I read Theory of Love and here's what I thought

So, a good while back, I wrote a post about 2gether by JittiRain – a BL book from Thailand that I read on my Kindle. And now, I’ve read Theory of Love, also by JittiRain. Theory of Love, much like 2gether was also turned into a limited series which I have in fact watched, so I already vaguely knew the story of this book before getting into it. Also, this time I have a physical copy of the book, one that’s been translated too.

Anyway, I know I normally use the blurb, but I don’t need to for this one. The concept, or I guess the peanut butter and Blurby sandwich of this book (from the show) is that Third is in love with his best friend, Khai, and has been for two/three years, but Khai doesn’t know. Then eventually, Third decides he doesn’t want to be in love with Khai anymore because he keeps getting hurt. So he basically starts to distance himself from Khai, which Khai isn’t best pleased about. Now, the bit that is written on the back of the book only mentions that Third is in love with Khai, not that he decides to try and get over Khai, but given that it’s such a major part of the book, I decided to input it here. Also, the book is 660 pages… That genuinely might be one of, if not, the largest on my shelf. Now, the whole, singular, story isn’t 660, it was about 530, and the last 130 was for the special extra chapters at the end.

The main two characters of this are Third and Khai, but their friend group is “The Extremes”, which is Third (the mean/blunt one), Khai (who is basically in his slut era), Too (the photographer, who also just sleeps with the women he takes photos of), and Bone (allegedly the flirty one, as if Khai isn’t exactly that.) Now, I’m mentioning them all because, even though the book is about Third and Khai, Too does get given crumbs of a storyline. Bone gets nothing. Although, in the series based off of the book, all four of them do have their own storylines, which we love to see.

Speaking of Too. The special chapters at the end of the book, one of the four of them was his storyline, expanding on his crumbs, giving him a whole 30/40 pages to himself. In the series this storyline happens throughout, and I, personally, think that works better than just plonking it at the end.

The book changes from Third’s to Khai’s POV after six chapters, and then back after another six. I remember the show switching focus halfway through, so I was expecting this to happen, so it wasn't jarring when it did. And I honestly think this is one of those books where the multiple POV was a good choice, because once the POV switches the first time, it comes when Third thinks he has all but given up on Khai, so, in the moment, he doesn’t have anything else to say, and it switches when Khai realises that there’s something wrong.

Now, to touch on the bit where Third doesn’t want to love Khai anymore, this comes within the first 40 pages. And it comes when Too walks into Third’s room and sees all this stuff he has about Khai. Too only ends up spotting this stuff after Khai and Third watch this movie where the female lead won’t confess her feelings to the male lead because they are best friends and Khai said that was annoying, and that he’d rather have someone just confess. So Third does that, but Khai is a clown and doesn’t think he’s being serious, which obviously hurts Third once again. And mind you, this all happens in 40 pages, so, one thing I can give this book was that there was always something happening, but not in a too much is happening at once kind of way.

One of my favourite scenes in TV history is the train station scene from the Theory of Love series, so I had high expectations for it in the book, and, while the wording and dialogue was different from what I was used to… It still got me. Like, the TV version made me emotional, and so did the print version. And while I’m on the TV vs book thing, this book did, for me, suffer from me watching the series first, so when the book described the characters, my monkey brain was like, “That’s not what the characters look like :)”, and then I proceeded to imagine the characters as they looked in the series.

Now, this might be a radical change in topic, but I’ve noticed in the BL sphere, be that book or series, there’s this triangle (that doesn’t exist anywhere but my brain), and any BL content can be placed in this triangle. The three points? Romance, Comedy and Drama. I will say, making this triangle for myself had helped me categorise the content I’ve consumed, and as for Theory of Love (both the book and series), it definitely sits close to the point of the Drama corner. I wouldn’t put it all of the way in, despite the amount of angst this book has, because there definitely is some romance in it, although it does pale in comparison to the angst, because there is a lot.

I will say, however, the series does a better job of differentiating the characters and their personalities than the book does. Khai is an asshole, in both the series and the book, like straight up kind of a shitty person that makes bad decisions. But in the book, all of the Extremes were quite similar in that, besides Third, they sort of felt like watered down versions of Khai (Bone especially. Although he wasn’t all that present compared to the others.) All four of them are brash, use expletives, like, all the time, and, maybe this came with the realm of the book being a translation, I feel like there could have been more differentiation in the characters. There’s this side character, Un, who in the book is also this loud, brash person, where in the series, his character is completely different. Like, in the series, his character is a nice person, and we love him. Book Un loves a physical fight. And I think to finish this point, I would have had more of an issue with this had the other characters been more present, but since they weren’t, I guess it didn’t matter as much.

The book was also very heavy in reminding you what’s going on and what people were thinking. This, again, might have come in the realm of because it was a translation, but I would have liked it had the book placed a little more trust in the reader, because we knew how the characters felt, and there were a few points where it was like, “Okay, I get it, you don’t need to keep telling me.”

To touch on the fact this book was translated, from Thai to English. I’ll just say, it definitely read like a translation. Although, it wasn’t anywhere bad enough to hamper my enjoyment of the book. And I suppose since I had already read 2gether, I was half expecting it.

Now, to finish, I’m just going to put my other points, that I couldn’t fit anywhere else, here. The first is the title – I think it’s clever. Theory of Love. It was one of those that took me a moment to get. But the characters are film students… Film theory… Theory of Love. Such a simple pun, and I was a clown to not get it for so long. And my other point is, there was one point where Third called Orangeina (the drink) with raspberry juice a slutty drink after one of his friends suggested it for a hangover and… Slutty? I’ve never known a non-alcoholic drink to be slutty. It just fully sent me into orbit when I read it.

As my final thoughts, I’d already seen the series (twice lol) and knew I liked that, so I assumed I’d like the book as well. And I did, although, I think I’m more likely to re-watch the series than I am re-read the book.

Okay, bye!