By the Book 2 #11

[Daphne]

The ladies are taking charge of… well, the other ladies, much to the benefit of the men.



Script and Lettering: Daphne • Art: Sturkwurk

[crazydorian]

Will we end up with an ouroboros of ladies controlling each other by the end of this?

I'm okay with that.

[Haight]

How could By the Book 1 be so fun and By the Book 2 be so... not?

[grimtidings]

How could By the Book 1 be so fun and By the Book 2 be so... not?

I'd only be speculating on why it's less fun for you but I'll itemize what's dampened the heat for me:

• Echoes of the first book. Book 2 started out like something new and "different" (kind of like the Gifts arcs) with a couple whose characters get explored a bit but then... goes back to the original harem.
• Stretching the bounds of credibility. So... let me get this straight... the original guy built his harem and, through the mistress of the cuck guy, hijacks that potential rival with zero rough spots or consequences (once, book one)... only to have THAT guy coincidentally get the wife of our latest guy who JUST got booked by her husband into creating a secret cross-harem gobbling up the members of the original shared harem on behalf of the cuck guy while she thinks she's doing it for her guy and successfully converting the original guy's main catspaw and ticking down the list of the whole range of ladies with noone the wiser and nothing going wrong. That's some Ocean's Number-level perfection in happenstance and execution.
• Endless procession of character-less new faces. I was excited to see a new slate of people to experience the trickery of the books and, especially, appreciated the work on the relationship between the new guy and his wife. The inclusion of the neighbor was acceptable (I wish I knew if she liked/disliked anything but whatever) as a first test of the power. But, now that we've tied into the entire stable of under-developed Book One women... do we really need MORE? I mean, I know the answer is "yes" but. Yeah.

That said, the art remains top-notch and I do look forward to the chapters... just not as much as I did for book one (exception: the first couple of issues were super-interesting).

I'm about 99% sure this opinion is in the minority but I'm feeling mouthy today, it comes and goes.

[Haight]

How could By the Book 1 be so fun and By the Book 2 be so... not?

I'd only be speculating on why it's less fun for you but I'll itemize what's dampened the heat for me:

• Echoes of the first book. Book 2 started out like something new and "different" (kind of like the Gifts arcs) with a couple whose characters get explored a bit but then... goes back to the original harem.
• Stretching the bounds of credibility. So... let me get this straight... the original guy built his harem and, through the mistress of the cuck guy, hijacks that potential rival with zero rough spots or consequences (once, book one)... only to have THAT guy coincidentally get the wife of our latest guy who JUST got booked by her husband into creating a secret cross-harem gobbling up the members of the original shared harem on behalf of the cuck guy while she thinks she's doing it for her guy and successfully converting the original guy's main catspaw and ticking down the list of the whole range of ladies with noone the wiser and nothing going wrong. That's some Ocean's Number-level perfection in happenstance and execution.
• Endless procession of character-less new faces. I was excited to see a new slate of people to experience the trickery of the books and, especially, appreciated the work on the relationship between the new guy and his wife. The inclusion of the neighbor was acceptable (I wish I knew if she liked/disliked anything but whatever) as a first test of the power. But, now that we've tied into the entire stable of under-developed Book One women... do we really need MORE? I mean, I know the answer is "yes" but. Yeah.

That said, the art remains top-notch and I do look forward to the chapters... just not as much as I did for book one (exception: the first couple of issues were super-interesting).

I'm about 99% sure this opinion is in the minority but I'm feeling mouthy today, it comes and goes.

I'm kinda with you there. The focus on cheating as a way to add spice, rather than characterization, is grating after a while.

[grimtidings]

I'm kinda with you there. The focus on cheating as a way to add spice, rather than characterization, is grating after a while.

While I'm actually titillated by cheating stories I agree with that, too. Cheating, by itself, is a tired setup and bland.

Cheating when it happens among characters who have enough depth and complexity to have cheating matter... boom.

Sang Froid is a cheating story done well and concisely. Dude walks in on his wife and his best friend. All the expectations are there: her guilt, the friend's casual and unsurprised reaction like he'd planned it (but, perhaps, it's a bluff), and the dude's shock. The art and writing highlight the wife's confusion and guilt as she reluctantly tells a story, entirely from her perspective, on how this affair started and is perpetrated. The friend makes an indecent proposal. Mystery, tension, conflict. And we find out why these two men are best friends. It's clear what the wife wanted (or, rather, DIDN'T want). It's clear what the friend wanted. We learn what the dude wanted (but wondered, for a moment). The cheating mattered (to her) until the mind control... and is really just a detail in the true conflict between dude, his wife, and the friend.

Jim's Wife is a cheating story without any heft. Dude invites his hypnotist best friend to help his wife overcome insomnia. Wife expresses concern that "something might happen" but the dude reassures her that he'll be right there the whole time. The friend instantly turns her into his on-call sex slave and makes dude an enthusiastic cuck. Because we all, generally, understand that hypnosis doesn't work this way... they all got what they wanted? The cheating doesn't matter, it was just a detail... there is no conflict between dude, his wife, and the friend!

Anyway, when it comes to mind control and cheating there's a whole world of stuff to consider beyond just the adultery. I'd be more worried about my wife being Upstream Color'd!