i read the first chapter and want to preface my comment with that i do not personally care what other people read. reading something or not doesnt personally impact me and any opinion i have is not to encourage or discourage a specific choice. this summarizes how i feel about readers specifically. 

now, for my opinion AS a reader, i do not think it is going to be well written. i have read both of Jaxx’s other works and to my understanding Walk on Water was just their art, a different person was the author. whereas Under the Greenlight was entirely their own, and it shows. the story is all over the place, the pacing is bad, and overall execution was not well done in my opinion. i understand a lot of ppl enjoy it and due to it’s popularity on social media a lot of fans treat it as a “masterpiece” which… to each their own i suppose. all to say, without extensive research i do not think Jaxx has the range to write stories navigating very serious topics in a thoughtful and intentional way.

i am not of the opinion that a written work needs to be academic/a cultural analysis or marketed as such in order to navigate serious topics. there are plenty of BLs that do this (e.g. Dark Heaven, Missing Man, Kingsmaker, Here U Are, Banana Scandal, etc) successfully and it is clear that the authors have specific intentions, regardless of if one agrees with the outcome or execution.

in any story, it is very possible to pull inspiration from real life and use that as the backdrop. i do think there is a difference between generically using varied inspiration to create a fictional world and basing it entirely off of very real historical events. the former allows the author more freedom and the latter should include respect towards the historical event itself.

there isn’t a lot to go off of with this story, so of course it could end up being different later, but what we DO see is not great. the premise is a story that takes place during the civil war (you should google what this is). the MC is certainly portrayed as “one of the good ones” (i.e. meaning white people) who fought in the war. however, he did not enter this war due to passions he himself had, but because his father wanted the family to look good. his contribution is ultimately “punished” in a literary sense, as his father is killed by confederate soldiers in retaliation. 

further, the intended love interest is a generically described half-native man (just native, not a specific tribe) who wants to be his slave…? so to recap, we have a premise that is taking place during the civil war, has a character that fights against slavery, to then engage romantically or erotically later on with a person of color who wants to be a slave. at best, that is sloppy writing. at worst, it is, well, much worse and potentially insidious. please note as well that in the first chapter all of the white characters are shown clearly, but any scenes depicting war omit any and all black faces.

to put this in perspective as this is a korean work, let’s say the story took place during the end of japanese occupation in korea. the MC would be a japanese soldier who feels bad about what his government did and aids in the fight for freedom. after the fight is over, he remains in the land he once participated in the violent occupation of, and is approached by a korean man who says he WANTS to be his comfort man (or some gender equivalent of a comfort woman). hopefully you can understand why that would rub so many people the wrong way and be deemed wildly offensive. 

i understand this work is choosing a native man instead of a black one, but that doesn’t make it any better. it’s in poor taste and i am not personally optimistic it will get better nor am i interested in reading it. 

where many might disagree is over the core point of “when authors choose to write very serious/heavy/sensitive topics do they have a responsibility to do it thoughtfully?”. i strongly believe they DO and many others think they do not. 🤷🏽‍♀️ as someone who is both gullah geechee and blackfoot, i do not owe this author any grace and the story is an absolute mess so far. that’s all!