
What's interesting about how it begins is that we really see very little of Kate's inner workings before her prince enters the scene; while she is described as having "asocial tendencies" and cites losing interest in reading as young as middle school, we aren't introduced to any hook as to why - at least, not straight out the gate. Then Cyrus shows up, and the description of him is so discordant to what Fanny draws that you can't help but laugh. So you notice that he's tall before you notice he's the size of a horse trailer? OK.

Sorry for the long screenshot, but this displays why Fanny is suited better to comics than to the written word: her ability to write back-and-forth and anything happening in between it leaves a lot to be desired. Also, convincing a teen girl to get into woodcarving because she self-harms to a noticeable extent?
Woodcarving?

The
Workaholics-like back-and-forth Kate and Cyrus share, despite their age and cultural differences, will remain jarring for the rest of the story, by the way. Keep in mind Fanny is writing this under the guise that Cyrus is simultaneously a cold-blooded manipulator of girls and women while also viewing Kate as a kindred spirit.

Pay close attention here: this is the beginning of Fanny's implication that Cyrus, pedophilic groomer and routine predator,
was a force of good in Kate's life. Before, she was apathetic and listless, until Cyrus came in as a Manic Pixie Dream Pedophile to bring color back to her world of black and white! Also, the fact that no other teachers have ever noticed Cyrus being inappropriate with students is honestly kind of a shame; if you really want that forbidden love angle, at some point, wouldn't you want someone who forbade that love to show up? And Lynn doesn't count, she's a hybistrophilic Bonnie to Cyrus' corpulent Clyde.

"What if he gets into trouble because someone got the wrong idea?" This will also become a recurring pattern in KAMGO, skirting close to the concept of Cyrus being brought to justice while never making such wishes come true. Anyone seeing a grown man and a teenage girl - who clearly, distinctively do not look or act as if they're related - would likely wonder if a trafficking situation was happening. I know I have to seem like a total hardass here, but Fanny really does present herself like quite an esteemed writer, and the more you read of what she writes, the more arrogant it seems.

Kate has appallingly juvenile interests, though they fit her as a gawky teen girl with poor social skills. The rub here, though, is that we've seen established in
this comic that Cyrus being so keen on entertaining a little girl's hobbies isn't as much the calculating move of a practiced predator but moreso an expression of kinship from a fat autistic manchild. For some reason, Mary and Max did the premise of "fat old fuck who can't relate to others and the little girl he befriends" leagues better...

You can tell romance is not Fanny's forte because Kate and Cyrus have absolutely no chemistry, no matter how hard Fanny tries to bash her dollies together. Their dynamic is dry and their conversations are agonizingly dull, even if you like things like Five Nights at Freddy's or Minecraft. It's like watching two buckets of paint fall in love, if buckets of paint had issues with child predation.

Cyrus states - in the most Fannyish tone ever - "Fat people are extremely hot." Even if this were an attraction that Fanny had intended for Cyrus to have all along, it should be noted that for the most part, Kate is the only fat girl Cyrus is ever seen courting. Hm, why would Fanny, a round little mouse herself, make such a grand show of talking about the sex appeal of fat people?

Notice here that Fanny isn't making any show whatsoever to indicate a level of self-preservation in Kate; not sure if it's different in France, but American mothers - the half-decent ones, at least - are usually very quick to educate their daughters on the perils of males, especially older males. It seems hard to believe that Kate's parents are this checked out, especially Mexican parents, who usually like to set their daughters on fire the second they catch wind that she's felt even the slightest yearning for anyone.

Here, we see Kate is the initiator of their romantic prospects; Fanny has talked about this previously, but
Cyrus very purposefully attempts to get girls to make the first move and claims that they're "thankful" to him. Not only is it completely unrealistic for a predator like Cyrus to have a victim count as high as he does where
nobody has said anything nor has felt traumatized by his abuse, but it's also Fanny wussing out again. Finish the job, Fanny!

You'd think the love confession between a grown man and his young pupil would be a lot more emotionally charged and dramatic, but it isn't. Honestly, I almost skimmed this scene because I was just so uninvested. For being her prize pig in depravity, Cyrus is a shockingly boring person to read about.

"The metric ton of sketches she has of her anime OCs and all their AU versions as well" - This line right here is what convinced me that Kate may be the most brazen self-insert Fanny has in her collection. Online OC culture and making OCs (as opposed to writing stories specifically) is a very,
very specific kind of online artistic subculture, one which most writers don't necessarily get involved with. If threadfollowers have ever found the way Fanny navigates storytelling to be off-putting or strange, it's specifically because she's belonged to this subculture for so long (which didn't take flight on Tumblr, but Tumblr definitely lit a fire under its bottom).

I'm trying to focus on the story itself and how it relates to Fanny, but the writing is so fucking bad it's making it a trial to read. Jesus Christ, Fanny, read something that wasn't hosted on AO3 for once, it's genuinely grating.

This is where Kate and Cyrus actually have the first inklings of sexual contact; keep in mind Fanny is describing, in loving detail, the molestation of a 14-year-old girl with the same kind of tone you would see in any off-the-shelf erotica intended to titillate its readers.

And in the wake of this molestation, Kate's doing well in school! Who knew child rape made kids do better academically? Cyrus isn't a monster, if anything, he's a hero!

Their back-and-forth about race is a bit hard to read, if only because Fanny - whiter than the driven snow - seems like she's trying to seem like a Cool Whitey by writing what she imagines two people of color talking like. Also, the description of Kate gorging herself on Korean barbecue amused me, if only because I can tell this was written from the heart, so to speak.

Prepare yourselves, Kiwis: another sex scene is on the horizon, and this one is much longer and much more detailed. Highlights of this first part are "somehow Cyrus takes a young teen girl who is clearly not related to him to a hotel and nobody bats an eyelash" and "Fanny insisting how
adult Kate feels from being groomed, and this is honestly framed as a positive thing."

The infantile way Kate views Cyrus' penis also emphasizes just how fucking creepy this whole thing is, and creepier still how Fanny seems to write a grown adult Kate as absolving Cyrus of any wrongdoing. In no way, shape or form is this written in a way that makes it clear Fanny believes what Cyrus is doing is morally reprehensible, and
if you view the comments at the end of the fic,
even the readers find it sexually arousing. Don't think A.M. Homes was expecting anyone to beat meat to
The End of Alice.

I don't know how someone so endlessly fucking horny can write such a sterile and emotionless sex scene; it felt like I was filling out forms at the doctor's office just trying to get through this. But with the conclusion of the sex scene, we have finished chapter 1 of KAMGO.
What are your thoughts, farmers? Is it a contender to share a bookshelf with My Dark Vanessa and Lolita? Do you wish you could wash your eyeballs?