, fairly popular girl in her class.Here are some times when Haru talks which put this book above so many different US based fantasy books.
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Because for once, there’s a woman talking. She never goes quiet, and I think that’s why I loved this book. Haru’s voice is present in every interaction, sex scene, and moment of violence in this book. And, trigger warnings – ALL THE TRIGGER WARNINGS – this book really doesn’t hold back on the explicitness, which might occasionally come up during this review, so please be warned for sexual violence and sex worker death. Still, I’ve made friends with some of the girls, and if I can juggle Chiba’s idiocy and Sumo the virgin’s emotions on top of all the various kinks my customers throw at me, things will be all right…won’t they? This world treats women even worse than the one we came from, so things get…rough. Gotta earn money somehow - but since I have to do it, I’m gonna kick ass at it. Then we got transported to another world, which I guess is like an otaku dream come true, or something? Chiba ends up with cheat abilities, and what do I get? Nothing! Lucky me, I get to be a sex worker instead. Not by choice, I can tell you that! It started when my weirdo classmate, Chiba, tried to save me from a runaway truck and got us both killed instead. You’re probably wondering how I got into this situation.
![jk haru is a sex worker in another world illustrations jk haru is a sex worker in another world illustrations](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/S/cmx-images-prod/Item/954862/Previews/928d3e84237524803956779ff098ca4f._SX1600_QL80_TTD_.jpg)
*freeze frame on Haru Koyama getting choked by a horny naked dude* I don’t review well when I can’t give spoilers, so keep that in mind. Because I gotta talk about it, and especially its context and what it means for men writing women. Let’s talk about this Light Novel I read in one sitting on Saturday.