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3.64 AVERAGE
3.64 AVERAGE
medium-paced
adventurous
emotional
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I feel like it dragged at a lot of points and I wish the romance had a bit more chemistry and build up. The last 20% or so was really good and I absolutely enjoyed the ending. I feel like the whole fox thing was a loose thread though
emotional
funny
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
emotional
funny
lighthearted
relaxing
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
funny
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
DNF’D at 12%. It was very confusing at points and I lost interest.
I’m not setting this as a spoiler review because I want TWs/CWs to be seen.
Trigger warnings: multiple suicide attempts (written about rather glibly, multiple attempts made “out of humiliation/shame” and then later made out of a sense of debt/“gratitude”), illness & suffering as a punishment mete out by gods, homophobia (violence due to)
Other content warnings: violence & death (war, swordplay, immortals taking lives on whims), self-sacrifice/main characters dying (even if they get reincarnated)
This is your last warning that the following review contains spoilers. Read at your own risk.
I have mixed feelings about this one. There was a good bit of humor, some vinegar moments (my fav), and some sweetness… but there was also a lot of confusion, very little romantic development*, and the ending was not as satisfying as it could have been.
Starting with the confusion: On the one hand I try to frame it that this is 1) written by an author from a very different country and 2) translated from its original language and when this happens there’s often lots lost in the process. But on the other hand I’ve already read a number of good danmei and manhua as well as watched a few donghua and cdramas, and while there are always pieces that are going to be a little confusing nothing compares to how confusing I found PBD. I had to look up who the MC’s main love interest actually was like 60 pages in because it was stressing me out the way things were going. It really doesn’t become clear until much later and if I hadn’t looked it up I would not have enjoyed the story. Even with knowing who the ML was, the love threads of the story are tangled up between four people (five if you count a fox spirit that cultivated a human form) and a whole bunch of meddlers. Add to that the usual confusion of multiple names and titles, there’s also immortal possessing bodies with different names & multiple lifetimes crossed. We are also fed flashbacks and the MC as the narrator does not seem very reliable.
These flashbacks are really the only way we see any of the romantic development between the MC and the ML. We get bits of conversations, reminiscing on time spent together, and often are brought to said flashbacks with a “hey do you remember when…” *scene* What development we do get in the present tense is extremely subtle, usually vinegar scenes that are over quickly. There is also no spice. The ML is a born immortal and has “no clue about the mortal way or about love” and when they do finally stop dancing around each other we get “we washed and then went to bed, and then washed and went to bed again” and a quote that was more or less “oh so that’s why mortals lament how short conjugal nights are” the next morning. There was nothing romantic or touching about it
Trigger warnings: multiple suicide attempts (written about rather glibly, multiple attempts made “out of humiliation/shame” and then later made out of a sense of debt/“gratitude”), illness & suffering as a punishment mete out by gods, homophobia (violence due to)
Other content warnings: violence & death (war, swordplay, immortals taking lives on whims), self-sacrifice/main characters dying (even if they get reincarnated)
This is your last warning that the following review contains spoilers. Read at your own risk.
I have mixed feelings about this one. There was a good bit of humor, some vinegar moments (my fav), and some sweetness… but there was also a lot of confusion, very little romantic development*, and the ending was not as satisfying as it could have been.
Starting with the confusion: On the one hand I try to frame it that this is 1) written by an author from a very different country and 2) translated from its original language and when this happens there’s often lots lost in the process. But on the other hand I’ve already read a number of good danmei and manhua as well as watched a few donghua and cdramas, and while there are always pieces that are going to be a little confusing nothing compares to how confusing I found PBD. I had to look up who the MC’s main love interest actually was like 60 pages in because it was stressing me out the way things were going. It really doesn’t become clear until much later and if I hadn’t looked it up I would not have enjoyed the story. Even with knowing who the ML was, the love threads of the story are tangled up between four people (five if you count a fox spirit that cultivated a human form) and a whole bunch of meddlers. Add to that the usual confusion of multiple names and titles, there’s also immortal possessing bodies with different names & multiple lifetimes crossed. We are also fed flashbacks and the MC as the narrator does not seem very reliable.
These flashbacks are really the only way we see any of the romantic development between the MC and the ML. We get bits of conversations, reminiscing on time spent together, and often are brought to said flashbacks with a “hey do you remember when…” *scene* What development we do get in the present tense is extremely subtle, usually vinegar scenes that are over quickly. There is also no spice. The ML is a born immortal and has “no clue about the mortal way or about love” and when they do finally stop dancing around each other we get “we washed and then went to bed, and then washed and went to bed again” and a quote that was more or less “oh so that’s why mortals lament how short conjugal nights are” the next morning. There was nothing romantic or touching about it
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix