I’m afraid you just don’t understand this story, and that’s okay
Don’t be afraid, this story is not that deep or good for that matter, sorry you drowned in a kiddie pool but that doesn’t make this story any more interesting.
Very much agree, I always wondered what ppl see so deep in the story, it's literally too cliché, a cliché and cheap love triangle and a cliché noir theme. But ppl see trauma stuff and immediately think the story is deep when in fact it's very shallow and inconsistent. What bothers me about the stroy is that why things happen or why things are this way feels very forced without a strong foundation of justification. Ppl really dead ass read this and think what ian and tj have is realistic and that their trauma justify it when it isn't, when in fact their long term fuck buddy relationship is one of the most forced I have ever read about that doesn't have a convincing justification to why it exists and why it lasted that long, except that the writing is shallow (trauma porn) and the characters are dumb. And then Jo a normal civilian willing to kill for a man he fucked for a few months who never loved him back and is ready to lose his future or life for that thing. Without giving us anything convincing back story to why Jo is capable of doing this, and what kind of guy he was when he was dating women.
The author has lost the plot so bad it’s made the story unbearable, these are grown ass men bound by nothing and they just make their lives harder and harder for no other reason but self flagellation, I’m sure someone finds this super deep because of all the trauma these guys go through but it unfortunately isn’t.