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babybluel0vey_'s review
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
5.0
ruth_miranda's review
5.0
This webnovel has soared into the top three tier of my favourite Danmei novels. It has also climbed up to the top ten of my favourite books ever, which is no mean feat. It now sits along titles like Erha, Qian Jing Jiu, Call me by your name, Wuthering Heights, Les Liaisons Dangereuses et more. I mean, a novel that starts me crying on chapter 84 and keeps me in tears until the very end, is bound to be something special. And Saye is somethig OH SO SPECIAL.
I rarely read stories where the protagonists are adolescents, and whenever I do, I come away disilusioned, because I always find it impossible to relate to those characters - age gap, much? That's what I used to think. I'm too old to commiserate or understand the troubles and lives of kids in their teens, I'd tell myself. My life is way too different from theirs, no wonder I can't really like the book or the characters, I'd add. My teenage years were lightyears different from this, I can't relate, this was not the way I grew, I would further argue with myself.
Well, those were lies.
After reading this novel, I came to the sad conclusion that most of those books where the protagonists were in their teens and that I failed to enjoy had only one problem in common - and that wasn't me or my age. It was the writing. The fleshing of those characters. The authors' capacities and talents to create relatable, realistic, vivid protagonists that I could actually bond with. Wu Zhe excelled at that.
From the very beginning, Jiang Chen was so easy for me to relate to and commiserate. I remember mentioning to my family 'this is a hard book, this kid really has a very hard life' when I was only on the second chapter. I loved Jiang Cheng from the start, and related to aspects of his personality and life because he was written in a manner I could not only fully undersrand him, but see my past and present self in him.
Enter Gu Fei. And I was equally taken by this apparently cold and uninterested boy who seemed to live in a world different from the rest - soaring above them, ruler of the school, king in his throne without ever coming down to join the peasants. He held court without even knowing it. But as the story progressed and we got to learn more of him, a painful, sad truth began to emerge, and if Jiang Cheng carries the weight of being unwanted by both his families - adoptive and biological - Gu Fei is lumbered with no easier task, having had to become the adult in a disrupted, disruptive family where the mother refuses to grow up and carries on as if she's one of her son's schoolmates, while her daughter's disability has to be shouldered by a teenage boy who should be worried about school work and getting into a good university.
But Gu Fei has given up on dreams a long time ago - he's convinced that the people born and raised where they live will only ever be able to aim for the kind of life those around them have. Hope is lost, goals don't exist, Gu Fei's life and future are spread before him and they're dry, barren.
But Jiang Cheng's presence in his life threatens to change all that.
I won't go into further detail, as not to spoil the tale, I mean only to say that the growing affection between these two characters is one of the most beautiful relationships I've ever read. They are both extraordinary people - yes, because they don't feel like characters, they're real, they're so alive on the page (the screen, more accurately) they breathe and ache and work and suffer as much as any other person. They're vivid, and they're what makes this novel so great. 145 chapters plus extras never become dull, or boring, and culturally, it has shown me details of academic life in China I ignored completely - one of the things I love the most about reading is this exposition to worlds and cultures not my own, hence my love for fantasy - and the intricacies of how schools rate between themselves, because of student results' or location. It was an interesting part of the tale, for me, as was the depiction of the way these characters lived in a small, formerly industrial town that has lost the industry that employed most of its people, thus falling into complete deriliction. There's some social comentary in the tale, but in terms that it passes on the message that if you work hard and steadfastily, you can achieve great things for yourself and make your goals a reality. It's filled with hope, too, but most of all with love and belief. And the belief that love is healing and wonderful. Jiang Cheng, especially, never loses sight of his belief - he who was devoid of love all his life and once he finds it, is intent on holding on to it because he sees in Gu Fei the one person who can understand and cherish him. Which is true, from the start of their entanglement, Gu Fei holds him in awe and admiration, first because of the way Jiang Cheng treats his sister Gu Miao, but as the plot advances, because Jiang Cheng is the beam of light in his life, the hope he lacks, the hurricane who's swept him off his feet and planted seeds within him that terrify but that he cannot unearth. The way Gu Fei cares for Jiang Cheng and becomes, more than a boyfriend, a lover, his family is so heartwarming, and at the same time, heartwrenching, because Gu Fei knows there must be an end to his happiness - there always is. The way he slowly starts to sabotage himself and their relationship is heartbreaking and so relatable for anyone who's been anywhere near Gu Fei's shoes. This novel is one of the best works I've read where it comes to characters, the work put into them feels at the same time immense, intense, but organic - natural, realistic, alive. They are alive, and in the end, it's the way they grow and become more themselves throughout the tale that matters, in detriment of plot or stakes or silly dramas of the kind we often find in the romance genre. This is a slice of life, of real life, and a story that will stay with me not for a long time, but forever.
I rarely read stories where the protagonists are adolescents, and whenever I do, I come away disilusioned, because I always find it impossible to relate to those characters - age gap, much? That's what I used to think. I'm too old to commiserate or understand the troubles and lives of kids in their teens, I'd tell myself. My life is way too different from theirs, no wonder I can't really like the book or the characters, I'd add. My teenage years were lightyears different from this, I can't relate, this was not the way I grew, I would further argue with myself.
Well, those were lies.
After reading this novel, I came to the sad conclusion that most of those books where the protagonists were in their teens and that I failed to enjoy had only one problem in common - and that wasn't me or my age. It was the writing. The fleshing of those characters. The authors' capacities and talents to create relatable, realistic, vivid protagonists that I could actually bond with. Wu Zhe excelled at that.
From the very beginning, Jiang Chen was so easy for me to relate to and commiserate. I remember mentioning to my family 'this is a hard book, this kid really has a very hard life' when I was only on the second chapter. I loved Jiang Cheng from the start, and related to aspects of his personality and life because he was written in a manner I could not only fully undersrand him, but see my past and present self in him.
Enter Gu Fei. And I was equally taken by this apparently cold and uninterested boy who seemed to live in a world different from the rest - soaring above them, ruler of the school, king in his throne without ever coming down to join the peasants. He held court without even knowing it. But as the story progressed and we got to learn more of him, a painful, sad truth began to emerge, and if Jiang Cheng carries the weight of being unwanted by both his families - adoptive and biological - Gu Fei is lumbered with no easier task, having had to become the adult in a disrupted, disruptive family where the mother refuses to grow up and carries on as if she's one of her son's schoolmates, while her daughter's disability has to be shouldered by a teenage boy who should be worried about school work and getting into a good university.
But Gu Fei has given up on dreams a long time ago - he's convinced that the people born and raised where they live will only ever be able to aim for the kind of life those around them have. Hope is lost, goals don't exist, Gu Fei's life and future are spread before him and they're dry, barren.
But Jiang Cheng's presence in his life threatens to change all that.
I won't go into further detail, as not to spoil the tale, I mean only to say that the growing affection between these two characters is one of the most beautiful relationships I've ever read. They are both extraordinary people - yes, because they don't feel like characters, they're real, they're so alive on the page (the screen, more accurately) they breathe and ache and work and suffer as much as any other person. They're vivid, and they're what makes this novel so great. 145 chapters plus extras never become dull, or boring, and culturally, it has shown me details of academic life in China I ignored completely - one of the things I love the most about reading is this exposition to worlds and cultures not my own, hence my love for fantasy - and the intricacies of how schools rate between themselves, because of student results' or location. It was an interesting part of the tale, for me, as was the depiction of the way these characters lived in a small, formerly industrial town that has lost the industry that employed most of its people, thus falling into complete deriliction. There's some social comentary in the tale, but in terms that it passes on the message that if you work hard and steadfastily, you can achieve great things for yourself and make your goals a reality. It's filled with hope, too, but most of all with love and belief. And the belief that love is healing and wonderful. Jiang Cheng, especially, never loses sight of his belief - he who was devoid of love all his life and once he finds it, is intent on holding on to it because he sees in Gu Fei the one person who can understand and cherish him. Which is true, from the start of their entanglement, Gu Fei holds him in awe and admiration, first because of the way Jiang Cheng treats his sister Gu Miao, but as the plot advances, because Jiang Cheng is the beam of light in his life, the hope he lacks, the hurricane who's swept him off his feet and planted seeds within him that terrify but that he cannot unearth. The way Gu Fei cares for Jiang Cheng and becomes, more than a boyfriend, a lover, his family is so heartwarming, and at the same time, heartwrenching, because Gu Fei knows there must be an end to his happiness - there always is. The way he slowly starts to sabotage himself and their relationship is heartbreaking and so relatable for anyone who's been anywhere near Gu Fei's shoes. This novel is one of the best works I've read where it comes to characters, the work put into them feels at the same time immense, intense, but organic - natural, realistic, alive. They are alive, and in the end, it's the way they grow and become more themselves throughout the tale that matters, in detriment of plot or stakes or silly dramas of the kind we often find in the romance genre. This is a slice of life, of real life, and a story that will stay with me not for a long time, but forever.
hinameless's review
5.0
I haven't read it completely since english trans was hard to find but upto 60 chps it was fantastic I love it sooo freakin much
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