Churie
This was, put nicely, not very good. (I proceeded to add the rest of the series to my TBR after finishing this.)
There are so many things that just don't make any sense (the whole mafia subplot for one), a significant amount of "edginess" that made me cringe, and basically everything about Andrew baffles me. The medication side effects (plus the circumstances under which he takes said medication), randomly attacking people, his behaviour that gets forgiven by everyone around him? Not to mention it's chock full of plot holes and timeline confusion.
This writing very strongly reminds me of fanfiction I used to read in the early/mid 2010s, which is why I think I'm being entertained so much by it, and I have a soft spot for both slow burn and angst which this book has plenty of. If you don't interrogate the plot too critically I think this can be a fun read.
> NO, I won't reread this
> NO, I wouldn't recommend this
This was, put nicely, not very good. (I proceeded to add the rest of the series to my TBR after finishing this.)
There are so many things that just don't make any sense (the whole mafia subplot for one), a significant amount of "edginess" that made me cringe, and basically everything about Andrew baffles me. The medication side effects (plus the circumstances under which he takes said medication), randomly attacking people, his behaviour that gets forgiven by everyone around him? Not to mention it's chock full of plot holes and timeline confusion.
This writing very strongly reminds me of fanfiction I used to read in the early/mid 2010s, which is why I think I'm being entertained so much by it, and I have a soft spot for both slow burn and angst which this book has plenty of. If you don't interrogate the plot too critically I think this can be a fun read.
> NO, I won't reread this
> NO, I wouldn't recommend this
This is a solidly OK read. It leans on a lot of tropes and meta humour, so I would only suggest this to existing fans of the genre.
Story notes (spoilered):
Yue Wuhuan is the yandere love interest courting a sweet and oblivious main character Song Qingshi. Anyone familiar with SVSSS will know this dynamic already, and I don't think they expand much beyond these known tropes, leaving them feeling a tad bit flat. With the addition of An Long, it makes a very typical love triangle hitting all the expected story beats with few surprises. I do wish Yue Wuhuan had been suspicious of Song Qingshi's intentions for longer, if only to add a little more tension.
Additionally, the prose is nothing remarkable - there's a lot of telling instead of showing, with some internal monologues being extremely on the nose. It makes for an easily digestible read, but not as moving as I think it could have been.
And for pettiness' sake, it's worth mentioning that I really did not like the illustrations inside the book. The cover is gorgeous, however most of the other illustrations felt very incongruous with my mental image of the two main characters. And while I'm airing out petty complaints, this is also a short book and a very quick read - I finished the whole thing in approx. 3 hours. I usually don't mention book prices, but I feel I have to when this volume is £18 and is so slim.
That being said, it's a relatively well executed story. Their relationship is sweet and caring, with appropriate room given for Wuhuan to slowly heal from his extensive trauma, and compassion shown both ways (if with different motivations). As a devourer of SVSSS fanfiction I am squarely in the target demographic for this book, and I would consider it a 3/5 (-0.5 due to aforementioned petty complaints).
> MIGHT reread once the full series has released.
> NO, would not recommend unless they were a fellow SVSSS enjoyer
This is a solidly OK read. It leans on a lot of tropes and meta humour, so I would only suggest this to existing fans of the genre.
Story notes (spoilered):
Yue Wuhuan is the yandere love interest courting a sweet and oblivious main character Song Qingshi. Anyone familiar with SVSSS will know this dynamic already, and I don't think they expand much beyond these known tropes, leaving them feeling a tad bit flat. With the addition of An Long, it makes a very typical love triangle hitting all the expected story beats with few surprises. I do wish Yue Wuhuan had been suspicious of Song Qingshi's intentions for longer, if only to add a little more tension.
Additionally, the prose is nothing remarkable - there's a lot of telling instead of showing, with some internal monologues being extremely on the nose. It makes for an easily digestible read, but not as moving as I think it could have been.
And for pettiness' sake, it's worth mentioning that I really did not like the illustrations inside the book. The cover is gorgeous, however most of the other illustrations felt very incongruous with my mental image of the two main characters. And while I'm airing out petty complaints, this is also a short book and a very quick read - I finished the whole thing in approx. 3 hours. I usually don't mention book prices, but I feel I have to when this volume is £18 and is so slim.
That being said, it's a relatively well executed story. Their relationship is sweet and caring, with appropriate room given for Wuhuan to slowly heal from his extensive trauma, and compassion shown both ways (if with different motivations). As a devourer of SVSSS fanfiction I am squarely in the target demographic for this book, and I would consider it a 3/5 (-0.5 due to aforementioned petty complaints).
> MIGHT reread once the full series has released.
> NO, would not recommend unless they were a fellow SVSSS enjoyer