noah_dongsaeng's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

1.0

Ruined the entire series for me.
Trust MXTX to ruin a perfectly good lovestory with her non-con fetish. 
Rushed confession, rushed and underwhelming battle and then just rape. Glorified rape. LWJ acting totally out of character. I am disgusted.
Seriously, I loved book 1-4 and this made me wanna throw up.

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siobhanward's review against another edition

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adventurous lighthearted 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

3.0

This series was a wild ride and this book really was no exception. The absolute whiplash of going from smut to walking corpses in a single chapter was unreal. I was glad to see the main story wrapped up, and the bonus stories were cute, but just generally not as strong as the main plot line. I'll give credit though as at least everything in the main plot line kind of moved things forward and there were no random, irrelevant side plots!

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books4eva99's review against another edition

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emotional tense medium-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

3.75

I’d definitely want to reread this series so I can get a different experience with what I’ve learned. It’s a happy ending with some bittersweet feelings. The scene that made me actually cry was Wen Ning telling Wei Wuxian that he’s done enough. Wei Wuxian endured so much and gave up everything out of pure selflessness and he can finally live a happy and peaceful life with the love of his life 😭. Also, I love the juniors so much. Even Jingyi, who’s not as fleshed out as the others, makes me laugh every time he’s on the page. And I liked that we saw the families dealing with the aftermath of the events. My top 3 favorite characters: Wen Ning, Jin Ling, and Jiang Cheng. 
 
Criticisms: 
I did like the
Nie Huaisang mastermind reveal, him being a foil to JGY is so interesting.
But it felt like it was missing something. We knew early on
he’s smarter than he looks
but it’s never even implied how
he discovered the truth about Mingjue’s death. Or how he noticed the body was swapped.
 
In general, because the novel is told primarily through Wei Wuxian’s pov, we don’t get the full emotional impact of scenes he didn’t witness. This happened a lot in vol. 3 and 4, the biggest example being when we just found out Wen Ning was aware that Lan Wangji spoke in defense of him and his sister from execution but we never saw it. But I think Lan Xichen revealing the truth about Lan Wangji in the past was done well. 
 
Maybe it’s the translation but the smut was mostly cringeworthy (everything besides their first time  and the Bichen scene should’ve been scrapped). Who thought “hot weapon” and “massive invader“ were a good idea? Also, the first dream sequence from LWJ’s pov has a bit of (tw: violent imagery)
bleeding from anal sex
that was disturbing and unnecessary. Just because the characters liked it doesn’t mean I have to. The good thing is that these scenes are skippable since it’s bonus content. 

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klbreyfogle's review against another edition

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adventurous dark funny 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

4.5

A good end to the series. This book definitely earns its 18+ rating, though! Especially true in the earlier bonus stories - some of the later ones are kind of sweet, though. (I will probably skip the incense burner extra on rereads)

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cavexcanem's review against another edition

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medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Loveable characters? No

1.0


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nefariousbee's review against another edition

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emotional lighthearted relaxing medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.75

not sure what to do with myself now that it's over. I went in for a cute, gay romance, which I got to be fair (slow burn, childhood nuisances to lovers. what's not to love), but I also got this intricate plot, deep characters, commentary on second chances, courage, and other things I never expected here, all while being extremely funny somehow? easily one of my favourite series ever

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wickedgrumpy's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional lighthearted relaxing tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character

2.25

If the ending of the series had been included in the last volume it likely wouldn't have felt as rushed but as is the pacing felt off since it picked up right were volume 4 ended.  I am a bit salty about 
the Nie clan head dude being the puppet master instead of Zewu-jun since it's a reveal that ends up meaning nothing in the grand scheme of things whereas if Lan Zhan's brother was the baddie it could have gone in a more interesting and compelling direction.
...  Oh well.

Since the majority of this volume was extras that is what the rating I am giving will reflect.  Some of them were fine but I was not expecting the horny smut escapades that occurred and the rape-y vibes were prevalent in the non/dub-con scenes.  There was some domestic bliss I suppose but even that felt like a superficial means to get them back in bed.

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wackly93's review against another edition

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4.0


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kesreads13's review against another edition

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emotional lighthearted fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

4.25


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shoutymcnubs's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful lighthearted sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5


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