Scan barcode
Reviews tagging 'Sexual content'
The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu
23 reviews
46jjsg's review
adventurous
funny
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Just putting this for record keeping.
- 7/10 Worldbuilding
- 7/10 Main Characters
- 7/10 Side Characters* I just love sqh and mbj.... but mostly sqh.
- 9/10 Pacing
In depth review will be added when I re-read this novel with the 7seas editions.
- 7/10 Worldbuilding
- 7/10 Main Characters
- 7/10 Side Characters* I just love sqh and mbj.... but mostly sqh.
- 9/10 Pacing
In depth review will be added when I re-read this novel with the 7seas editions.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Torture, Violence, Abandonment, Physical abuse, and Child abuse
Moderate: Homophobia, Child death, Transphobia, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Kidnapping
Minor: Abortion
evitak's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Well, this is MXTX's least popular one, but I would still argue it's not bad, and it's pretty self aware of its flaws as well. This particular version was not amazing, because fan translations always include the understandable mistakes here and there, but I'm not including that at all in the score (though if you're reading this before reading the book, go grab the official release instead!).
I really liked all the characters, the story was interesting, I really appreciated its humor and the tone shifts never bothered me even if it goes from really sad to really funny to really sad very fast at times. I feel like that's more of a feature in the book rather than a flaw. There were many characters I truly thought I would hate, but by the end of the book I really liked them, and one of them ended up being my absolute favorite character in it. It does a really good job showing the many different sides of the characters, and why they do what they do, regardless of whether or not they are justified.This is especially but not exclusively the case with original Shen Qingqiu, who is the original villain of the book, who does some really, truly messed up things, but then when you find out more about him it's just... Not necessarily difficult to hate him, but at the very least it makes his actions a lot more understandable than one may originally have thought. His backstory is so heartbreaking, and though I'm sure not everyone views this the same as I do, I feel like in that context, his actions later on in life were pretty much unavoidable, albeit still inexcusable. To me, the fact that the book can make me sympathize to this extent even with its worst characters, as well as how much it develops its characters, is really what makes it as good as I believe it is.
As far as the story goes I have much less to say, it requires a specific level of genre and geek (/anime/internet/whatever else you want to call it honestly) culture knowledge that many may not have, and in that case chances are it won't be as much appreciated. For those who do possess that knowledge however, I believe it's a very fun book that gives the reader a very good reading experience. Though on the surface it looks like a joke-y, funny kind of book, it gets into very dark and serious subjects as it progresses, and for the most part it does treat seriously what needs to be treated so.
It's for sure not for everyone, but I do feel it's often judged too harshly by comparing it to the author's later works, when on its own it's a very fun read, regardless of whether it's your cup of tea or not. On that note, there are some pretty heavy topics in it, and I do feel people need to heed the warnings before reading. I would like to add that contrary to a very frequent misconception, the "uncomfortable" scenes found within it were never really... not meant to be that? You are very much meant to feel uncomfortable at what is happening, because so are the characters in those situations.
I really liked all the characters, the story was interesting, I really appreciated its humor and the tone shifts never bothered me even if it goes from really sad to really funny to really sad very fast at times. I feel like that's more of a feature in the book rather than a flaw. There were many characters I truly thought I would hate, but by the end of the book I really liked them, and one of them ended up being my absolute favorite character in it. It does a really good job showing the many different sides of the characters, and why they do what they do, regardless of whether or not they are justified.
As far as the story goes I have much less to say, it requires a specific level of genre and geek (/anime/internet/whatever else you want to call it honestly) culture knowledge that many may not have, and in that case chances are it won't be as much appreciated. For those who do possess that knowledge however, I believe it's a very fun book that gives the reader a very good reading experience. Though on the surface it looks like a joke-y, funny kind of book, it gets into very dark and serious subjects as it progresses, and for the most part it does treat seriously what needs to be treated so.
It's for sure not for everyone, but I do feel it's often judged too harshly by comparing it to the author's later works, when on its own it's a very fun read, regardless of whether it's your cup of tea or not. On that note, there are some pretty heavy topics in it, and I do feel people need to heed the warnings before reading. I would like to add that contrary to a very frequent misconception, the "uncomfortable" scenes found within it were never really... not meant to be that? You are very much meant to feel uncomfortable at what is happening, because so are the characters in those situations.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content, Sexual violence, and Child abuse
Moderate: Physical abuse, Torture, Emotional abuse, Body horror, and Slavery
Minor: Confinement
mpfan's review
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
Contains: teacher/student, age difference, dubcon (last chapter)
This novel kind of reminds me of The Cruel Prince (Holly Black). The main relationship starts out with a bit of an antagonistic relationship, which... shifts into something else. Then, there's a scene where the "more powerful" character gets betrayed, but it somehow doesn't damage the relationship by too much. I didn't like The Cruel Prince too much, which might explain why I didn't like this novel a lot either. This story definitely doesn't pass the Bechdel test; the female characters are generally shallow, and their existence revolved around men.
This novel kind of reminds me of The Cruel Prince (Holly Black). The main relationship starts out with a bit of an antagonistic relationship, which... shifts into something else. Then, there's a scene where the "more powerful" character gets betrayed, but it somehow doesn't damage the relationship by too much. I didn't like The Cruel Prince too much, which might explain why I didn't like this novel a lot either. This story definitely doesn't pass the Bechdel test; the female characters are generally shallow, and their existence revolved around men.
However, the narrator was pretty funny, which made the story more enjoyable to read. I also like the idea of falling in love through the little things. There isn't a "moment" where things fall into place for SQQ/LBH, things grow over time. I'm also a sucker for the "dead man comes back to life to find the person who hated him didn't actually hate him" trope (I'm looking at you MDZS). This story reads as more of a parody/comedy, than something serious, so I wouldn't mind reading this book again, though probably not in English.
I read an English translation off of a slightly sketchy website. I did not read the extras.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexual content
daisy923's review
adventurous
dark
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.0
PREFACE if there’s anyone that for some ungodly reason goes to my profile bc of this don’t expect many long reviews like this unless I have a fit of madness in which I can actually tolerate writing for longer than 5 minutes, this one is just here bc it’s basically copied and pasted from a previous fit of madness on my tumblr the night before I got surgery so it’s like??? I don’t normally write coherent things I have adhd and almost failed 11th grade English bc I had a breakdown during the poetry and personal essays units. Anyway:
I told myself i wouldnt read it bc i hate teacher/student relationships but I did end up caving and like read it so I’d at least have some idea what ppl were talking about bc I do like a lot of the fanart of it I see. Basically it was so incredibly mid that I couldn’t tell you like anyones names off the top of my head except the main ones, or like 60% of what happened and I just never had the motivation to write a review about it, but I do now ig and I love complaining/reviewing things so yeah.
I told myself i wouldnt read it bc i hate teacher/student relationships but I did end up caving and like read it so I’d at least have some idea what ppl were talking about bc I do like a lot of the fanart of it I see. Basically it was so incredibly mid that I couldn’t tell you like anyones names off the top of my head except the main ones, or like 60% of what happened and I just never had the motivation to write a review about it, but I do now ig and I love complaining/reviewing things so yeah.
Like tbh 80% of it was kind of boring or made me uncomfortable so really I did just skim a lot of it but I did have fun with the other 20% lol ig.. but to start with the bad.. like as i said I hate teacher student relationships so for really a lot of the bingqiu scenes I was skimming and pretending that all it was was just platonic. Like I do like sqq I think he’s funny and I know he’s too dense to figure out that he’s not straight but reading him call lbh (his 14 year old student!!!) a little sheep all the time and babying him and then knowing how it goes just! Makes me uncomfy! Like not everything has to be a romance and it would be much more interesting and not weird to me if this wasn’t a romance between them, even if they only get together when they’re both adults. And don’t even get me started on lbh. Like again. I like him. But he is just a walking red flag like I don’t think there’s anything wrong with writing characters who aren’t like. Healthy perfect people obviously but just idk I don’t like, think it’s cute or funny or whatever to have a character be like you’re mine and no one else’s and that possessiveness is just treated as a joke and something for sqq to just have to accept in the end. just kinda wish that were addressed. And a lot of the scenes that didn’t make me uncomfortable I was just so incredibly bored. If you asked me what happened in any given arc I could honestly not really tell you 80% of the time.
Now let’s get into the ✨misogyny ✨ like I know that’s a given with this genre and author but it’s still annoying. Like I was prepared to really like the little demon girl and the girl with the veil and the other girls but they were just like. There ig. Like HONESTLY….. the best female character imo was lbhs mom and she wasn’t even PRESENT in the actual story. But anyway. One thing that annoyed me is, that they only have one (1) female sect leader, and one (1) female head disciple in the 12 peaks, but they don’t even have the dignity of competing against men to gain these positions, mxtx does the cowardly thing and just makes them heads of an all female sect. All the other sects, which are presumably coed (tho iirc nyy is the ONLY female disciple of sqqs sect and I don’t remember there ever being any female disciples of Jiang cheng 1.0’s sect) are all led by men and their best disciples are boys. It’s so incredibly lazy and annoying. And this female sect isn’t even ranked highly on the peaks either. Like what’s the ranking criteria and why are they ranked so low? Huh? Mxtx? Like I get this is a satire of a really bad stallion novel but seriously? Mxtx? You couldn’t even include one female character in a position of power without also being a servant/subordinate/lower ranked to some dudes? even in sqq's fix-it version? Bc the whole point of the book is to fix pidw but neither mxtx or sqq as an extension of her seemed interested in fixing the rampant misogyny. Anyway and bc like that demon girl was
Also the constant feminizing of sqq. Like again. I know that’s a given with this genre but it’s still so annoying.
Now the WORST offender. That™️ sex (read: rape) scene. No. Bye. Completely skipped as soon as I realized what was going on. Spiritually barfing the entire time.
And to the things I liked. in no particular order:
1) lbhs family and backstory: I rly liked the story of his parents. not sure if some of this counts as spoilers but ill just put it all under spoilies just in case.
2) mobei jun and shang qinghua. Okay I went into this liking moshing from all the fanart and the idea of god marrying the dude he created in the image of the perfect guy while being a weird little hamster of a man himself is super funny, also the demon tits. anyway idk where I was going with that, but! I was rather disappointed that they were barely in the book.
3)
4) system and sqq - hilarious. Next.
5)
6)
7)
8) snek!! He was cute
9) and of course.. airplane bro and cucumber bro. I love them. Everything about them. They’re such clowns.
Anyway 4/10 at best probably bye
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Violence, Toxic relationship, Torture, Rape, Blood, Body horror, Child abuse, and Sexual content
Moderate: Death of parent
bakatan's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement, Sexual content, and Torture
Moderate: Physical abuse, Rape, Child abuse, and Abandonment
Minor: Genocide and Ableism
0karxnii's review
dark
funny
fast-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? Yes
4.5
This book is so dogshit but I love it to death, honestly one of my favorite DANMEIS.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Abandonment, Murder, Child abuse, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Gaslighting, and Cursing
Minor: Body horror
illiteratenerd's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Gore, Kidnapping, Toxic relationship, Abandonment, Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Violence, Murder, Sexual violence, Sexual content, and Mental illness
Moderate: Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexism, Bullying, and Child abuse
teagstime's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
lighthearted
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
This is definitely one of my favorite books of all time— I read this Scum Villain unofficial translation back in January 2021 and have been obsessed with it for over a year now. It’s just a wonderful, hilarious, tragic story.
Shen Yuan/Qingqiu is a brilliant unreliable narrator. Pretty much everything he thinks is undermined by his actions (e.g. insisting he thinks of everyone as simply characters in a novel, yet grows to care for them and constantly puts himself in danger for the sake of others)(albeit he still does have many problems recognizing their agency as living people, but that’s another story lmaoo). Any time this man denies having an emotion, which is often, he’s probably having TOO MANY— but we would be none the wiser! Because he’s so good at disassociating from his own body and feelings, he Also thinks he’s telling the truth! It’s concerning! I wanna k word this man so bad (affectionate)His whole personality is another bag of worms altogether. The casual and blatant disregard for his own life? The way he locks up every emotion and vulnerability from everyone else SO HARD he even locks them away from himself? SQQ I'm gonna force you into a therapy session I swear to god
Luo Binghe is also just. So good. This is a man who truly has All The Trauma… The ‘hurt/no comfort’ tag embodied. I feel like he gets misunderstood by a lot of people, which is incredibly upsetting to me, because he is so interesting and tragic and great??Yes, he gets a little unhinged post-abyss, but wouldn’t you? If the first person to ever show you kindness & love suddenly condemns you as the worst kind of evil and throws you into a literal hellscape after stabbing you in the chest??? Sorry to Shen Qingqiu but I would also go a little crazy wondering why! He’s calculated and terrifying and all-encompassing, and he decided to give his entire heart & soul to 1 (one) person and act a complete fool around him forever. King shit fr… Like seriously I care about this funky lil crybaby so much. I have kept it short here on purpose because this review would be 2x longer if I ranted about how much I love Luo Binghe rn… He gives me ALL the feelings. Shoutout SQQ bc I’m also having Binghe brainworms 24/7!
I think this novel also has a really neat relationship w its tropes, because mxtx wrote SVSSS as a commentary on harem/stallion novels and many of the plot devices they- and other things in the romance genre- tend to use, as well as things like transmigration stories, internet trolls/redditor-type dudebros, and male power fantasies in general! There are so many takes and subversions in this book that I just ! Care about so much !! And find so interesting to think about !! For example, with Luo Binghe’s power as the protagonist: unlike your typical male action hero / Shonen protag, he gets severely punished for powering up.Yeah, sure, he gets a cool demon sword that can cut open dimensional rifts. At the cost of the security in his most important relationship, with his special person. You’re now gonna feel insecure of your place forever and constantly fear being abandoned. On top of that, he has to deal with mental instability and bouts of becoming mind-controlled by said demonic sword— Like Xin Mo is literally poisoning his mind !! It will make you the strongest, but you will lose your sanity, leading to a horrible, slow death— and you’ll get to unknowingly hurt/kill the people you care about on your way out!! Because your sense of autonomy and comfort in your own skin is now forfeit! SURPRISE !! :)
Another aspect I really love (which I’ve seen some hate/uncertainty toward) is Bingqiu’s relationship itself— I guess I can understand if there’s tropes that aren’t your thing, or if there’s dynamics in their relationship you find toxic or unhealthy. However ! Concerning the toxicity/unhealthy parts of their relationship… a lot of it stems from mxtx’s commentary on harem tropes and male power fantasies? Those stories are damaging and gratuitous and horrifying, especially for the love interests, who are often just there to be put in traumatizing situations and papapa’d better… And the all-powerful male protag is often just.. overbearing and entitled and arrogant and creepy. No relationship’s gonna come out of that kind of environment unscathed!
Imo the tragic & horrible parts of their relationship just make the ending so much better?
Despite all the ways Bingqiu miscommunicate & hurt each other over the course of the novel, they really do love each other. Just because things aren’t resolutely tied up with a bow at the end doesn’t mean they don’t! It just makes it more real and heartwarming to me. These are people who have misunderstood one another constantly, who have made mistakes and hurt the one they love… and they have to live with it. No do-overs. And they make the conscious decision to be together despite it all! I think it ends with a really heartwarming feeling, like!! They have a lot of work to do to be able to move forward after all this trauma and heartache, but they’re going to try and make it work! Because they are in love! And they want each other to be happy! It’s so sweet!! Even though Bingqiu are quite literally soulmates, relationships are never going to be easy— esp one with as much baggage as this— and the novel ends with them still having all these issues, but ! They’re going to try to face them ! And learn from their mistakes, together!!! That’s LOVE baby!!!
Anyway! Christ,, , I did not mean to make this a novel on its own OTL I could and would keep talking, but… I will cut myself off lmaooo
TLDR; I care this book a lot
Shen Yuan/Qingqiu is a brilliant unreliable narrator. Pretty much everything he thinks is undermined by his actions (e.g. insisting he thinks of everyone as simply characters in a novel, yet grows to care for them and constantly puts himself in danger for the sake of others)(albeit he still does have many problems recognizing their agency as living people, but that’s another story lmaoo). Any time this man denies having an emotion, which is often, he’s probably having TOO MANY— but we would be none the wiser! Because he’s so good at disassociating from his own body and feelings, he Also thinks he’s telling the truth! It’s concerning! I wanna k word this man so bad (affectionate)
Luo Binghe is also just. So good. This is a man who truly has All The Trauma… The ‘hurt/no comfort’ tag embodied. I feel like he gets misunderstood by a lot of people, which is incredibly upsetting to me, because he is so interesting and tragic and great??
I think this novel also has a really neat relationship w its tropes, because mxtx wrote SVSSS as a commentary on harem/stallion novels and many of the plot devices they- and other things in the romance genre- tend to use, as well as things like transmigration stories, internet trolls/redditor-type dudebros, and male power fantasies in general! There are so many takes and subversions in this book that I just ! Care about so much !! And find so interesting to think about !! For example, with Luo Binghe’s power as the protagonist: unlike your typical male action hero / Shonen protag, he gets severely punished for powering up.
Another aspect I really love (which I’ve seen some hate/uncertainty toward) is Bingqiu’s relationship itself— I guess I can understand if there’s tropes that aren’t your thing, or if there’s dynamics in their relationship you find toxic or unhealthy. However ! Concerning the toxicity/unhealthy parts of their relationship… a lot of it stems from mxtx’s commentary on harem tropes and male power fantasies? Those stories are damaging and gratuitous and horrifying, especially for the love interests, who are often just there to be put in traumatizing situations and papapa’d better… And the all-powerful male protag is often just.. overbearing and entitled and arrogant and creepy. No relationship’s gonna come out of that kind of environment unscathed!
Imo the tragic & horrible parts of their relationship just make the ending so much better?
Anyway! Christ,, , I did not mean to make this a novel on its own OTL I could and would keep talking, but… I will cut myself off lmaooo
TLDR; I care this book a lot
Content Warnings
Graphic: Torture, Violence, Death, Rape, Self harm, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, Body horror, Sexual violence, and Suicidal thoughts
Moderate: Child abuse, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Grief, Cursing, Bullying, Chronic illness, and Confinement
Minor: Homophobia, Misogyny, and Sexism
My advice: do NOT read this book without looking at the trigger warnings. There is graphic, disturbing content and it's rated for adults for a reason (the suggested reading age from some stores is literally 22+) !!!!rensreading's review
adventurous
emotional
funny
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
i’m genuinely not sure what to think of this book. that one explicit scene was absolutely horrifying which threw me off a lot and the extras weren’t really to my taste either apart from the bing-ge vs bing-mei portion.
as for the actual story, it was enjoyable up to a certain point. i mean it was literally a self-insert fic come to life in a novel with the protag going through quite a lot before deciding what he’ll stand by. and that is luo binghe, ladies and gentlethems.
i loved that plot holes were filled and that sqq was such an otaku and the final chapter was sweet but the climax before it was strange enough to kind of sour everything else for me.
fuck the system though lmao
this gets 3.5 stars from me (:
as for the actual story, it was enjoyable up to a certain point. i mean it was literally a self-insert fic come to life in a novel with the protag going through quite a lot before deciding what he’ll stand by. and that is luo binghe, ladies and gentlethems.
i loved that plot holes were filled and that sqq was such an otaku and the final chapter was sweet but the climax before it was strange enough to kind of sour everything else for me.
fuck the system though lmao
this gets 3.5 stars from me (:
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content, Sexual violence, Cursing, Confinement, Blood, War, Suicide, Medical trauma, Kidnapping, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Death, Child abuse, Bullying, and Body horror
Moderate: Abandonment
Minor: Homophobia
There is only one sex scene and it is at the climax of the novel and is extremely graphic. It includes dubious consent, body horror, (unknowing) sexual violence, a lot of blood, and what some people (including me) may consider gore.tonyaisadyingweasel's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
lighthearted
mysterious
medium-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? It's complicated
5.0
Humorous, comical, exhilarating.
Those are the three words I’d use to describe SVSSS. I finished this book in 4 days (a record time for me!) which says a lot about how much I love this story already. I picked up this book when a friend kept sending me snippets of it. I was intrigued, but my expectations weren’t that high. After all, my main motive for reading is just to forget the emotional damage I felt after the black water arc in TGCF.
Oh, gurl was I wrong. It made me read it non-stop from morning to night, even when I’m in the middle of school. Another way to describe this book is “crack treated seriously”. Whenever I read, I always get feel-good chill vibes. Tbh, SVSSS’s writing style reminds me a lot of how fanfics are written (in a positive way!). It never fails to cheer me up with hilarious plotlines and ironic situations. Funnily enough, even in sad scenes, I couldn’t help but still laugh.
However, as much as I love the whole cast of characters (which I’m very attached to) and the (extremely hilarious) plotline, it might not be everyone’s cup of tea. A few friends expressed bewilderment and disgust when I mentioned it involves a student x mentor relationship. The parts which contain r*apey scenes and misogynistic language might also trigger a lot of people, so read at your own discretion! :D
In conclusion, it’s a solid 10/10 for me, and you should give it a shot.
Those are the three words I’d use to describe SVSSS. I finished this book in 4 days (a record time for me!) which says a lot about how much I love this story already. I picked up this book when a friend kept sending me snippets of it. I was intrigued, but my expectations weren’t that high. After all, my main motive for reading is just to forget the emotional damage I felt after the black water arc in TGCF.
Oh, gurl was I wrong. It made me read it non-stop from morning to night, even when I’m in the middle of school. Another way to describe this book is “crack treated seriously”. Whenever I read, I always get feel-good chill vibes. Tbh, SVSSS’s writing style reminds me a lot of how fanfics are written (in a positive way!). It never fails to cheer me up with hilarious plotlines and ironic situations. Funnily enough, even in sad scenes, I couldn’t help but still laugh.
However, as much as I love the whole cast of characters (which I’m very attached to) and the (extremely hilarious) plotline, it might not be everyone’s cup of tea. A few friends expressed bewilderment and disgust when I mentioned it involves a student x mentor relationship. The parts which contain r*apey scenes and misogynistic language might also trigger a lot of people, so read at your own discretion! :D
In conclusion, it’s a solid 10/10 for me, and you should give it a shot.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Misogyny and Sexual content