Product Description

Beautiful. Cool. Shiina Jun has always been admired by females around him. But he would give up their admiration for just one drop of affection from his family. Or for a chance at true love from anybody who could save him from the dark loneliness that he's lived in for so long. His teacher, Sasagawa Tetsuya, wants to be his savior. But is Sasagawa offering a way out or is he pushing Shiina deeper into the darkness? And can Shiina trust his heart to a man who forces himself on him?

This story, masterfully crafted by Miyu Matsuda, of a forbidden, but passionate love between a student and his teacher and the odds they are willing to overcome to get what they ve always wanted in life is definitely a must-read!

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #402413 in Books
• Published on: 2008-08-13
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 250 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9781569707135
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

Customer Reviews

repulsive
Warning: spoilers below, gives away much of the novel:



Like S. Ward, I like yaoi novels, but this one was so wretched I threw it out. I wouldn't even give it away, no yaoi fan should be subjected to this tripe. Why did I hate it so? The uke was likeable enough, but the seme was emotionally abusive. He rapes the uke, then pursues him like a stalker, getting angry if he even smiles at others. Eventually he passionately professes his love--and then the next day he casually sleeps with a 14 year old. When the uke confronts him about this, not only is he not ashamed about it, he laughs in his face! What kind of scum teacher 1. uses a junior high girl like a kleenex (even if she was just as casual about it) and 2. sneers when his lover confronts him about it? Later when he tells the uke that he won't sleep with her anymore, are we supposed to like him? By that point in the story I just wanted the uke to get far, far away from the sleeze, and never look back. The icing on the cake is when the uke is in front of a teacher he respects and the seme feels him up and goes into graphic detail about their sex life, all to shock the other teacher and to humiliate the uke. What a repulsive protagonist.

At the end the author congratulates herself for a 'happy' ending--hah! Having a wounded, emotionally scarred and needy person end up with someone who will humiliate him, manipulate his emotions and betray his trust, is hardly a happy outcome. Save your money for a yaoi novel that's actually well-written.

Dark, But Engaging
After reading the other reviews and then reading the book, I wonder what all the fuss is about. This is not the only yaoi novel that has a demented seme.
Sagami in "Sleeping with Money", Hodaka in "The Guilty Volume 1" and Munechika in "S Vomume 1" come to mind. There is a lot of sexual harassment going on in all those books I mentioned. Besides, Shiina, the uke in this story is damaged goods himself - he is having sex with a woman more than twice his age for money - because he thinks of her as replacing the mother he can't reach emotionally! I think Immoral Darkness is fast-paced and well-written. Of course Sasagawa is a repulsive person, but that's what the author is trying to tell us. Yaoi fiction can't all be "Only the Ring Finger Knows". This story really makes me wish for a sequel. I want to get more inside the characters' heads - particularly to find out how Sasagawa became the hateful person he is.

Dark, intense yaoi novel
The title for this novel suits it very well. The story is immoral and dark.
This novel contains very mature and dark themes such as rape and emotional manipulation in relationship. Sex (i.e., rape) between the uke and seme is quite explicit. The theme of immature young people being lured into relationship by immoral adults is quite strong and realistically described in this book. It also contains a mentioning of one of the main characters (seme) having sex with a 14-year old girl. (Note: No actual sex with that girl is described and basically no detail on that situation is given, which I obviously think is a must / a good thing.) Also, the seme is (obviously!) quite a bad guy (and the uke allows him to manipulate him and seems to be quite weak-willed most of the time). However, I don't see the author describing the seme in any "positive light" (as one of the previous reviewers wrote): the author is using quite an objective, "matter-of-fact" language. The judgment of the characters is left to the readers. Rather, I suspect, a lot of the US yaoi readers are not prepared to have a seme in the story who's actually *bad*, so they were obviously appalled by this novel (see previous reviews for this book... Most of them are really negative).
So, if any of these sounds like not what you want to read, please stay away from this book: it will only disappoint you.
Why I like this book? Because it's intense, fast-paced, original and atypical. For one thing, the seme is not a "good" guy that I *must like* just because it's our current yaoi "market standard" to have *good* semes and ukes: I actually really dislike the seme in this story and his immoral behavior. The story is relatively well-written, especially for yaoi novels. Due to mature and realistic content / situations the story describes, it didn't even felt as a yaoi novel at times.
I'd probably rate it 3.5 - 4 stars, but in today's thin US yaoi market and given all the bad reviews, I decided to somewhat inflate my rating and give it five stars, as there may be still potential readers who'd enjoy the novel but may get discouraged by overall negative reviews.