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khyie 's review for:
A Cure for the Dark Heart
by 沉舟醉月
Look. I don't normally do this. I do not normally base my rating and review of a story solely off from the last chapter but in this case... in this particular case, I couldn't NOT. Because the thing is, I was really jamming with this story. Solid three stars, at least, and then there was the shift. Plot threads that the author had introduced just in the chapter before were suddenly getting wrapped up in a matter of paragraphs. All the plot points were suddenly getting resolved and I realized that something must've happened with the author. Maybe they'd grown tired with the story or something had happened in their life where they realized they couldn't continue and they wanted to at least give their readers an ending and I can respect that. My review might've mentioned something about the sudden ending but my rating would've been based on the overall story itself.
But then I read the last chapter.
When I say that I was not prepared... that I did not in any way, shape, or form see that coming, I fucking mean it. It was entirely out of character, cruel, and as the authorial equivalent of dropping a fucking nuclear bomb in the main relationship and then peacing out. Story's over! Bye, guys, hope you enjoyed!
Like, all I can think is that something went horribly wrong on the webnovel side and the author wanted to punish her readers for something. Which is possibly the one thing I genuinely hate about web novels. Because they're published chapter by chapter, the fandom can have an influence on how the author writes the story. But I was completely out of that and now I'm collateral damage because I fucking read it. And boy do I regret. I literally have not been able to finish a Chinese novel SINCE I read it. I keep starting and quitting. I've been betrayed.
So you know, tl;dr the story is pretty good but spare yourself and don't read the last chapter. You won't actually be missing anything you can't guess on your own and the one thing I sincerely doubt you wouldn't guess, you don't need to know. Trust me.
But then I read the last chapter.
When I say that I was not prepared... that I did not in any way, shape, or form see that coming, I fucking mean it. It was entirely out of character, cruel, and as the authorial equivalent of dropping a fucking nuclear bomb in the main relationship and then peacing out. Story's over! Bye, guys, hope you enjoyed!
Like, all I can think is that something went horribly wrong on the webnovel side and the author wanted to punish her readers for something. Which is possibly the one thing I genuinely hate about web novels. Because they're published chapter by chapter, the fandom can have an influence on how the author writes the story. But I was completely out of that and now I'm collateral damage because I fucking read it. And boy do I regret. I literally have not been able to finish a Chinese novel SINCE I read it. I keep starting and quitting. I've been betrayed.
So you know, tl;dr the story is pretty good but spare yourself and don't read the last chapter. You won't actually be missing anything you can't guess on your own and the one thing I sincerely doubt you wouldn't guess, you don't need to know. Trust me.
Content Warnings
Minor: Drug abuse, Sexual assault
I'm giving away that entire ending under the spoiler cut because it's relevant to my warnings... The author decided that the appropriate way to handle the heirs for the Emperor issue since he was married exclusively to a man was to have the MC drug the ML entirely without his knowledge or consent and then trap him in a room with a naked woman (who was in unrequited love with him and had been written out of the novel halfway through only to very randomly reappear here) to force him to have sex with her. When he was questioned about his actions by a eunuch, he said it was for the good of the empire and the Emperor would understand. That's it. End of story. The thing is, to that point, both the MC and the ML had expressed extreme feelings of jealousy and possessiveness towards each other, which makes the MC choosing this course of action, especially with that particular woman, wildly out of character. Also, the ML abso-fucking-lutely would NOT have understood with his history of people slipping him drugs, much less the person he trusted most in the world. This is an incredibly extreme route to take and would've had potentially catastrophic consequences for their relationship but we're never going to get resolution for that because the MC did it and the story was over. What the actual fuck. It's been over a month and I'm STILL ragingly pissed about it.