threerings's profile picture

threerings's review

5.0
challenging dark emotional sad fast-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: Yes

There's so much to be said about this novel, with it's extreme length and extremely long list of trigger warnings.  However, despite it's length I found it went really quickly.  I usually read at least 10 chapters at a sitting, often starting to read it intending just to read a short time and then it would be 4-6 hours later and where did my life go?  

Definitely obey the warnings because there is very dark and triggering stuff in this one, but also it's honestly, IMO, so worth it because this is just a tour de force of writing and plotting.  Meatbun (the author) has incredible skill at weaving their plot in such a way that characters and plot and history are built up to the reader gradually, only to drop anvils of reveals on your head later that just make you want to die.  And every single time I was gasping and tearing up and staring blankly into space like ...what.... I thought to myself "I should have known.  I should have seen that coming."  And yet I didn't.  

This book is a LOT of angst.  And normally I'm not an angst fan.  Angst scares me.  But I've realize through reading this (and some other recent media experiences) that it's not so much that I don't like angst, as I don't like angst handled badly.  I don't like angst without a purpose.  I don't like angst for angst's sake.  I don't like angst that just piles onto the reader more and more with no relief in sight.  

This book is so painful in so many places because of how exquisitely the angst is planned.  The angst is not bad things out of nowhere or misunderstandings without reason or logic.  It's natural consequences of character actions.  It's misunderstandings based on deep character motive.  It's chickens coming home to roost bearing all the knives.  It's beautiful in the way classical tragedy can be beautiful.  But even so we do get a lot of lightness in between.  There are long sections of fluff and humor in between the most painful bits, so it's not a slog.  

So I'm very very glad I read it and this book and its characters are going to take me a while yet to finish processing, as well as staying with me for a long time.

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
lady_a_white's profile picture

lady_a_white's review

5.0
dark emotional sad tense 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: Yes

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
engels's profile picture

engels's review


i felt every possible human emotion reading this.............God tier
yolennie's profile picture

yolennie's review

5.0

I read this one in Chinese, if anyone can read chinese, I highly recommend this book. It's heartbreaking, but beautifully written. Great character development, complex but very engaging plot, overall I adored this book!
rosa_reads's profile picture

rosa_reads's review

4.5
dark emotional mysterious reflective sad 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: Yes
wtchkenma's profile picture

wtchkenma's review

4.5
dark emotional inspiring reflective sad slow-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
franlopes's profile picture

franlopes's review

5.0

Resumo pra quem quer ir sem saber: REDENÇÃO
NADA. NADA podia me preparar psicologicamente pra o que eu encontrei aqui. Depois de devorar algumas novels que viraram drama e fui me tornando confiante em procurar sozinha, achei 2ha e tudo que diziam é que tinha sofrencia demais. Como disse já passei por algumas novels chinesas com sua carga dramática, mas aqui é 100 vezes pior, todos personagens tem um passado dolorido, os que não tem vão acontecer coisas horrendas. E tudo isso costurado com muito mistério, fantasia e o romance mais devastador que já li, no começo não entendia como poderia torcer pelo casal mas fui vendo a evolução da relação e as mudanças de opinião em relação um ao outro e isso me conquistou. Se você quer se dedicar realmente a algo longo mas que vale totalmente, simplesmente entre no mundo das obras chinesas.

ectoplasmjames's review

5.0
adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense slow-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: Yes

nonbinaries's review

4.0

im crying. can the chinese novels stop doing this to me? please, at this point im just getting crazier lmao
sockweather's profile picture

sockweather's review

4.0
adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious sad tense fast-paced