Scan barcode
wormariwood's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
relaxing
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
5.0
camo_mila's review
emotional
funny
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Rating this novel was a challenge for me. While I loved many aspects of it, there were also a couple of chapters I really disliked.
I laughed, I cried, but I got tired of it too. But, overall I had a great time reading it. So I’ll just list the things I liked and disliked.
I laughed, I cried, but I got tired of it too. But, overall I had a great time reading it. So I’ll just list the things I liked and disliked.
what I liked:
- I really, really, really liked the MC and ML, Shen Zechuan and Xiao Chiye. They have my heart. Not only are they great separately, but they are also great together. I loved their personalities, their stories, and how they were both important to the story all the time.
- I loved the romance. It was my favorite aspect of this novel. Cezhou became my favorite couple among all the other danmei couples of novels I’ve read before. A heavy continuous applause for the author for writing them. The enemies-to-lovers was delicious, the sexual and romantic tension, the love that was built, the trust, need, and partnership that they found within each other were so good, cute, and lovable. And I have to say, I don’t know if it was the translation or if the author actually has the ability to write smut scenes, but I didn’t feel any cringiness or awkwardness in those moments, so I salute you.
The F/F couple, Hua Xiangyi and Qi Zhuyin, I really wanted to see more of them. Such a beautiful couple. I just craved for it. - The female characters are so good and so strong. One of the things that I dislike the most in danmei novels is the way women are usually represented: either as jealous or in love with either the ML or MC. So seeing strong women, who are actually powerful and cunning, that are independent and are not in the story to have servitude towards men, was really good.
The side couples!! Honestly, this novel had much more romance than what I was expecting, and they were cute. I actually have some that I wish were canon, but well. - The characters in general were so interesting. The main characters and their side characters were captivating, and I liked their interactions. If I had to list all of them this review would be too long.
- Lastly, I really liked the way that the motives of the characters were shown, and you don’t necessarily have the good or the bad. Most of them were people who were doing what was necessary to survive or their actions were just the results of what life made to them. To show a story in which you can empathize with the “bad guys” is refreshing.
what I disliked:
- The politics. I do think that the author made a plot so complex that they lost themselves in it. There were too many characters, plots, subplots, and twists and turns. It got tiring a lot of times to read all of that, not because of the complexity, but because the story kept going around and around, with bits that weren’t even important in the end. It took such a long time to arrive at the climax that the story lost its heat, and the end was a bit underwhelming. Because the politics were vital for the story, it made me slow to finish the novel, and for that, I can’t give it 5 stars.
noheaswearingen's review
5.0
Wahhhhh I’m actually so sad rn … this novel was heavily political and at times I would get lost due to the amount of complexity surrounding the plot but the more I read the more I understood. Qjj is one of those novels that just get better and better with each chapter and the world building was beautiful as well as the relationships between each of the characters.
Shen Zechuan and Xiao Chiye
Shen Zechuan and Xiao Chiye
simplyivo's review
adventurous
emotional
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
5.0
rebeccazh's review
5.0
Re-read Oct 2023. It is the sad state of cnovels nowadays where I'm reduced to rereading QJJ and priest, sigh. The newer novels just don't compare. This is still one of my absolute favorite cnovels (maybe trim the second half a bit) because of how well-written the two main characters are
ruth_miranda's review
5.0
This has got to be one of the best Danmei I have ever read, to be very honest. Everything about it is close to perfection - the writing is beyond excellent, the worldbuilding is pristine, the politics, the scheming, the battles, the portrayals, the side-characters, the plot, it is all an epic masterpiece.
But the best bit has to be the power couple. Nowhere in my many years of reading have I come across a power couple so tremendously perfect for each other (Mme de Merteuil and Chevalier Valmont came very close, but then he went and fell for the most annoying character ever written) so well attuned to one another and their needs, so caring and loving of each other. This is enemies to lovers done well, but far more than that. This is finally the one novel that starts with the CP loathing each other (and one of them even harming the other with dire consequences for the rest of his life) but that suddenly find an irresistible physical and sexual attraction for one another - the scene where Lanzhou goes into a brothel and asks to be shown naked men just to make sure he feels attracted to them, but then doesn't, which forces him to admit it's only Xiao Chiye that makes him feel that way is PRICELESS.
There's this unspoke rule that NO RELATIONSHIP WORTH ITS SALT starts out as sex, and this book proves it all wrong. For quite sometime, the only thing that keeps these two together is sex, is how horny they feel for each other - though Lanzhou pretends not to be quite into it, but that's one of the issues I have with Danmei, you always have a reluctant partner, and it's usually the bottom. But that attraction begins to unravel and starts becoming something other, through Xiao Chiye's obsession with Lanzhou and the way Lanzhou himself starts to melt and open up to this adoration. There are three defining moments for me in their relationship that really had my heart beating like mad - when SL throws himself into XC's arms in the river, when they make love in the steppes and SL finally confesses his love, and when XC saves SL from falling off that balcony. These are only topped by the scene at the Shashi sinkhole when SL faces his biggest fear, his most enormous trigger, in a moment fo despair so well written my heart was beating out of time, to make sure he can save XC. If this novel had nothing more to it (but it has so much!) than the dynamics between the main couple, it would be worth it, it would be a great story, a beautiful, deep, rich love story. As it is, this novel goes beyond the love tale portrayed between these pages and strongly positions itself in the role of a historical, societal study of China and its many tangled webs of power over its history. It's definitely worth a read for the historical lessons alone, but if that is not enough - besides the main CP you get another one that will break your heart, if, like me, you're into this kind of pain.
An easy five star for this masterpiece.
But the best bit has to be the power couple. Nowhere in my many years of reading have I come across a power couple so tremendously perfect for each other (Mme de Merteuil and Chevalier Valmont came very close, but then he went and fell for the most annoying character ever written) so well attuned to one another and their needs, so caring and loving of each other. This is enemies to lovers done well, but far more than that. This is finally the one novel that starts with the CP loathing each other (and one of them even harming the other with dire consequences for the rest of his life) but that suddenly find an irresistible physical and sexual attraction for one another - the scene where Lanzhou goes into a brothel and asks to be shown naked men just to make sure he feels attracted to them, but then doesn't, which forces him to admit it's only Xiao Chiye that makes him feel that way is PRICELESS.
There's this unspoke rule that NO RELATIONSHIP WORTH ITS SALT starts out as sex, and this book proves it all wrong. For quite sometime, the only thing that keeps these two together is sex, is how horny they feel for each other - though Lanzhou pretends not to be quite into it, but that's one of the issues I have with Danmei, you always have a reluctant partner, and it's usually the bottom. But that attraction begins to unravel and starts becoming something other, through Xiao Chiye's obsession with Lanzhou and the way Lanzhou himself starts to melt and open up to this adoration. There are three defining moments for me in their relationship that really had my heart beating like mad - when SL throws himself into XC's arms in the river, when they make love in the steppes and SL finally confesses his love, and when XC saves SL from falling off that balcony. These are only topped by the scene at the Shashi sinkhole when SL faces his biggest fear, his most enormous trigger, in a moment fo despair so well written my heart was beating out of time, to make sure he can save XC. If this novel had nothing more to it (but it has so much!) than the dynamics between the main couple, it would be worth it, it would be a great story, a beautiful, deep, rich love story. As it is, this novel goes beyond the love tale portrayed between these pages and strongly positions itself in the role of a historical, societal study of China and its many tangled webs of power over its history. It's definitely worth a read for the historical lessons alone, but if that is not enough - besides the main CP you get another one that will break your heart, if, like me, you're into this kind of pain.
An easy five star for this masterpiece.