Vinny Gets a Life

Full disclosure? I tend to react with excess aggression toward characters who share my own social anxieties and fears of communication because I hate that aspect of myself and I get so angry at others for wrecking their lives and friendships the way I have over the course of my life during moments where I'm not strong enough to fight the anxiety. So when I say that this work pissed me off several times, know that I say it in the most contradictory way possible. I say it not as a negative, but rather with a sense of affection. It absolutely made me want to grab both Vinny and Tony and shake them vigorously for being such absolute dunderheads on several occasions... but only because I related so much to Vinny and felt a strong emotional connection to both of them.

I loved them, like they were friends who I wished nothing but happiness (and togetherness) for. Vinny is a wonderful, sensitive guy. Tony is rough around the edges, but hiding a big heart behind that gruff exterior. Their friendship dynamic is just... chef's kiss - at least until Vinny starts overthinking things and making the decisions which made me grumpy for aforementioned reasons.

Even the side characters were developed and interesting. Fourns and Chloe are great friends to Vinny, and very well fleshed-out. Meg is the sassy best friend done right. And Carms is somewhere between annoying and relatable in a way which just feels real. I thought, during the first few chapters, that I'd never get a handle on who everyone was or what their personalities were, but the characters are so well-written that they developed unique entries in my memory rather quickly and keeping up was fairly easy - even though everyone has at least three names by which they're referred.

This is just... it's good. I don't know how else to describe this. It's a bit more angsty than I'd have maybe preferred so it didn't quite prove to be a mood booster for me like I'd hoped, but I still enjoyed it a lot and I'm glad I read this when I did. The vast majority was enjoyable, engaging, and well-written (though in need of an editor, but I can't fault it for that since it's from AO3 and not an actual ebook release). I liked most of it - loved it, in fact... except for one thing.

I honestly kind of hated the final chapter (installment? On AO3, this is technically a series of individual works and not a singular work with chapters). Or, well, I hated the last chunk of the penultimate chapter and the beginning of the final chapter.

In that portion, Vinny goes from a softhearted, gentle guy who means well to an absolute jerkass. He overreacts to a perceived intention, refuses to listen to the truth, blows up, dies on the hill of his misconception without listening, and acts unjustly angry and cruel toward Tony because of that. But then, barely a few paragraphs later, it's all brushed over and the argument just dies out and suddenly they're all friendly and compassionate again without Vinny ever apologizing for the misconception and the way he acted because of it. Yet Tony apologizes for his misconstrued actions and even for his own, confused emotions. It feels kind of toxic and imbalanced - and like the sudden shift to happy resolution is unearned. There really should have been more time dedicated to letting the situation cool down and recovering from it!

Considering the resolution which followed was incredibly adorable and an amazing ending to the story (albeit one which left me wanting more), I felt a bit jilted by the precursor. It was everything I wanted for them, tainted by circumstances to which I'm particularly sensitive. It was a delicious-looking slice of cake with my least favourite icing on top. Sure, I was able to eventually scrape the icing off and enjoy the cake beneath, but some traces of the flavour remained and I was still left with a cake that had no icing. Icing-free cake is sad.

That issue and the typos (of which there are sadly many) are the only reasons I'm not rating this five stars, though. So don't let the fact I'm more verbose and kind of intense when describing things I dislike fool you. I still very much loved the majority of this collection. Those issues were annoying but not by any means overbearing. The cake may be sad and free of icing, but it's still a damn good confection.

This is also the first story I've read in which an asexual partner found someone who both wasn't asexual and didn't feel a need to have sex with them (or someone else) anyway. As well as only the second story wherein the character's asexuality wasn't their sole defining trait. It's kind of sad how hard it is to find ace or demisexual characters, especially written in the context of romance. I don't necessarily have a vested interest in that regard, since I'm bi and aro, but I love fictional romance and I love reading about a wide variety of characters. So I'll celebrate well-written inclusion anywhere I find it, even if I'm not part of the group being included.

And this is well-written. I've said it before, but I'll say it again. Seriously, don't let the fact I'm an absolutely grumpy grumpface lately deter you, if you're interested in this! It's intriguing and often adorable with well-developed characters.

I adore the writing style and I think the characters are going to stick in my mind for a while. I want more from this continuity - more from the characters themselves, in fact. I want to see what comes of the relationship... but not enough to suffer through tumblr to find the pieces the author shared there. I quit that site for a reason, and I don't want to melt my laptop with its bloated coding or fall back into the unhealthy trappings of the constant popularity contest by creating an account again. Hopefully they'll show up as cameos in the author's other AO3 works and/or novels.