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teagstime's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
lighthearted
sad
tense
fast-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
4.75
This is definitely one of my favorite books of all time— I read this Scum Villain unofficial translation back in January 2021 and have been obsessed with it for over a year now. It’s just a wonderful, hilarious, tragic story.
Shen Yuan/Qingqiu is a brilliant unreliable narrator. Pretty much everything he thinks is undermined by his actions (e.g. insisting he thinks of everyone as simply characters in a novel, yet grows to care for them and constantly puts himself in danger for the sake of others)(albeit he still does have many problems recognizing their agency as living people, but that’s another story lmaoo). Any time this man denies having an emotion, which is often, he’s probably having TOO MANY— but we would be none the wiser! Because he’s so good at disassociating from his own body and feelings, he Also thinks he’s telling the truth! It’s concerning! I wanna k word this man so bad (affectionate)His whole personality is another bag of worms altogether. The casual and blatant disregard for his own life? The way he locks up every emotion and vulnerability from everyone else SO HARD he even locks them away from himself? SQQ I'm gonna force you into a therapy session I swear to god
Luo Binghe is also just. So good. This is a man who truly has All The Trauma… The ‘hurt/no comfort’ tag embodied. I feel like he gets misunderstood by a lot of people, which is incredibly upsetting to me, because he is so interesting and tragic and great??Yes, he gets a little unhinged post-abyss, but wouldn’t you? If the first person to ever show you kindness & love suddenly condemns you as the worst kind of evil and throws you into a literal hellscape after stabbing you in the chest??? Sorry to Shen Qingqiu but I would also go a little crazy wondering why! He’s calculated and terrifying and all-encompassing, and he decided to give his entire heart & soul to 1 (one) person and act a complete fool around him forever. King shit fr… Like seriously I care about this funky lil crybaby so much. I have kept it short here on purpose because this review would be 2x longer if I ranted about how much I love Luo Binghe rn… He gives me ALL the feelings. Shoutout SQQ bc I’m also having Binghe brainworms 24/7!
I think this novel also has a really neat relationship w its tropes, because mxtx wrote SVSSS as a commentary on harem/stallion novels and many of the plot devices they- and other things in the romance genre- tend to use, as well as things like transmigration stories, internet trolls/redditor-type dudebros, and male power fantasies in general! There are so many takes and subversions in this book that I just ! Care about so much !! And find so interesting to think about !! For example, with Luo Binghe’s power as the protagonist: unlike your typical male action hero / Shonen protag, he gets severely punished for powering up.Yeah, sure, he gets a cool demon sword that can cut open dimensional rifts. At the cost of the security in his most important relationship, with his special person. You’re now gonna feel insecure of your place forever and constantly fear being abandoned. On top of that, he has to deal with mental instability and bouts of becoming mind-controlled by said demonic sword— Like Xin Mo is literally poisoning his mind !! It will make you the strongest, but you will lose your sanity, leading to a horrible, slow death— and you’ll get to unknowingly hurt/kill the people you care about on your way out!! Because your sense of autonomy and comfort in your own skin is now forfeit! SURPRISE !! :)
Another aspect I really love (which I’ve seen some hate/uncertainty toward) is Bingqiu’s relationship itself— I guess I can understand if there’s tropes that aren’t your thing, or if there’s dynamics in their relationship you find toxic or unhealthy. However ! Concerning the toxicity/unhealthy parts of their relationship… a lot of it stems from mxtx’s commentary on harem tropes and male power fantasies? Those stories are damaging and gratuitous and horrifying, especially for the love interests, who are often just there to be put in traumatizing situations and papapa’d better… And the all-powerful male protag is often just.. overbearing and entitled and arrogant and creepy. No relationship’s gonna come out of that kind of environment unscathed!
Imo the tragic & horrible parts of their relationship just make the ending so much better?
Despite all the ways Bingqiu miscommunicate & hurt each other over the course of the novel, they really do love each other. Just because things aren’t resolutely tied up with a bow at the end doesn’t mean they don’t! It just makes it more real and heartwarming to me. These are people who have misunderstood one another constantly, who have made mistakes and hurt the one they love… and they have to live with it. No do-overs. And they make the conscious decision to be together despite it all! I think it ends with a really heartwarming feeling, like!! They have a lot of work to do to be able to move forward after all this trauma and heartache, but they’re going to try and make it work! Because they are in love! And they want each other to be happy! It’s so sweet!! Even though Bingqiu are quite literally soulmates, relationships are never going to be easy— esp one with as much baggage as this— and the novel ends with them still having all these issues, but ! They’re going to try to face them ! And learn from their mistakes, together!!! That’s LOVE baby!!!
Anyway! Christ,, , I did not mean to make this a novel on its own OTL I could and would keep talking, but… I will cut myself off lmaooo
TLDR; I care this book a lot
Shen Yuan/Qingqiu is a brilliant unreliable narrator. Pretty much everything he thinks is undermined by his actions (e.g. insisting he thinks of everyone as simply characters in a novel, yet grows to care for them and constantly puts himself in danger for the sake of others)(albeit he still does have many problems recognizing their agency as living people, but that’s another story lmaoo). Any time this man denies having an emotion, which is often, he’s probably having TOO MANY— but we would be none the wiser! Because he’s so good at disassociating from his own body and feelings, he Also thinks he’s telling the truth! It’s concerning! I wanna k word this man so bad (affectionate)
Luo Binghe is also just. So good. This is a man who truly has All The Trauma… The ‘hurt/no comfort’ tag embodied. I feel like he gets misunderstood by a lot of people, which is incredibly upsetting to me, because he is so interesting and tragic and great??
I think this novel also has a really neat relationship w its tropes, because mxtx wrote SVSSS as a commentary on harem/stallion novels and many of the plot devices they- and other things in the romance genre- tend to use, as well as things like transmigration stories, internet trolls/redditor-type dudebros, and male power fantasies in general! There are so many takes and subversions in this book that I just ! Care about so much !! And find so interesting to think about !! For example, with Luo Binghe’s power as the protagonist: unlike your typical male action hero / Shonen protag, he gets severely punished for powering up.
Another aspect I really love (which I’ve seen some hate/uncertainty toward) is Bingqiu’s relationship itself— I guess I can understand if there’s tropes that aren’t your thing, or if there’s dynamics in their relationship you find toxic or unhealthy. However ! Concerning the toxicity/unhealthy parts of their relationship… a lot of it stems from mxtx’s commentary on harem tropes and male power fantasies? Those stories are damaging and gratuitous and horrifying, especially for the love interests, who are often just there to be put in traumatizing situations and papapa’d better… And the all-powerful male protag is often just.. overbearing and entitled and arrogant and creepy. No relationship’s gonna come out of that kind of environment unscathed!
Imo the tragic & horrible parts of their relationship just make the ending so much better?
Anyway! Christ,, , I did not mean to make this a novel on its own OTL I could and would keep talking, but… I will cut myself off lmaooo
TLDR; I care this book a lot
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Rape, Self harm, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Bullying, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Confinement, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Grief, and Death of parent
Minor: Homophobia, Misogyny, and Sexism
My advice: do NOT read this book without looking at the trigger warnings. There is graphic, disturbing content and it's rated for adults for a reason (the suggested reading age from some stores is literally 22+) !!!!rensreading's review
adventurous
emotional
funny
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
i’m genuinely not sure what to think of this book. that one explicit scene was absolutely horrifying which threw me off a lot and the extras weren’t really to my taste either apart from the bing-ge vs bing-mei portion.
as for the actual story, it was enjoyable up to a certain point. i mean it was literally a self-insert fic come to life in a novel with the protag going through quite a lot before deciding what he’ll stand by. and that is luo binghe, ladies and gentlethems.
i loved that plot holes were filled and that sqq was such an otaku and the final chapter was sweet but the climax before it was strange enough to kind of sour everything else for me.
fuck the system though lmao
this gets 3.5 stars from me (:
as for the actual story, it was enjoyable up to a certain point. i mean it was literally a self-insert fic come to life in a novel with the protag going through quite a lot before deciding what he’ll stand by. and that is luo binghe, ladies and gentlethems.
i loved that plot holes were filled and that sqq was such an otaku and the final chapter was sweet but the climax before it was strange enough to kind of sour everything else for me.
fuck the system though lmao
this gets 3.5 stars from me (:
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Gore, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicide, Blood, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, War, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Abandonment
Minor: Homophobia
There is only one sex scene and it is at the climax of the novel and is extremely graphic. It includes dubious consent, body horror, (unknowing) sexual violence, a lot of blood, and what some people (including me) may consider gore.moonmagister's review
adventurous
dark
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
This was the last MXTX book I had left to read so far and it’s the first one she wrote. As such it’s a shorter and more chaotic read and probably won’t be to many peoples tastes. Lots of people say this is a lighthearted novel, and it is, if you happen to have dark sense of humour. This is romance but much more in the style of a messy queer dark romance than anything more wholesome. So if that isn’t up your street then I wouldn’t bother trying.
I personally really enjoyed this novel, despite flaws in plot and translation. I’m looking forward to continuing the official translation in the following months!
I personally really enjoyed this novel, despite flaws in plot and translation. I’m looking forward to continuing the official translation in the following months!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Homophobia, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, Blood, Murder, Abandonment, War, and Injury/Injury detail
liuolah's review
emotional
funny
lighthearted
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death
Moderate: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, and Abandonment
therakesarecoming's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Death, and Gore
Moderate: Bullying, Cursing, Homophobia, Torture, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Adult/minor relationship and Abandonment
wings_of_black_leather's review
adventurous
emotional
funny
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Violence
Moderate: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, and Torture
Minor: Bullying and Death of parent
breemeup's review
dark
funny
lighthearted
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
ultimately, scum villain is an answer to the age old question: what if we gave a giant overbearing demon puppy man acute separation anxiety and a crippling Oedipus complex and set him loose on a milfy repressed redditor who is assigned final girl at rebirth?
Joke's aside, here are my messy thoughts about the novel:
1. I think that if people had made it more clear that scum villain is a dark comedy psychosexual horror story rather than pretending that it's a romance novel, I probably would have gotten into it a lot sooner.
2. By giving shen yuan so much agency and such a rich inner voice, mxtx builds such a fun exploration of like the inherent horror found in so many heterosexual romance novels and the ways in which we take for granted the mistreatment of female love interests in these novels. I adore binghe but his love is so monstrous and all consuming and terrifying in such a classic bodice ripper romance novel kind of way!!! mxtx masterfully uses framing and the protag's awareness of romance tropes to subvert/satirize this romance dynamic that women are subjected to
3. And that's not even getting into shen yuan's epic genderification arc and how the fact that he's subjected to this horror both makes him feel trapped but also gives him the liberty to experiment with and explore his relationship with gender and feminity and sense of self. (Transfem shen yuan real!!)
4. the way women in this novel become their own people/are given the freedom to be less classically "feminine" and instead become selfish/brutal/even a bit ugly because of their exclusion from binghe's desire? WOW... liberty from the inherent horror of compulsory heterosexuality methinks.
5. This book is about gender!!!!! It's about the complex intersections between sexuality and gender identity and it's absolutely incredible. I was NOT expecting that a AT ALL. I'm blown away. Like you know how that dude gave a copy of undertale to the pope? im gonna do that except it's gonna be Judith Butler instead of the pope and im giving them a copy of svss instead of undertale
Anyway, I really thought that this was gonna be my least favorite mxtx book I thought I was gonna be put off by the romance but oh my god the fact that the romance is DELIBERATELY off putting has made this one of my favorite novels ever. I'm going to be thinking about it for a long long time
Joke's aside, here are my messy thoughts about the novel:
1. I think that if people had made it more clear that scum villain is a dark comedy psychosexual horror story rather than pretending that it's a romance novel, I probably would have gotten into it a lot sooner.
2. By giving shen yuan so much agency and such a rich inner voice, mxtx builds such a fun exploration of like the inherent horror found in so many heterosexual romance novels and the ways in which we take for granted the mistreatment of female love interests in these novels. I adore binghe but his love is so monstrous and all consuming and terrifying in such a classic bodice ripper romance novel kind of way!!! mxtx masterfully uses framing and the protag's awareness of romance tropes to subvert/satirize this romance dynamic that women are subjected to
3. And that's not even getting into shen yuan's epic genderification arc and how the fact that he's subjected to this horror both makes him feel trapped but also gives him the liberty to experiment with and explore his relationship with gender and feminity and sense of self. (Transfem shen yuan real!!)
4. the way women in this novel become their own people/are given the freedom to be less classically "feminine" and instead become selfish/brutal/even a bit ugly because of their exclusion from binghe's desire? WOW... liberty from the inherent horror of compulsory heterosexuality methinks.
5. This book is about gender!!!!! It's about the complex intersections between sexuality and gender identity and it's absolutely incredible. I was NOT expecting that a AT ALL. I'm blown away. Like you know how that dude gave a copy of undertale to the pope? im gonna do that except it's gonna be Judith Butler instead of the pope and im giving them a copy of svss instead of undertale
Anyway, I really thought that this was gonna be my least favorite mxtx book I thought I was gonna be put off by the romance but oh my god the fact that the romance is DELIBERATELY off putting has made this one of my favorite novels ever. I'm going to be thinking about it for a long long time
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Stalking, Suicide attempt, and Murder
saikiren's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
lighthearted
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-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
5.0
I liked how everything clicked in place at the end though, Shen Qingqiu really did fulfill all plot holes and as the reader i was able to finally be informed on some of the character's backstories. it still didnt right the original Shen's abuse towards the og Luo but it gave an understanding of where his envy had been brought up from, and made me switch up my mindset about him a little bit. I love this book so much, its my go-to comfort novel
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content, Sexual violence, and Violence
Moderate: Child abuse, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, and Blood
Minor: Bullying and Death of parent
phenomenarwhal's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
fast-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
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Gore, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Murder, and Abandonment
Moderate: Emotional abuse, Death of parent, and War
vvayl's review
dark
emotional
funny
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
4.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content, Torture, and Violence
Moderate: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Sexual assault, Blood, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Murder, and Abandonment
Minor: Adult/minor relationship and Slavery