La Esperança

---

I just finished reading the story I mentioned in the last post. It's only seven books long, and I think that it's definitely worth a read for everyone, even people who aren't interested in the sort of thing (it is shonen ai, after all).

The common conception (as I have seen and heard) is that it falls short of the genre in that it doesn't show much of the feelings behind the situation, or more so that it fails to show them fully. I kind of see their point, in that it is a short series; by the end of it all, which seemed to happen almost abruptly, I suddenly felt myself wanting more. There's a small ending piece that almost goes to say that life goes on, and so will the story, we just don't get to hear the rest of it... so the reader does have to deal with that.
It's hard to write about this and not give it away for those of you who haven't read it... so...

**This next section contains spoilers, or something very much like it. Please avoid this if you have not read the series!!

While it does deal with boys in an all-boy academy, it does go to show the facet of religion in sexuality. The interesting part is that it doesn't explain what's going on, it assumes that the reader knows the history of Christianity (as is the religion in question) and the homosexual community. The particular country doesn't have an openly gay population, yet neither does it have a repressed one. It seems like people are either embarrassed by the concept of themselves being gay, but no one else really gives two mites over it. It does say in the last book that the main character's soul is beautiful, and that's enough, but unless someone really was reading the series to find out what someone else thinks about it, then most people would miss that as a major note. It's not as simple as many would like to believe. To have such feelings and be aware of them, and then to not be able to follow up on them is magnified under scrutinizing eye of the clergy.

It was a little hard to keep track of who was who, because the stylization was so strong at first, but it softened a little and grew more fluid by the end. The second main character and the first-major-supporting character are easily confused at times, and one must pay attention to their neck-ties (Henri wears the ribbon tied, and Robert doesn't wear it tied... or at all).... anyway, that's that.

The story is really complicated, and that makes for wonderful drama, so please enjoy it; I know I did.... you may all see some La Esp fan art from me soon. yay.