*—And you are too young to be making these decisions about yourself.
—Decisions?*
WARNING! ACHTUNG! LONGREAD!
This scene is remarkable for me. I think everybody is familiar with unasked, merciless, needless trial of your very existence, carried out by self-righteous people, sometimes even closest, just because you are being you. There were no decisions made, you didn't do anything wrong, still you're judged by people as if you were a criminal.
Toxic cocktail of embarassment, weakness and a complete understanding of injustice that is happening, is running through your vains. You even start to sense guilty, as if all of their accusations were truth. Willing to fight back, not able to prove your innocence.
This maddening situation and following sensations made me, non-queer person, feel direct connection with Riley.
In my opinion, it says a lot how impactful and touching this beautiful novel can be.
Speaking about beauty of Dawntide, it's the most artistycally expressive and authenticly created stories I've ever seen. It looks and sounds exactly how port town should sound and look . And more importantly, the art-direction of this game is doing an amazing job at depicting Riley's worldview and perseption. He is an artist. And that is how we should see the world through his eyes.
Generally, I feel like everything is made on purpose in this novel. No word is thrown to be thrown. And words that are used are very strong. You are intrigued with interesting dialect of the group of friends, with their naturalness (they actually speak like real people!), with this "something" beneath the curtains everybody in this game has to offer. Intrigued from the start till' the end.
9/10 Absolutely wonderful story.
P.S. Sorry for poor English not very suitable for depiction of such a loveliness. It's not my mother language and haven't practiced it a lot. :)