Be Gay Do Crime

Self-Published

Community Rating

Description

Summary:

A crime thriller about a trans girl fighting against the injustices of an uncaring system, the religious fascists gaining power, and the criminal elements of her city that are as much friend as they are foe.

At least she has a bombastic gay girl to show her the ropes!

Hiatus until I finish the next leg of the story, which as planned will include Volumes 5,6, and 7.

Cover art by the absolutely amazing Snazzy!

Information

Status: Hiatus
Year: 2024
Author: Pen Dragoon

Royal Road Stats

Rating: 3.5/ 5.0
Followers: 170
Views: 65,956

Reviews

No reviews yet. Be the first to share your thoughts!

Community Reviews(10)

enticingCherryRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
I will preface this by stating that I've read other fiction from this author before. The quality in the narrative is recognisable, even if the style is decidedly different.
It pains me to see a good story bombed by negative reviews, but considering how the story started, it makes a morbid amount of sense. It must, after all, be awful to see such a well-depicted mirror of their thoughts and actions in the antagonists.
[Style]: The story seems, up until the point I've read, to be a rather balanced mixture of coming-of-age queer romance, exploration of politics and police and gritty action with some hints of crime in it.
I'm sure the crime will be much more prevalent in the future- it is in the title, after all- but in this beginning of the story, it's only now shaping up to what it might be in the future.
While not at all my usual cup of tea, as I'm a bit of a whore for fantasy and sci-fi, this was very, very fun to read. I'd recommend it for anyone who's a fan of any of the genres I've mentioned above, or just want some quality queer fiction. Transbian stories are already hard to come by, and especially ones dealing with these topics with the careful construction this story has.
[Story]: Up until now, I have absolutely nothing to complain about the story. The slow pacing fits the beginning nicely, and the hints of future plot hooks sprinkled through the scenes are nicely done. The plot itself is already showing how deep it will run, with multiple political factions, fucking nazis, gangs, prejudice, violence and death. It's a satisfying at-the-moment read that leaves the reader trepidatiously excited about where it'll take them.
[Grammar]: The grammar is almost perfect. It has very minor stumbles here and there, but as I've seen most of the little corrections already suggested throughout the comments, as well as how well the author has written in their other ventures, I have no doubt it'll reach perfect soon.
[Character]: The protagonist characters, so far, seem very
AxolotlsquibRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Another home run from an Author I've come to expect nothing less from. If you enjoy their work on other projects I highly recommend giving their original fiction a shot. It's gay it does crime it does everything it says on the tin and more! I only wish there was more and every M/W/F there is!
AlkeniwRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Lovely story for those who love criminals and lesbians, it's an adorable story of a woman falling into crime because of a very beautiful criminal who saves her life. Absolutely recommend for any hardcore romance fans, as well as those who enjoy modern, down to earth actions and crime thrillers.
ChaoticDrewtralRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
High quality work as always from Pen, no surprises there. Characters feel like people and there are rarely, if ever, spelling errors. Among the things that happen in the first chapter, the part at school stands out the most to me, with how those “pranks” actually feel like something an apathetic school administration would dismiss as minor so they can avoid actually doing anything.
DungeonEnvyRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
I literally have be gay do crime tattooed on my wrist, I am the target audience
but! Fantastic story, believeable characters, lots of emotional and a very gritty reality makes this a delightful read. My only critique would be that the verbiage comes across a touch formal at times given the content, but it's not even enough of a bother for me to dock half a star, really just to fill the wordcount here.
KWintersRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
One of my favourite authors from fanfiction, I was so excited to see this when I first heard it was being written, let alone when it first began posting!
The characters are written well, are all flawed in their own ways, both shared and unique, with a strong narrative that speaks to the current state of the USA while pushing for the hope and humanity of people; As well as how much that can slowly change you before you realize just how far down the rabbit hole you may have traveled.
I've read the patreon release parts, and can highly recommend the rest of the story as something you won't want to miss out on, with a wealth of emotional punches throughout as you desperately hope that characters will come out okay at the end, while the narrative continues to pull you in.
MyrmorRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Telling an original story is always hard. It's even harder when you step away from the usual tropes and elements that tend to lead to reliable popularity on Royal Road. This story manages to shine while delivering something much more original than the usual fare on this site.
I don't tend to judge based on originality though. I reserve my full five star ratings for stories that have an abundance of three qualities; substance, emotional depth and the ability to keep me reading even when I really should be doing something else. This story, frankly, makes me feel like I need to go back and downgrade some ratings, because it blows quite a few of them out of the park in all three measures.
It's clearly a well-crafted story. Some authors get by on making it up as they go, and can get pretty good results from that approach, but it takes effort and dedication to put together something this solid. The amount of thought that was put into the writing is apparent even on a cursory look, but study it closer and it becomes even clearer.
Ashe's emotional journey is rich and compelling, as she struggles to deal with the weight and consequences of her choices in the face of an unjust world. It doesn't take you long to get invested to the point that you can't wait to see what will happen next.
Of course, if you're queer of any persuasion or just an invested ally, you will find the story particularly compelling for that reason too. The gay is strong with this one.
Style:
As mentioned, this story really rates high on the "making you keep reading" scale for me, but I want to especially mention how well it flows. The story hooks you very quickly and doesn't let go once it has you. There are no points where you find yourself wanting the story to just get on with things and get to the good part. Exposition is delivered in a natural way that doesn't disrupt from the story at all and usually feels relevant pretty much immediately. The writing is also easy to follow, managing to provide conte
PanpharmaconRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
A story containing all of my favourite things, Lesbians, Crime, did I mention Lesbians? Not only does it contain these things but Be Gay Do Crime manages to draw you in, each chapter leaving you wanting to read the next. The characters leave an impact in your mind, even those with limited presence. All this combined with great representation of LGBT individuals leaves me with little choice but to say this is best piece of original fiction I've read this year, if not this decade.
I cannot recomend this highly enough.
TotoroCloneRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Heartwarming, sweet, loving, lesbian, nazi-murdering criminals. So nice.
I've been enjoying this story immensely. The MCs somehow manage to be absolutely cuddle-worthy and frighteningly trigger happy, and the tension between those (which is of course a major part of the plot itself) makes for highly engaging chapters.
Set in modern bigoted America distilled down into the form of a gang-run, nazi-controlled Florida city, the slightly-renamed references to actual real-life events, people, and politics are near-constant, and are just as enraging as they were in our actual recent history.
The plot is one part wish-fulfillment counter-attack on the evil that nazi men do, one part descent into a life of crime, and one part ridiculously wholesome love story.
Grammar and style get full marks; mostly smooth, nothing particularly jarring, clearly proofread.
I've taken off half a star for character because as of chapter 72 the villains are still written a bit more two-dimensionally than I would expect at this point in the plot, even accounting for modern nazis being practically a caricature of themselves already. There are certainly hints that there may be a little more complexity going on behind the scenes, but it's taking rather a long time to get there.
The supporting characters of Ashe's parents are currently somewhere around 2.5 D, but beginning to be fleshed out, and I'm looking forward to more of this.
I also took off half a star for story because there is an aspect of the MCs' criminality that I don't entirely buy into yet -- don't want to spoil it, but if you're like me there may be a couple spots where you think "Huh, I don't think the descent plot has gone quite far enough for these choices yet."
Still, the overall story is quite enjoyable, and the gays do crime marvelously, so full marks overall.
BobismeisbobRoyal Road
★★★★ 4.0
Great story with amazing characters, it can be a bit grim but always in well supported ways and balanced with fluffy stuff.
Lots of great character work and you can see every step of how the main character ends up where she does and for all that it's not a good place you can't really say she didn't make the best choices of the ones she had.
(Despite the label I've read past chapter 100 it gets a lot better for Ashe but it also gets a lot worse.)