I'm so excited that Chrysanthemum Garden is translating this. It's totally up my alley, I wish it was all out already!

The writing is paced well, with good moments of slowness where you can feel the characters breathe, but still punchy and keeps progressing.

It's got some great tropes so far– recovering from first crush while he realizes he misses you, finding out your new fixation is going to be your stepbrother, friends groups are at war, growing up and finding how to know what you want for yourself, internal conflict, s*xual... more>> awakening, enthusiastic bottom, realistic cultural depictions of homosexuality.

Really looking forward to seeing more! <<less

The summary is a bit brief in this one, so I'll give a slightly longer one while avoiding any big spoilers:

The novel starts with our MC being unwillingly dragged along to beat up some guy with his "gang." They don't see the guy at the dedicated spot, so MC goes off to an abandoned building to "look" for him, but really MC is just there to be depressed and internally rage that he's having to do this sh*t when he really just wants to study and get out of this... more>> town. It's in this building that he meets ML, who basically propositions s*x at first sight, and MC being the embodiment of teen angst decides this will be great stress relief- cue the start of their complicated and ambiguous relationship lol

The relationship development is a bit odd, and I'm really not sure how to describe it other than two boys not knowing what they're doing but just going with the flow? ML is flirty and very forward with physical contact, while MC is a bit more restrained, but seems the type to fall fast. It's a very interesting and sweet dynamic between them, and I enjoyed it a lot despite not really knowing what was going on in their heads all the time. Young love is kind of like that though, so I think the author did a great job with balancing ambiguity and raw feelings.

I'd honestly rate a 4 as there's a few things missing in the ending, but the overall rating is way too low so will keep my rating higher! I did enjoy reading, but it's a bit unfulfilling as there are quite a few loose ends:

Spoiler

They don't come out to their parents and there's no real discussion of how that would even go, but honestly it's probably better to not write it than to rush an ending with all the drama that would ensue from doing so.

The whole novel also only spans at most a few months, so there isn't too much character development and MC doesn't seem to have really found what he wants to do in his life, which was one of the things that bothered him at the start. I feel like his relationship with ML has centered him in his priorities though, and the ending doesn't leave him in a state of disarray by any means.

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