Review Book

HunterxHunter Princess Bride

Author: savanaanimefangirl / @savanaanimefangirl

Blurb: Dream, who is in an arranged marriage to Copper from a wealthy family Nostre. At the auction event, she had a chance encounter with the Phantom Troupe leader, Chrollo, who changed everything in her life and influences her decision-making.

Status: Completed

Category: Fanfiction HunterxHunter 

Theme: Love can be found and shared between two flawed people as long as "healthy & happy" love relationships rules are applied.

Hook: "She grabbed a journal and tip toed out of their bedroom. She slowly closed the master bedroom door, before the door was completely closed she saw Chrollo stir in his sleep, slightly fluttering open his eyes before closing them and turning over.

She tightened her long black silk robe and walked down stairs to the study, she sat down in a chair and pulling out a tape recorder, and pressing the button." - chapter 1, hxh Phantom Bride

I loved the hook in the above passage because I feel her desire to share about "us" and built the suspense of their love story.

Characters:

Main antagonist: Copper is an abusive man, according to Dream. He is physically and verbally abusive, and his family members behave the same way. He died at the pre-wedding party event.

Main protagonist: Dream is a beautiful woman with low-self of esteem and is helpless to her family affairs. She is a typical trope of madam in distress with backstabbing guilts, manipulator, lack of problem-solving, and extremely mood swing.

Chrollo: The Phantom Troupe leader who aided Dream in the murdering plan of the Nostre at the pre-wedding party. He has an obsession with Dream and firmly believes they are fated to be lovers. Exhibit RED FLAGS stalker behaviors and mentality.

Writer's style: In my opinion of the writer's style are descriptive and persuasive.

Anyhow, when I finished reading the story, there were many things that I had to dissect. The characters' purposes, the plot devices used in place, and understand the "author's mind". Three common themes pop up: abusive in a relationship, love is the cure, and healing to someone's psychology, and in desperate measure comes with faulty decision-making that no one wants to take responsibility for.

I found it odd that Dream masterminded the murder plot for the pre-wedding party and later acted on self-denial to preserve innocence. She blames Chrollo and his members for the action and wants to dissolve herself in any responsibility. Why the author chose to write Dream's behaviors and actions in that way? I wondered if the author has personal life problems and translated them into her character, Dream, and the story plot. 

Then I switched my reader's point of view to understand the author's point of view and come to admire her. One of the most important aspects I liked from the story was the portrayal of an innocent/victim woman transforming into the perpetrator. Dream fostered in an unhealthy family home and dealt with the abuse from Copper and her in-laws but, when they disappeared from her life. She carried on Copper's verbal abusive language, use manipulation tactics and extremely mood swings towards Chrollo and shield herself from any responsibility as she continue to be stuck in her "victimhood" mentality. I was a fool not to figure that out until the very end of the story.  

I wished the side characters could have more dialogues but were short. Chrollo portray as an obsessive stalker of Dream which can be scary to think about.. like someone *cough Hisoka cough*. The author uses him to "recuse" Dream out of her family situation and rewarded them to be a couple and the consequences of reward was to demoralize them, self-centered couple, and building a false "love" out of unhealthy mindset. 

Again, it's genius to explore what is an abusive relationship and if you're a reader or writer need to help to understand and learn what is like in the mindset of a victim this story is a gold nugget. 

Conclusion:

The pros of the story that I have taken with me are, Dream is perfect for writing as a side character for my upcoming novels. I like the flaws of Dream, which will pose moral dilemmas for my readers and connect with their human nature. There are people out there who can relate to Dream.

I like the author's action of posted several pictures of clothes and hairstyles in her chapters as she wants her readers to have a strong visual image of Dream's appearance. I liked the storyline was consistent even though the interaction of the characters is out of reasoning.

I recommend this story for those who are suffering from abusive relationships and need escapism from current problems. I think everyone has experience being a victim of their own situations and environment, had felt helpless with no power over choices. We all "hoped for someone to rescue us" but came down to us at the end of the day to make the choice to do it or not. We learned from our mistake and some can never be amend but our personal growths differs. Nevertheless, exploring this type of character connects to the victim and perpetrator cycle. If anyone is searching for an excellent example of an abusive relationship, I will refer them to this short story fan fiction. 

Rating: 5/10