The title of this novel is a bit misleading. If you're expecting a novel about the rise of a superstar actor, this is not exactly that story. This is actually more along the lines of a story where a young boy is dealing with a huge amount of trauma and grief, with his talent and experiences in acting being partially a means through which he works through his trauma and struggles and slowly tries to heal. This story definitely made me more teary-eyed than I expected when I first started... more>> it. It is an incredibly slow-paced story, both in terms of his career and in the progression of time -- as of chapter 218 in the raws, it has been about a year and a half and his acting projects are still few and limited. I cannot emphasize ENOUGH how slow-paced it is. There is actually more slice-of-life in this than you'd expect, which is very different from what readers might expect from a story about an actor who will eventually become world-class. Tedious even, since the slice-of-life covers the school life of elementary students so far.

But, this is a really good story in my opinion. What Lee Dohyun experienced really is traumatic -- as the summary says, he is the consequence of the combination of two imperfect souls, who both initially had their own traumatized egos, but rather than being an equal mix of the two souls, the dominant soul is that of the eight-year-old child who barely even knows how to handle himself yet, let alone the inherited soul of the Jung Heesung who suffered a pretty tragic life. He suffered from neglect, malice, isolation, abandonment, as well as survivor's guilt, and it's a credit to the author that it's not all just written away as soon as he finds some success. There were times when I thought he was fully healed considering the environment around him had improved so drastically in addition to how he was behaving with others; however, then it becomes obvious that he is still a young child trying to process the world and his emotions even in spite of his ridiculous talent in acting. Lee Dohyun is not someone who has gone through life already and knows the best way to avoid pitfalls, even if he inherits the general feelings and memories of an adult, plus Jung Heesung was only in his twenties himself. He makes multiple missteps, overestimates his capabilities, underestimates his own value even if he seems to have a few golden fingers like good looks, high intelligence, and unbelievable artistic talent. This is not a smooth-sailing journey. Even his career, despite a brilliant start, is met with problems, especially as an Asian child working in Hollywood so far, which isn't just lip service of how difficult things will be for him only for him to suddenly overcome obstacles like racism just because he's a good actor.

I really appreciate how the author is approaching this though. I'm especially impressed by how much emphasis the author has put on therapy, and recognizing that Lee Dohyun is very much experiencing depression even if others might see him as a perfect model child. I do find some of the elementary school adventures he has somewhat boring, but in the bigger scope of the story, I do see how necessary it is for him to experience them since he is in fact just a child. I am quite terrified at the slow pacing though and how there are less than 600 chapters so far haha. But I hope to follow this story to its end, to see a Lee Dohyun who has accepted himself and his emotions, has healed from the combined pain of his first eight years and from Jung Heesung's whole life, and succeeded in making the most of the life Jung Heesung wanted to give him. <<less