gxuosi's Reviews (390)

really puts the bored in "bored gay werewolf"

it was literally fine. average, run of mill, mid romance. the end was a slog. whatever.

it really was like 4 pages of plot and like 50 pages up straight up fucking. but also characterization that’s critical info for the next book that conceptualizes who they are and what they mean to each other. so NO author vice, we cannot read one without the other lmfao

“You’re allowed to feel things. You’re allowed to want things. It doesn’t always have to be good; it doesn’t have to be selfless.” i am face down in a pillow screaming into the void (also could have done without the daddy kink. sir would have been just fine)

is this the best translation? god no. but is it still fun to read? ABSOLUTELY. i am down sooooo bad for wangji bro it’s criminal

i let loose a crying scream for the horror that the world puts qin su AND jin ling through for no fucking reason.

god the ANGST. the unbridled agony at the cards wuxian, wangji, yanli, and wen ning have been dealt. also wuxian that man was NOT drunk quit hurting ur husband’s feelings on accident

it’s a 5/5 if you just finish the main story; such a perfect love ballad across time. i love this fucked up family so bad.
BUT when you read the extra stories that make up half of this book it’s a 3/5; inexplicably pointless and irrelevant, often meandering tableaus or just like sadomasochistic sex scenes.

3.5/5. paris lays her history bare, but not her whole heart and that's probably just part of protecting herself. this book contains the worst of who paris was and the worst of what paris went through, but contextualizes in jarring clarity why she is who she is. it seeks to explain and allegedly not excuse some of her more problematic behaviors as an it girl influencer, but it leaves a taste of attempted absolution in my mouth. she doubles down often on acknowledging her privilege leading up into complaints or successes, as if she's too afraid to complain or celebrate without a giving the reader a warning sign. the letdown of the book was her no less than 5 times bringing up cryptocurrency, metaverse, and NFTs. paris, AI will not heal your trauma, digital escapism isn't saving your life.

nothing will ever hit the way reading catching fire for the first time did. the honor to have read this without any knowledge of the film cannot be understated. i've always loved catching fire best because of the sheer rage in it. and i've known anger best all my life. nothing is quite as tangible and as fulfilling as anger. you don't have to question anger the way you do sorrow. you just pull it taut and let it loose, like an arrow into a weak corner of a forcefield.