Reviews - Kaleidoscope of Death

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163 reviews for:

Kaleidoscope of Death

Xi Zi Xu

4.46 AVERAGE

coochieconsumer's review against another edition

4.0

emotional tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

ladyseven's review against another edition

5.0

not sure if anyone will ever read this but just in case, I just found that I got a little spoilery near the end of my "rant".

More like 4/4.5 stars tbh. But I loved this novel's cast of characters so so sooo much that even if the ending left me slightly dissatisfied I cannot bring myself to give it less than five. (Edit: a few moments laterrr.... I can finally drop it to four, my infatuation has died and now that my emotions are stable, that ending is just not to my taste... 4 stars it is).
I really enjoy the way chinese authors give it their all in the gory details. (Japanese ppl are the same they just looove to give all the gory details. Smut? niet. blood, dead people and creatures lurking in the dark? YES YES YES).
So, plot? Like it.
Setting? Like it.
writting? Like it.
Characters? Like them.
ending?....................
ejem, not so much. It was good, it was kind of what I was promissed when I started reading so I shouldn't complain. I was promised a HE and... it is. But I'm a looser and I want the kind of HE where everyone runs into the sunset mounted on their unicorns singing kumbaya... this was as realistic as an ending for a story where the characters go into random doors to resolve gory puzzles can be. To me, it felt good but also bittersweet... The side characters left me with a stomach ache wich is pretty normal when I read something that I find distressing. It's excellent for weight loss actually, altough not at all recommendable.
As for my biggest dissapointment with the ending.... is the lack of actual answers. I know I'm dumb but I failed to understand or find the answers to who, why and how.

The characters took everything in stride, wich is normal when you have the OP MC trope, no biggie. But... till the end? The door are just the setting and I never found or managed to understand the reason for their existence... who created them? how? why? the why is slightly implied? maybe. If someone smarter than me ever reads this and has the answers please, help me sort this things out.
I will be re-reading this in the future so, maybe on my second attempt I become less like Chen Qianli lol

ps: I did read the extra where Nanzhe's uses that pretty gardener metaphor. I still need answers tho

namimerijaan's review against another edition

2.75

It would have been 2.5 had it not been for the ending because I really did not see that coming

the fact that quishi was "senior" from obsidian who had almost completed the 12th door, the actual leader of obsidian who would've completed his 12th door had it not been for nanzhu's wish to relive all that by quishi's side was a little too shocking for me. Now as much as it shocked me doesn't mean I'm pretty happy with it. The thing is, the quishi we follow belives no one truly loved him before nanzhu (which again is the main premise on why I even liked their relationship because he proved he wanted to always be by quishi's side) and you put it in my face that oh well quishi had a loving relationship with everyone, nanzhu just wanted to live with quishi so he took everything from quishi and made him redo it all which really left a bitter feeling in my heart for the ship. Is the twist great from a story perspective? yup! Does it crumble the credibility of the trials they went through? Also yes.

I also did not like how the side characters were not placed in much importance and we rarely got to see them except main couple as if the entire story existed just to feed dog food which I won't mind most of the time if side characters feel human but honestly apart from cheng siblings, everyone else (zaozao and dongyuan included) did not feel real fleshed out character. Having side characters have a job does not make them good side characters btw. And I think in that respect the drama did way better because atleast the side characters left so much impression and had so much substance to them as characters

and their deaths actually mattered and made sense in drama unlike the book where they couldn't care less about the dead 2 hours after the characters died.