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augustrogue 's review for:
Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation
by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu
Three stars because without the book, we wouldn't have The Untamed, and The Untamed is extremely enjoyable.
I do enjoy the main characters, though I wonder how differently I would feel about them if I wasn't already familiar with the portrayal of the actors in the drama. I think I would honestly dislike Lan Wangji/Lan Zhan based purely off the novel, which is unfortunate. There's a lot of pacing issues here too with the flashback positioning that were fixed in the drama but would have been confusing otherwise. I don't think I would have been as invested in their current-time interactions at the front of the book if I didn't already know their slow-burn backstory.
(I do wonder how much of this is due to the story being serialized and the author rushing, then apparently going back and editing some scenes in that she had skipped. If it had a normal drafting cycle before being released all at once, I wonder if some of these issues would be mitigated.)
That being said it's an entertaining story with a few fascinating characters and surprising twists and turns. But without the drama it would probably be a 1- 2 star read for me, which has a lot to do with my feelings toward the sex/romance scenes and the fetish-y, homophobic portrayal of gay people. I seem also to have very different opinions about consent vs the rest of the fandom. Consent is important, y'all. Fantasies and roleplaying are okay with someone you trust but not even talking about things first or forcing yourself on someone isn't. To me that's not about kink shaming, that's just... Non-negotiable. I'm not even sure I want to read the "extra" scenes because I heard this element gets worse.
There were just some really bad-fanfic-trope-y elements to the intimacy that I didn't care for. Much preferred the cute yet absurd confession scene during the final battle, or the flirty scene in the cave that somehow made it into the heavily censored drama with very few changes. Or the bunnies! I love the bunnies. And the part in town with Yuan when they ran into LWJ. More of that kind of thing.
I do enjoy the main characters, though I wonder how differently I would feel about them if I wasn't already familiar with the portrayal of the actors in the drama. I think I would honestly dislike Lan Wangji/Lan Zhan based purely off the novel, which is unfortunate. There's a lot of pacing issues here too with the flashback positioning that were fixed in the drama but would have been confusing otherwise. I don't think I would have been as invested in their current-time interactions at the front of the book if I didn't already know their slow-burn backstory.
(I do wonder how much of this is due to the story being serialized and the author rushing, then apparently going back and editing some scenes in that she had skipped. If it had a normal drafting cycle before being released all at once, I wonder if some of these issues would be mitigated.)
That being said it's an entertaining story with a few fascinating characters and surprising twists and turns. But without the drama it would probably be a 1- 2 star read for me, which has a lot to do with my feelings toward the sex/romance scenes and the fetish-y, homophobic portrayal of gay people. I seem also to have very different opinions about consent vs the rest of the fandom. Consent is important, y'all. Fantasies and roleplaying are okay with someone you trust but not even talking about things first or forcing yourself on someone isn't. To me that's not about kink shaming, that's just... Non-negotiable. I'm not even sure I want to read the "extra" scenes because I heard this element gets worse.
There were just some really bad-fanfic-trope-y elements to the intimacy that I didn't care for. Much preferred the cute yet absurd confession scene during the final battle, or the flirty scene in the cave that somehow made it into the heavily censored drama with very few changes. Or the bunnies! I love the bunnies. And the part in town with Yuan when they ran into LWJ. More of that kind of thing.