Review: Yield Under Great Persuasion by Alexandra Rowland

Blurb:

Tam Becket has hated Lord Lyford since they were boys. The fact that he’s also been sleeping with the man for the last ten years is irrelevant.

When they were both nine years old, Lyford smashed Tam’s entry into the village’s vegetable competition. Nearly twenty years later, Tam hasn’t forgiven him. No one understands how deeply he was hurt that day, how it set a pattern of disappointments and small misfortunes that would run through the rest of his life. Now Tam has reconciled himself to the fact that love and affection are for other people, that the gods don’t care and won’t answer any of his prayers (not even the one about afflicting Lyford with a case of flesh-eating spiders to chew off his privates), and that life is inherently mundane, joyless, and drab.

And then, the very last straw: Tam discovers that Lyford (of all people!) bears the divine favor of Angarat, the goddess Tam feels most betrayed and abandoned by. In his hurt and anger, Tam packs up and prepares to leave the village for good.

But the journey doesn’t take him far, and Tam soon finds himself set on a quest for the most difficult of all possible prizes: Self care, forgiveness, a second chance... and somehow the unbelievably precious knowledge that there is at least one person who loves Tam for exactly who he is—and always has.

Review:

I have so many thoughts about this book and all of them are chaotic and generally a bit incoherent. Like, I have sat on this review for about two weeks (at the time of writing this) but recommended this book to no less than five people. One of them even texted me “Bestie called a god a ‘bitch’ and didn’t get brutally killed. This is so wholesome.”

Wholesome is a good way to describe it. Thank you, anonymous friend of mine! 

The setting is in Alex’s Seven Gods series but you don’t need to have read the previous books in this world. I recommend it, because they’re fantastic, but you can start on this as a standalone and not lose anything. Which is great because sometimes you want a cosy standalone that is also just therapy for you and neurotic little thoughts. 

“Wait, why are you mentioning therapy?” Because this book made me and many others in Alex’s discord feel unbelievably seen. 

Tam is a goblin, not literally. He thinks people aren’t around him because he’s so unpleasant but life just happens. He doesn’t believe he deserves good things because bad things have happened to him. He can’t see the forest beyond the trees, meanwhile the whole forest grew for him. You might think this makes him self-centred and insufferable but really he is just so deeply flawed and struggling. And honestly, aren’t we all? Maybe the real friends are the neuroses we resolved along the way….No that didn’t quite work. Anyway, Tam’s awful and because of that he is great. Just think of him as the most orange of orange cats. 

Lyford meanwhile…I just want to protect Lyford. He’s a good, repressed, little flower. Please don’t be mean to Lyford, he’s doing his best and he’s good.

Now this is all to say, Yield Under Great Persuasion is not an intense, fast-paced, tons of action (ok, well not like swords…ok, well not metal swords and things on fire). This is cosy and more about character friction (yes that kind of friction too) and self fighting that drives the story. And just in case the little hints here weren’t clear, there is sexual humour and sexual content throughout the whole book. Is there actual on page spicy spice? Not really but there is a lot of intimacy just because books focusing on interpersonal relationships can deal with some vulnerable scenes. Nothing triggering! But vulnerable. 

Like I said, my thoughts are chaotic and incoherent on this. Let me try to sum up: If you feel like a horrible goblin, weighed down by trauma and wanting to flee situations in which you’ve been perceived by throwing yourself out the window, this is hands down the book for you. Oh, also all of that but also keep crawling into bed/jumping the bones of someone you think you hate, this is your book. Look no further than this very gay, very cosy, bundle of healing joy where a character calls a got a ‘bitch’ and doesn’t get brutally murdered.