Reviews

Silent Reading 默读 by priest

Only show reviews with written explanations

This may have killed my brain but now I know that if I can *mostly* keep track of all the characters here then I can do anything. I must say Luo yiguo deserves all the cat food and wine he wants and he will forever be my favourite character and now I can say farewell to zhoudu and wish them a happily ever after with Fei Qian and Luo Yiguo

stefidee's review against another edition

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5.0

I have been hearing a lot of good things about Silent Reading, or popularly known as Modu, and I am glad this is the first Priest novel I have picked up to read.

I have always liked crime/mystery/murder themed books and tv shows, but this is the first time I delved into a danmei that really focuses on this genre only. The synopsis I read was just a droplet of what the whole book is all about!

I never knew or expected the whole book to be entangled in such a mess of cases, sometimes made me mad, at times made me cry, all at the same time. The adrenaline I felt whenever they are searching for the culprits, or the sadness I felt whenever they found victims, the unpredictable plot twists and turns of the events. There were so much to unpack and I would really love to read again for the second just to see the earlier clues ahead of the earlier chapters.

Fei Du would be now one of my favorite characters. His mind is insane, at times he give me goosebumps by the way he thinks, but at the same time I am also mindblown by his mentality. After all that has happened to him, I feel like he was able to feel and remain as a normal human being beside Luo Wenzhou. I really liked their dynamics. They may bicker and fight a lot, but their minds are connected. Great minds think alike, that's what they are.

The only thing I had a bit time to digest (like many danmei), are the name of the characters in the story. So sometimes I had to pause and go back to which character is which.

jasongrace's review

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dark mysterious tense

4.25

par4phrasing's review

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adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

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

5.0

“He wanted to love him, wanted to take care of him, wanted to slowly unwrap his convoluted, unknowable heart like opening a beautifully wrapped package.”

I have to admit, I’ve always been a bit more critical about novels set in the modern time, simply because i always enjoyed fantasy settings more and too many references to our modern culture sometimes actually threw me off a bit. HOWEVER, priest handled the world building and the cases in this novel perfectly and that made me fall in love with the modern setting again.

Now, to the main characters, I’m gonna say what i think everyone is thinking, Luo Wenzhou seriously is the biggest green flag I have ever seen. He doesn’t leave conflicts unresolved, he acknowledges when he does things wrong, he is in tune with his emotions, he is funny, he can cook, he has a cat…. do I have to say more???

GOD and the development from rivals to lovers between him and Fei Du?? Incredible!! I’ve always been a big fan of the rivals/enemies to lovers trope because you can really watch their relationship develop from beginning to end, you get to see how they slowly start to trust each other, how the bickering charged with anger turns into something affectionate, how much they change each other, I just love it.

With Fei Du especially I felt this development in his character so deeply. Thanks to his upbringing he carries so much trauma with him that he barely, if even, acknowledges and that has such a severe impact on his personality. He sees himself as such an evil person, with no empathy, who feels no fear, but in the end he is just as human as everyone else and he has so much kindness in him.

Fei Du never shows his true self to anyone and imitates the people around him, but Luo Wenzhou was the only person who he could be himself around, even though he tries to push him away several times.

Their relationship just means a lot to me, the way they understand each other so well without even having to speak and how much they care for each other in their own ways!! Priest really did such a good job balancing the development of their relationship and the overarching plot!!

interlunar's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

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

4.5

threerings's review

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dark emotional mysterious medium-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

My favorite of Priest's novels so far. Complicated mystery with lots of parts to keep track of. The main characters are great with deep psychological motivations to uncover and a hopeful romance that's just complicated enough. A book about childhood trauma and recovery.

Content Warnings