rSlash - r/Bestof Yes, I'm a Psycho Wife

Episode Date: April 15, 2025

0:00 Intro 0:09 Terrible book 5:31 Comment 7:27 Thrown out Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to r slash best of redditor updates where OP has to read the world's worst book. Our next reddit post is from Lazy Chickbum. I'm a 25 year old woman and my 37 year old boyfriend who I recently started dating gave me a book to read and it's really really bad. I met my boyfriend in our masters program. We became friends over the past year and started dating and becoming serious shortly before I left the state for a summer internship. He gifted me a book to read, saying that it was one he liked. It's A Spell for Chameleon by Piers Anthony, a fantasy novel written several decades ago. I knew nothing about it prior and began laughing at it two pages in because of how ridiculous the writing was, especially about women.

We Skyped after I got through the first chapter, and I tried respectfully explaining my doubts about the book. He made a deal with me. Knowing I'm a big Harry Potter fan, he promised to give the Harry Potter series a chance, starting with the Philosopher's Stone, if I gave his book a chance and kept reading. This rocked my world, and I had a sudden burst of motivation. I'm on chapter 3 and I can't stand this book. It's one of the most sexist and misogynist texts I have ever had to read and it honestly makes me feel like garbage. Not to mention it's just poorly written all around, painfully

spoon feeding obvious symbolism, and excessively throwing in fantasy creatures and concepts that do nothing for the plot. The protagonist is a complete dill hole that I could not care less about, and as a reader, I don't want to follow him or anything in the fantasy world of Xanthe. But of course, flat out telling my boyfriend those thoughts about a book he enjoys would be hurtful, and he has every right to have different preferences. I'm shocked that he would recommend such a book to me though. He's a respectful and educated man, treating me very well and identifying as a proud feminist. This recommendation was out of left field. Does he not remember how hurtful the author's writing on women is?

Did he read it at a young age and has since grown? I can't expect him to hold his end of the bargain and read Harry Potter, which is fine. Especially if it means not having to put myself through Piers Anthony excuse for writing ever again. I like my boyfriend a lot. How do I respectfully tell him why I cannot invest in this book anymore? It's important to me that he realizes the negative messages being suggested, but I want to do this without insulting his taste or making him feel at fault.

Then OP includes some excerpts. Example 1. I like beautiful girls, he said. And I like smart girls. But I don't trust the combination. I'd settle for an ordinary girl, except she'd get dull after a while. Sometimes I want to talk with someone intelligent, and sometimes I want to… He broke off. Her mind was like that of a child. It wasn't really right to impose such concepts on her.

Example 2. That's the point right to impose such concepts on her. Example 2. That's the point, he said. I like variety. I would have trouble living with a stupid girl all the time. But you aren't stupid all the time. Ugliness is no good for all the time. But you aren't ugly all the time either. You are variety.

And that is what I crave for the long-term relationship. And what no other girl can provide. Example 3. All women are the same inside. They differ only in appearance and talent. They all use men. Example 4. There's a grape trial in chapter 3. Wow, that's very early in a book to have a trial about graping someone. Example 5. Other girls managed to enhance their appearance by cosmetics or padding or specialized spells. But besides Sabrina, all other females looked somewhat artificial. She was no enemy.

Example 6. There was much more of her he longed to see and to touch, but that could come only after marriage. She was that sort of girl and it was part of her appeal. The girls who had it didn't need to put it on casual display. Then three days later OP posted an update. We Skyped the other night and the topic came up. I started by saying I liked him a lot and I really do appreciate how much he's willing to share with me.

He caught on to where I was going with this and started laughing. Then I started laughing. I realize how silly small of a thing this all was. I guess I didn't want to risk hurting his feelings. When the reason why I didn't like the book came up I explained and he totally understood. It's been at least a decade since he's read the book, and he can see where I would feel uncomfortable. He'll consider reading the first Harry Potter book since I gave his book a chance. And being a single dad, his kids also like the series, so it would be a chance for him to connect more with them.

I ended by saying that I hope this doesn't discourage him from sharing more things that he likes, and he said, if anything, it encourages me to find more that you'll appreciate. Cue heart flutters. Then eight years later, OP posted an update which basically just says that they broke up one month after that post. Down in the comments, people are trashing on Piers Anthony as an author. Full disclosure, I've never read any of his books. I'm not familiar at all, but read any of his books. I'm not familiar at all. But this is the description, like the back of the book description of one of this guy's books, Firefly. When a fleshless corpse is found on a Florida estate, a reclusive caretaker, an investigative reporter, a police officer, and a woman discover that a creature whose victims die in a frenzied state of sexual

ecstasy is preying on human beings. Okay, I've got three problems with this description. First of all, what is a fleshless corpse? Because a corpse is flesh. If there's no flesh, isn't it just bones? Secondly, how do we have a caretaker, an investigative reporter, a police officer, and a woman? She doesn't have a job? She doesn't have any identifying characteristics?

Just and then the woman. Also, does this creature make people cum and then they die? Is that what this description means? They die in a frenzied state of sexual ecstasy. They cum to death. This might be the most unappealing book description I've ever read in my life. Oh, my God. I am now on the Goodreads website for Firefly by Piers Anthony.

And Jesus Christ, the reviews of this book are not looking good. I'm going to read a little bit for you guys. This book is a love letter to grape. It catalogs various ways in which people, mostly women, are graped. It outlines the reasons why victims encourage grape. This book is Piers Anthony's public request to destigmatize consensual relations between two people who are genetically related and statutory grape. I suppose his argument is, if two adult men can love each other, then surely an adult

man can make love. Alright, I'm not going to read the rest of this. You can end that sentence with the worst possible way to end that sentence and you'd be pretty close to what was actually going on there. Our next Reddit post is from r slash true off my chest. I met my husband 4 years ago and it was love at first sight. He was a widow with a daughter who's now 17. It was tough to deal with, I won't lie, but I wanted to be with him so badly that

it didn't matter. We got married 2 years ago and we've had our struggles, I won't deny. But overall, it's been a very happy, love-filled marriage. At the beginning of our relationship, I was really jealous of his late wife. He had pictures of her around his home. His family loved her and talked about her. His daughter the same thing. His friends the same. It was tough.

I was comparing myself to her. She was beautiful, intelligent, successful. She was a great mother, friend, wife, whatever you can think of. I know that people don't like to speak ill of the dead, but I believe them when they say these things. I didn't speak to my then boyfriend about these feelings and he even took down some of the pictures later in our relationship. Still, his house never felt like my home as it felt like it was still hers.

When we got engaged, we decided that we would buy our own home and we moved in right before we got married. This was very stressful what the wedding so soon after would not recommend. During the moving process, I found box after box of old photos and other materials. Photos of his ex, family photos, photos of them together, baby photos, everything. Some of these were Polaroids they were so old. They had been together for many, many years and had so much history together. I don't know why at that moment I snapped, but I did. I threw the ones with her away. When we were putting photos up in the new house, I didn't put any of her except one with my stepdaughter. There was a box of her things and I donated some of the items and threw the rest away. I even went onto the

computer and deleted photos he had stored on there. At the time, I felt like I won maybe? I don't even know what I was thinking this would accomplish, but I did it. For the past two years, my husband hasn't noticed. My stepdaughter turns 18 soon. She's a very intelligent girl. She graduated early, goes to a top tier school, and is very well adjusted for someone who lost her mother so young. We've never been that close. I care for her, I do.

But she never opened up to me and has never viewed me as a mom to her. I understand, but it hurts. Anyways, my husband's mom wanted photos of her as she was putting something together for her. My husband went to look for them and as you can imagine, they weren't there. He asked me about them and I admitted everything to him as I wasn't going to lie to him. He's very angry at me and can barely look at me. I've asked him to go to marriage counseling, but he refuses. I'm 13 weeks pregnant and I'm trying to manage the stress. He's devastated not just for his daughter, but for himself. I know he loved his late wife very much, but if she was still here, he'd probably still be with her. He's been in tears half the time

when he's speaking to me and won't sleep in the same room as me. I've tried to explain that I felt guilty ever since and why I did it, but he doesn't care. He asked me what is he supposed to tell his daughter. Some of the materials that I donated and threw away were really important. I know that I screwed up. I know that I need to make this up to my husband and his daughter, but I don't know how to. This was such a monumental screw up on my part. I've always been jealous of her, and I did not handle my emotions correctly. I've tried to track down photos of her by other people, and while I did find some from his parents

and her friends, her parents died when she was young and she was raised by her grandparents who are now dead. There aren't many out there. Reddit, I love my husband and I want to fix this more than anything. I know that I'm hormonal right now and my mind is wandering around to every outcome that could happen. But what if this is the end of my marriage? I can't let that happen and I need to fix this. Wow, I love how OP says she's so guilty about this that the guilt has been eating her up. But not guilty enough to confess before the husband found out about it, right? She was more than happy to keep this secret, presumably to her grave. Then six years later, we get an update not from OP but from the adult daughter. The daughter writes, I'm a 23-year-old woman, and my late mom died over 10 years ago, and over 9 years ago,

my dad, who's 49, remarried my stepmother. My stepmother and I were never close. I missed my mom like crazy and would try to talk to my stepmother about her, but she didn't seem interested. Every time my mother was mentioned, she'd stop engaging in conversation and just go on her phone or walk away. When I was 17, my grandmother told me that she was creating something special for my 18th birthday. I asked for a hint, and she said that it had to do with someone I missed a lot. That night, I cried a lot. I knew that she was going to create something to do with someone I missed a lot. That night, I cried a lot. I knew that she

was going to create something to do with my mother. A while after that, my dad called me. He said that he had bad news while sniffling. He said that my stepmother threw away all of my mom's possessions. Not one thing was left. Not even sentimental items. I started crying and my dad comforted me over the call and then started crying with me. I know you aren't supposed to make major decisions when you're emotional because it can lead to reckless behavior. But I was so mad and sad that I decided to drive to my dad's house. My grandmother opened the door but I just walked past her. I went straight to my stepmother. I started yelling at her,

calling her something along the lines of jealous, vindictive, a b-word. I said a lot of vile words. I told her I never wanted to talk to her again. She tried to apologize, but I just blocked out everything she was saying. I ignored what everyone was saying and just left. Since then, my half-brother was born. I have nothing against him, but I barely visit him. My dad didn't immediately forgive my step-mom. He stayed for my half-brother, and after three years of couples counseling and therapy, he forgave her, although their relationship has never been the same. Some family members have told me I'm being dramatic.

They told me to get over it. It's been 5 years. It doesn't matter how many years it'll be since she did that. 5 since I knew and 7 since she did that. But I will never forgive her. No amount of apologies will bring back that stuff. Those memories. Dumping the old photos in the trash can is bad enough, but then logging onto your husband's computer, finding the file of his late husband and deleting those files is just unforgivable. I'm honestly surprised that the husband forgave OP because it seems like it would have damaged his relationship with his daughter. That was our slash best of Redditor updates and if you like this content, be sure to follow

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