A review by khyie
This Damned Thirst For Survival by 望三山, Wàng Sānshān

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Hey, hey you.  Did you want an enemies to lovers story?  No, I don't mean snarky little sniping and oh, we're on opposite sides but we're so in love, la!  I mean straight up, hate your fucking guts and hope to drag you down to hell enemies, where they use each other and outside interference leads to them (kinda) working together while still trying to pit each other and slowly, so slowly falling in love with each other?  
May I humbly present this masterpiece?
Both of the characters are manipulative assholes with dark gray to black morals and about the only reason why Jiang Luo is nominally the "good guy" is because he ends up gaining some genuinely good and well-meaning friends that he wants to protect.  I loved watching Chi You and Jiang Luo pit each other, argue, scrabble, and fight, while also coming to realize that there's no one in the world that understands them quite as well as each other.  
The author clearly has some deep love for gothic imagery and there's some scenes that are just so purely AESTHETIC that they're almost comical, but they're relatively rare and the rest of the novel is so damned good that it's easy to just roll your eyes and move on.  
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