There's more than enough mystery to keep readers interested. Wei WuXian's reason for rebirth, then wanting to know the mystery behind why Jiang Cheng hates him, why he slapped himself for what he said about Jin Ling (about why he's calling for his uncle not his father), why Lan Wangji wants to take him back to the Lan Sect, what is up with this cut-up hand, who the hell is Wen Ning, and what the hell happened in the past. Another thing that works really well is that this story is set in the future, so all the tragic events that were to happen have already happened. The readers already know what the "future" looks like due to those events, so the heartbreak, while still strong and just as deep, is not completely unexpected.

Now about character development. All the characters in this story are HUMAN. They feel like real people, with real emotion and struggles and egos. The villains are not evil for the sake of being evil (well, except the Wen sect), they have reasons to why they are that way. Trust me, towards the end even I wanted to forgive Meng Yao. Xu Yang (?) as well, I felt bad for him, for his past as well as his loss of the blind guy (I'm blanking on the name). Jiang Cheng made me want to slap him through out the story yet in end, I also felt that what happened really couldn't have been prevented and his feeling of enmity towards Wei WuXian were just. Those are just some of the examples. Now lets talk about Wei WuXian. I understand why he came to the end he did in his first life. He had to choose mo dao because he had no other choice but he didn't learn to control it properly, nor did he guard against the people now viewing HIM and his power as a threat after the Wen Sect. The misunderstanding between Wei WuXian and Lan Wangji were not forced to create drama. The tragedy of it was that Wei WuXian truly didn't understand the dept of Lan Zhan's feelings for him because Lan Zhan never clearly expressed it, which again is in accordance with his character.

My point is, that everything about this book made sense. It was real, whether it be the characters, the plot, people's natures or the misunderstanding. It all felt real and like a sad truth.

But the BEST part of this book is that even after all this sadness in the past, we still get a happy ending. The author also did good holding off s*x until all the action was over because I have a tendency to lose interest once the main couple gets together (not that I would have done this with this book).

One bad thing is though, that the writing is a lot of info dumps. If the story had been more refined it would have been unbeatable to me but still...

The way the story ends for Jiang Cheng, who is my favourite character (as he's the most realistic to me and the one I related to the most), is sad. Almost every other character, aside from the ones who died obviously, get happy endings. Oh, and Lan Xichen, who meditated for a year only to realize he's still depressed. But Jiang Cheng's final thoughts in the novel being about how he's going to carry the burden of having saved Wei Wuxian for the rest of his life just made me miserable. Yeah, I'm petty and am rating this lower because of how my favourite character was treated. Then again, it speaks to how well-written Jiang Cheng is that I got so attached to his storyline and invested in his future, so take that how you will.

Jiang Yanli, who dies, solely for the sake of Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian's character development. Yeah, I know, her death served a purpose so I'm not that mad about it, but it's pretty silly that every single woman in this novel dies tragically and is only mourned by their remaining family. It sucks because while JC and WWX's relationship is by far my favourite in the novel, I have to imagine there were ways to leave at least ONE major female character alive? Similarly to the deaths in TGCF, Jiang Yanli's death feels played up for shock value. It's like MXTX doesn't know how to write side character development without it involving people dying tragically.

more over the sexy and hot part is also the best