Wattpad Pet Peeves

Running from the Past (Rant)

TW: mentions of sex, mentions of transphobia and homophobia

Book: Running from the Past

Author: Hudson Miller

Reads: 682k

Synopsis: Conan is a transgender boy who got outed at his old high school and had to move schools to start over. At his new school, Conan falls for the rich football captain, Owen. Owen comes to terms with the fact that he is gay, but struggles with his homophobic father. Later on, Conan gets outed at his new school and is tempted to run away and start his life over again, but Owen and his friends help him accept that this is who he is and he should be proud of his identity.

*I also want to point out that this became a paid story after I read it, and there is no way I am going to spend my precious dollars to reread it, so this is purely based off of my memory.

From the description, it sounds like a pretty cool story! I certainly thought that when I first added it to my library. But a common theme you may notice in these Wattpad rants is that even if a book has a solid-sounding plot line, there are so many other things that can be wrong with it.

First of all, I want to start with some concessions: this story has a lot of meaningful themes that I imagine are very powerful for LGBT+ youth. I actually think that even if you're not LGBT+, you can still benefit from the themes of learning to accept your identity and not caring what others think. The fact that Conan is gifted at running, both literally and figuratively, is creative. The end was also good, in which Conan becomes comfortable with his classmates knowing he is trans, and he learns not to care what they think of him.

Now for the rant:

1. The writing style is bland and colorless. Honestly, in spite of all the other flaws, if the writing style was even a tiny bit more dynamic and interesting, then the story would be worth reading, in my opinion. Luckily the chapters are short, so I don't have to deal with the boring writing for too much at a time, but it's really REALLY monotone.

2. Conan is an overly-passive character. One of my least favorite things in any story is when the plot happens around the main character, and the MC hardly initiates anything. That's how it is with Conan. Owen is the one to notice him and make a move; Conan's brother bullies him; the other students bully him. The only thing he ever actively decides to do is run away from his problems, hence the entire theme of the book. However, I will concede that Conan has a decent character development and becomes more confident in the end of the story.

3. Conan's parents don't seem to care about his older brother. Conan has an older brother (I forgot his name and I don't care to look it up), and he's jealous of the attention that Conan gets from their parents because he's trans. I can tell Hudson Miller wanted readers to dislike the brother, but in some respects I can't blame him for his jealousy. From what I remember, the parents don't seem to talk to him other than to scold him. And I feel bad that he had to move schools and his entire life got uprooted just because Conan wanted to run away from his problems.

4. Conan and Owen's relationship is reminiscent of what I described in my "Manic Pixie Dream Girl/Boy" chapter, but I'm not sure which of them is the manic pixie dream boy, because they're both kind of one-dimensional. I guess you could argue that Owen is the Manic Pixie Dream Boy, since Conan is the MC and undergoes the bulk of the character development. I remember Owen having his fair share of problems too (his family is rich and influential, and his father is homophobic), but I specifically remember that Owen felt attracted to Conan for seemingly no reason. So many authors use this line : "He/She/They didn't know why, but he/she/they felt drawn to him/her/them." I can't stand it. If one character finds another character hot, just say so.

5. There's this scene where Conan makes friends with a girl with blue hair, and he remarks that she must be a lesbian because only a lesbian would have blue hair (or something like that). I remember that line so vividly, because I was surprised to see a stereotype about lesbians in a book that's supposed to be empowering to LGBT+ teens. Did Miller intend this as some sort of brash joke? I remember checking the comments of that chapter, and a lot of people felt the same way I did.

6. (TW) That GOD-AWFUL sex scene. I'm saving the worst one for last. There's this very awkward scene where Conan and Owen have sex in Conan's bedroom, and it's just... the worst. The thing about a sex scene is that as an author, you really have to take care to set the mood. Miller did not do that. The whole scene just comes off as clunky and awkward, and it's a wonder how Conan and Owen are even still attracted to each other after that mess. For some reason, Miller feels the need to get very specific about the mechanics of how they have sex, too (MAJOR TW). They basically end up having "straight" sex because Conan is ftm and has not had bottom surgery. If that last sentence made you feel uncomfortable, then that's a little taste of what that scene was like to read.

That's about it for my first rant chapter. If you enjoyed, don't forget to leave a vote. It really means a lot to me. Since it's been a long time since I've read Running from the Past (nearly 2 years), please let me know if there's anything I left out or got wrong.

Thank you so much for reading!