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jcsie 's review for:
Heaven Official's Blessing: Tian Guan Ci Fu (Novel) Vol. 5
by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu
medium-paced
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
i wanna start this review off with the fact that i do like the series so far and thats its just this installment i have problems with so far.
a major problem for me was the fact that hua cheng stayed in his child form for half of this book and not only does that mean there’s no time for the romance to develop during that but it also felt weird after the ghost rut scene. it became even weirder when they talked about the ghost rut incident while hua cheng was still in that child form. in the middle of that we had really weird "i-wish-he-was-my-son" jokes, but the weirdest out of all was when xie lian wanted to kiss him in that form though and only didnt because he missed. and on the sidelines we had pei ming not seeing a problem with that. great.
pei ming’s character is another topic i wanna tackle, because i do remember what he did to xuan ji in book 1 and xie lian’s and the others reaction to that was blaming her. back then i gave it the benefit of the doubt, but then mxtx brings him back in this book, trying to make the reader like him (which clearly works, the fandom and the reviews showcase that) and then bringing that conflict back in a way i despise. because once again, xuan ji doesnt get taken seriously and just gets called crazy, while pei ming is portrayed in the moral right and gets protection from our mc’s.
our protagonists did at least call him out on not respecting women, but that was just when it was about a female heavenly officials rank, never referring to the woman he did. and lovingly calling him a womanizer and someone who likes to mark his territory like the alpha he clerarly is feels so icky to me.
in general, i know this book’s been trying to tackle misogyny through the female heavenly official i just mentioned and through ling wen who didn't get a promotion because of her gender. so i know that part of the misogyny is intentional and probably something the author is using for development. however, the unintentional misogyny going on in this book just ruins all that and it’s so frustrating because back when the windmaster mentioned in book 2 that there is gender inequality in heaven i was excited for this discussion, sadly mxtx ruined it.
my last critique is that just nothing really happened in this book. considering that this is the fith installment of this series, its a sign of talent to be able to make it this boring. i do get the feeling like the next book is going to be more interesting again and that this was just building up to that, but that could’ve been done in a more interesting matter.
lastly i wanna acknowledge that i did enjoy the red string hualian scene, love that the blackwater stuff was mentioned and everything mu quing related is always a win for me, no matter how small. it’s very surprising to see that scenting is possible in this world and the way hua cheng uses his butterflies is amazing to see. these things are all really minor so it doesnt change the rating much, but i thought they were worth mentioning.
a major problem for me was the fact that hua cheng stayed in his child form for half of this book and not only does that mean there’s no time for the romance to develop during that but it also felt weird after the ghost rut scene. it became even weirder when they talked about the ghost rut incident while hua cheng was still in that child form. in the middle of that we had really weird "i-wish-he-was-my-son" jokes, but the weirdest out of all was when xie lian wanted to kiss him in that form though and only didnt because he missed. and on the sidelines we had pei ming not seeing a problem with that. great.
pei ming’s character is another topic i wanna tackle, because i do remember what he did to xuan ji in book 1 and xie lian’s and the others reaction to that was blaming her. back then i gave it the benefit of the doubt, but then mxtx brings him back in this book, trying to make the reader like him (which clearly works, the fandom and the reviews showcase that) and then bringing that conflict back in a way i despise. because once again, xuan ji doesnt get taken seriously and just gets called crazy, while pei ming is portrayed in the moral right and gets protection from our mc’s.
our protagonists did at least call him out on not respecting women, but that was just when it was about a female heavenly officials rank, never referring to the woman he did. and lovingly calling him a womanizer and someone who likes to mark his territory like the alpha he clerarly is feels so icky to me.
in general, i know this book’s been trying to tackle misogyny through the female heavenly official i just mentioned and through ling wen who didn't get a promotion because of her gender. so i know that part of the misogyny is intentional and probably something the author is using for development. however, the unintentional misogyny going on in this book just ruins all that and it’s so frustrating because back when the windmaster mentioned in book 2 that there is gender inequality in heaven i was excited for this discussion, sadly mxtx ruined it.
my last critique is that just nothing really happened in this book. considering that this is the fith installment of this series, its a sign of talent to be able to make it this boring. i do get the feeling like the next book is going to be more interesting again and that this was just building up to that, but that could’ve been done in a more interesting matter.
lastly i wanna acknowledge that i did enjoy the red string hualian scene, love that the blackwater stuff was mentioned and everything mu quing related is always a win for me, no matter how small. it’s very surprising to see that scenting is possible in this world and the way hua cheng uses his butterflies is amazing to see. these things are all really minor so it doesnt change the rating much, but i thought they were worth mentioning.