Day: July 8, 2020

Review: The Tragic Life of Lady Tina DeSilva (Tales From Verania #1.5) by T.J. Klune

A free side story that made me laugh.

4.5 out of 5 stars

Ebook. 65 pages. Published September 26th 2015

Blurb:

Lady Tina DeSilva was not a cruel girl. No, she most definitely wasn’t cruel. After all, it wasn’t her fault that Mervin made her want to stab him in the face just to see what his blood looked spilling out onto the ground while he screamed for her to stop.

Rystin was forever. Mervin, though.

Mervin was just a bump in the road.

Likes:

  • Made me laugh.
  • Accurate representation of toxic fandoms, bad fanfic, and unrealistic erotica.
  • I read it at the perfect time.
  • Free.
  • Every comment Gary made.
  • Larry and Wiggy.

Dislikes:

  • Made me look up what fletching was.
  • Easy to overlook.
  • Not perfectly edited.
  • Dumps hard on fanfic.

I had no idea this story existed. I saw it listed on Goodreads and looked it up, pleased to find that it was free on TJ Klune’s blog. Then I forgot all about it until Lady Tina shows up in A Destiny of Dragons.

I immediately stopped reading A Destiny of Dragons and read this short story. And I have to say, that was absolutely the right thing to do. What Lady Tina does in A Destiny of Dragons is directly related to this short story. And honestly, I would have forgotten about this story if I had read it before getting started on A Destiny of Dragons because a lot happens in the first quarter of that book.

So much about this story made me laugh. Even the intro. Knowing that Klune had planned this to only be 5,000 words and it ended up being 16,000 made me chuckle. But of course, it was Gary’s comments during the fanfic that were the best.

This story definitely feels like a bit of a commentary on toxic fandoms, bad fanfic, and unrealistic erotica. And that’s part of what made it funny. But it’s super easy to dump on fanfic and label it all as crap. Luckily, that’s not what’s done in this story. The fanfic is supposed to be bad, partly because it’s a product of Lady Tina and how unhinged she is. I just wish I hadn’t looked up what fletching was. To quote the story – “Hup,” Larry gagged. “Hup. Hup.”

The story isn’t perfectly edited, but I’m not going to complain about it. It was free, and made me laugh. I’m just glad I can go straight from this story back to A Destiny of Dragons. HaveHeart forever!

Be sure to check out the reviews for The Lightning-Struck Heart (Tales From Verania #1), A Destiny of Dragons (Tales From Verania #2), The Consumption of Magic (Tales From Verania #3), A Wish Upon the Stars (Tales From Verania #4), and the series review.