This one was a bit hard for me to get into.

First of all, I like the presentation and the art is very cute. I also appreciated the poetry sections!

I found the prose a bit hard to enjoy though. While I got a pretty basic idea of what the main conflict of the story was and what the story was about, what exactly is going on a line-by-line basis was often confusing (I am an ESL speaker though, so take my words with a grain of salt).

Still commendable as a first VN!

SPAGHETTI is a surpringly difficult read. What initially presents itself as a troll entry poking fun (for the n-th time) at the My Wolf trope, ends up making a really poignant point, with an expected twist, about the nature of this fandom. Sometimes we turn to 2-dimensional png of hot wolf husbandos because we're too scared to go out there and possibly get hurt pursuing relationships with flesh and blood people.

That's all well and true, yet SPAGHETTI ended up making me question my relationship with art (and stories in particular) more than its theme. Even though on a rational level I could see the point it was trying to make, I must admit my initial reaction to this VN was cold.

Part of it is that, while the VN engaged me on a rational level, I can't help but feel like it is ugly and not really engaging to read, in the way I expect stories to be engaging, even when they have symbolism and layers of interpretations. More specifically, I'm thinking of the first part of the story, which I find a bit unceremonious in the way it dumps abstract concepts at the reader without presenting them in the form of a narrative. The narrative comes eventually, and rereading everything in this new light is a nice surprise, but it still lets 90% of the VN feeling like a shitty experience.

Even though the comparison isn't perfect (considering SPAGHETTI delivers its message very well, or at least in a way I could understand and engage with), I can't help but think about that kind of avant-garde contemporary art that is supposed to have grand messages but that provokes in the average viewer like me the reaction "Ok, but it looks like shit" 😭

The other reason for my cold reaction is probably pride. Looking back, I must admit that my initial reaction to many May Wolf entries that presents themselves as parodies or troll entries was slight annoyance and the feeling that my time was being wasted when there was so much other stuff to read. And while SPAGHETTI proved to be something beyond a simple parody, I guess me and it got off on the wrong foot and I haven't been able to put that behind us.

So, uhhh, you know, if you want a work that challenges you and makes you think in just 2,000 words, give it a try. But I think I'm going to dump it and go lie on my bed instead.😢

This creamed my Boston.