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Not a Review: GAP Pink Theory (粉红理论 | 粉紅理論) by Chaoplanoy (tr. 烤鸭的鸭 | 烤鴨的鴨)
I decided to read this Thai GL novel ahead of the release of its live-action adaptation on 19 November (link to the trailer here). I read the Taiwanese-published Chinese translation. There is an official English translation available (link here), but the summary did not fill me with confidence.
I would characterise this as being fundamentally a contemporary office/CEO romance. The main relationship is between MC and POV character Mon, who has just started her first job fresh out of university, and her boss Saam, who is beautiful, obscenely rich, and of royal blood. Mon met Saam for the first time when she was in primary school and Saam in secondary school, Mon's mother being a member of the janitorial staff at Saam's fancy school. Since then, she has idolised Saam, hence her choice to work at Saam's company.
I did not really enjoy this book. This was not entirely the book's fault: when it comes to genre romance, I much prefer historicals or anything with a fantasy/sci-fi element to standard contemporary. As to the book itself, I felt that there were sometimes significant clashes between tone and subject matter. The overall tone is fairly light and breezy, with some slapstick moments (Saam screaming 'I fling poop at you, I fling poop at you' at her ex-fiance being one example). It was therefore jarring to be told, some way through the novel, that one of Saam's older sisters had committed suicide due to familial pressures, and even more jarring to encounter a brief scene of attempted sexual assault towards the end of the book. The odd mixture of cheerful absurdity and depressing realism meant that I was not sure how I was meant to view certain plot points, most egregiously the one where Saam essentially attempts to constructively dismiss Mon.
I also did not find the relationship particularly well-developed. Mon starts out as a standard ingenue and Saam a standard cold/unpredictable/temperamental CEO, and while there are a few scenes in which Mon tries to get Saam to speak about her needs and feelings more honestly and directly, this I did not feel was sufficiently carried through. Saam frequently reverts to her old behaviour, including in the post-canon extras. Fundamentally, I could not understand what they saw in each other and liked about each other, beyond the fact that they're both ridiculously attractive (everyone in this novel seems to be ridiculously attractive, up to and including the nameless salesperson who sells Saam a luxury car in the extras). Although this shortcoming is hardly unique to this book: I've encountered it numerous times in contemporary f/f romance, where many authors seem distressingly to think that initial physical attraction is a sufficient basis on which to build an entire novel. The book was also teeming with miscommunications and unnecessary moments of jealousy (typically on Saam's part), and while I'm certainly not a member of the 'IF THEY WOULD ONLY TALK TO EACH OTHER' brigade, I found it extremely frustrating when a miscommunication would be resolved... only to be followed by a fresh miscommunication. I feel that the author might have intended me to find these moments cute. Sadly, I did not.
The highly unequal nature of Mon and Saam's relationship is barely addressed in the novel. Again, I understand this may be a characteristic of the genre rather than a flaw in the book itself. One of the pleasures of the CEO romance genre is that the humble ingenue MC will be swept up and swaddled in the CEO love interest's life of privilege, through no actual effort of their own (one reason I dislike the genre). But what is particularly frustrating is that the book will, every now and then, raise the issue of inequality — at one point, for instance, Mon confesses that she doesn't feel worthy of Saam due to her humble family background — and then simply... not address it. Mon does end up leaving Saam's company, but only to move on to a job as an assistant for one of Saam's equally rich friends. She seems perfectly content with this state of affairs, and there's no attempt by any of them to suggest that Mon should perhaps have training and experiences that make her more independent and thus more equal.
The ending of the book is particularly frustrating. The obligatory third-act breakup is instigated by Saam's proud, conservative grandmother, who insists that her granddaughter marry a man and live a conventional life of cishet dreariness. This is ultimately resolved off-screen, with Saam suddenly turning up to announce to Mon that her grandmother has grudgingly accepted their relationship, on condition that they 'not flaunt it too much'. This is extraordinarily disappointing and thematically inconsistent, given that Mon and Saam's friends and Saam's rebellious older sister (who has cut herself off from the family) have been emphasising to them the importance of being true to themselves and being honest with the world.
There are several sex scenes in the novel, and at the risk of being uncharitable, I suspect this is the main draw for many readers. I would characterise the sex scenes as being 'explicit by genre romance standards' rather than 'explicit by erotica standards'. They did not really work for me, because I was not sufficiently invested in the characters or relationship, but they probably work for many readers. I did appreciate that Mon and Saam explicitly switch, rather than having a clear top/bottom distinction (just ask![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
x_los ) but that was initially executed very oddly. In the first scene where they switch (previously, Saam had been the top), it's made quite clear that Saam had never been fully naked in front of Mon before, and that Mon had not, until then, ever touched her girlfriend's breasts. What.
Granted some of my disappointment with the novel may be due to unfamiliarity with the tropes and expectations of specifically Thai GL: I read it through the lens of baihe contemporary romance and Western genre romance, as those are the frameworks I'm familiar with. Some of it may also be due to the translation, though I will note that the translation seems generally tonally consistent (although the prose is fairly plain), and is noticeably better quality than, for instance, the official English danmei translations published by Seven Seas, which I have not read fully but have seen excerpts of.
I would characterise this as being fundamentally a contemporary office/CEO romance. The main relationship is between MC and POV character Mon, who has just started her first job fresh out of university, and her boss Saam, who is beautiful, obscenely rich, and of royal blood. Mon met Saam for the first time when she was in primary school and Saam in secondary school, Mon's mother being a member of the janitorial staff at Saam's fancy school. Since then, she has idolised Saam, hence her choice to work at Saam's company.
I did not really enjoy this book. This was not entirely the book's fault: when it comes to genre romance, I much prefer historicals or anything with a fantasy/sci-fi element to standard contemporary. As to the book itself, I felt that there were sometimes significant clashes between tone and subject matter. The overall tone is fairly light and breezy, with some slapstick moments (Saam screaming 'I fling poop at you, I fling poop at you' at her ex-fiance being one example). It was therefore jarring to be told, some way through the novel, that one of Saam's older sisters had committed suicide due to familial pressures, and even more jarring to encounter a brief scene of attempted sexual assault towards the end of the book. The odd mixture of cheerful absurdity and depressing realism meant that I was not sure how I was meant to view certain plot points, most egregiously the one where Saam essentially attempts to constructively dismiss Mon.
I also did not find the relationship particularly well-developed. Mon starts out as a standard ingenue and Saam a standard cold/unpredictable/temperamental CEO, and while there are a few scenes in which Mon tries to get Saam to speak about her needs and feelings more honestly and directly, this I did not feel was sufficiently carried through. Saam frequently reverts to her old behaviour, including in the post-canon extras. Fundamentally, I could not understand what they saw in each other and liked about each other, beyond the fact that they're both ridiculously attractive (everyone in this novel seems to be ridiculously attractive, up to and including the nameless salesperson who sells Saam a luxury car in the extras). Although this shortcoming is hardly unique to this book: I've encountered it numerous times in contemporary f/f romance, where many authors seem distressingly to think that initial physical attraction is a sufficient basis on which to build an entire novel. The book was also teeming with miscommunications and unnecessary moments of jealousy (typically on Saam's part), and while I'm certainly not a member of the 'IF THEY WOULD ONLY TALK TO EACH OTHER' brigade, I found it extremely frustrating when a miscommunication would be resolved... only to be followed by a fresh miscommunication. I feel that the author might have intended me to find these moments cute. Sadly, I did not.
The highly unequal nature of Mon and Saam's relationship is barely addressed in the novel. Again, I understand this may be a characteristic of the genre rather than a flaw in the book itself. One of the pleasures of the CEO romance genre is that the humble ingenue MC will be swept up and swaddled in the CEO love interest's life of privilege, through no actual effort of their own (one reason I dislike the genre). But what is particularly frustrating is that the book will, every now and then, raise the issue of inequality — at one point, for instance, Mon confesses that she doesn't feel worthy of Saam due to her humble family background — and then simply... not address it. Mon does end up leaving Saam's company, but only to move on to a job as an assistant for one of Saam's equally rich friends. She seems perfectly content with this state of affairs, and there's no attempt by any of them to suggest that Mon should perhaps have training and experiences that make her more independent and thus more equal.
The ending of the book is particularly frustrating. The obligatory third-act breakup is instigated by Saam's proud, conservative grandmother, who insists that her granddaughter marry a man and live a conventional life of cishet dreariness. This is ultimately resolved off-screen, with Saam suddenly turning up to announce to Mon that her grandmother has grudgingly accepted their relationship, on condition that they 'not flaunt it too much'. This is extraordinarily disappointing and thematically inconsistent, given that Mon and Saam's friends and Saam's rebellious older sister (who has cut herself off from the family) have been emphasising to them the importance of being true to themselves and being honest with the world.
There are several sex scenes in the novel, and at the risk of being uncharitable, I suspect this is the main draw for many readers. I would characterise the sex scenes as being 'explicit by genre romance standards' rather than 'explicit by erotica standards'. They did not really work for me, because I was not sufficiently invested in the characters or relationship, but they probably work for many readers. I did appreciate that Mon and Saam explicitly switch, rather than having a clear top/bottom distinction (just ask
x_los ) but that was initially executed very oddly. In the first scene where they switch (previously, Saam had been the top), it's made quite clear that Saam had never been fully naked in front of Mon before, and that Mon had not, until then, ever touched her girlfriend's breasts. What.Granted some of my disappointment with the novel may be due to unfamiliarity with the tropes and expectations of specifically Thai GL: I read it through the lens of baihe contemporary romance and Western genre romance, as those are the frameworks I'm familiar with. Some of it may also be due to the translation, though I will note that the translation seems generally tonally consistent (although the prose is fairly plain), and is noticeably better quality than, for instance, the official English danmei translations published by Seven Seas, which I have not read fully but have seen excerpts of.