Reviews with content warning for Blood - La bendición del Oficial del Cielo Vol. 1

I am really conflicted about this book (hence the middle rating). On one hand, I really like our protagonist and his love interest. Hua Cheng is charming, and I have plenty of theories about his backstory I want to see play out. The arc format of the story is appealing, with each arc having a ton of many wild plot twists, and I'm going to continue on with the series. But there were also grating things I just can't ignore.

The only way I know how to describe the prose is to say that it's like a fanfic. It is quite jarring to see such things in an original story I paid money to read - for example, characters' dialog consisting only of "..." or "???????". If you had never read fanfic before, I cannot imagine how this would come across!

The other is something the many fans encouraging me to read it or the discussions I've seen about the book never mention - the transphobic and Islamophobic elements in the plot. It was extremely uncomfortable to hear characters say things like "if I kidnapped someone I thought was a woman and they turned out to be a man in a dress, I'd kill them!" or

"the warmongering, brutish, Middle Eastern coded country was going to send civilians wearing bombs into public places to blow them up in acts of terror" as justification for genocide.

It makes me wonder what other harmful stereotypes of minority groups I'm going to have to grit my teeth through in the future.

Overall, my feelings are really mixed...

Content Warnings

fifteenthjessica's review against another edition

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DNF at the end of chapter 5. While I didn't hate it like I did the other book I DNFed (I did stick around long enough to finish the introductory story arc), I was apathetic to most of the story and had no desire to continue after I finished the first story arc. I don't know if it's the translation or this problem was in the original prose, but I personally found the writing neither amusing nor beautiful, and I think those were impressions the Mo Xiang Tong Xiu wanted the audience to have reading this. The characters--while set up with an interesting web of interpersonal relationships--also did nothing for me. I soon realized that what few questions the main character did invoke (what was the deal with his second ascension?) did not seem that relevant to the main plot and were therefore unlikely to be answered anytime soon.

If you want a boy's love romance in a fantasy setting influenced heavily by ancient China with a side of bloody horror elements, this will be the series for you. I'm not particularly interested in boy's love or bloody ghost stories, so I didn't think there was much reason for me to stick around.

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ashriverrrr's review against another edition

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adventurous funny mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Loveable characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

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dottiewankenobi's review against another edition

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adventurous funny inspiring mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

I was intrigued from the very first page. Going in, all I really knew was that this was about gods, so the characters themselves (their personalities, their humor, San Lang's... everything) were super super fun to explore. The dynamics between Xie Lian and all of the other characters are diverse and lend to a lot of funny or interesting moments (for instance, I love thinking about what Fu Yao thinks of him and why he reacts the way he does sometimes). I also really appreciate the way MXTX tied So Many Pieces together from all the different characters/backstories/etc. The only thing that tripped me up was how some moments felt like they were in fast forward mode, sometimes skipping a few hours and at one point skipping over months.

Really strong start to the series, and I am very excited to keep reading and learn more.

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imspaceman's review against another edition

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adventurous funny lighthearted mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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shadereads's review against another edition

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adventurous funny lighthearted mysterious slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

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