A bit too close to home as a grad student with professor family members, having heard many a story about inappropriate relationships with grad students. Can't help but imagine myself in the professors shoes and feel really skeeved out and that anxiety.
It's an unrealistic scenario, but that only makes the idea of being in that position more uncomfortable to me. Claiming that your grad student sexually assaulted you would not be easy.
I think what gets in the way of my enjoyment of ones written like this might be the passive position one of the characters is given. A contrasting example that I really like is Black & White, where both parties are jockeying. There's a lot of other things separating them ofc, but unless that aspect changes idk if I'll end up being able to enjoy this one.
Edit:
One thing I like is when pieces give some emotional significance to things like harassment or sexual assault. This doesn't have to be angsty, just any sort of story other than "wow this actually makes me fall in love with this person." That story was tired out by het romances a long time ago...
last edited at Nov 9, 2026 1:39AM