Finished reading Po Yun!
(I actually finished it months ago but never posted this draft, now that I'm back, here it is!)
I have complex feelings about it. I really loved it... until I didn't anymore.
First, let's talk about the good parts (and it has many!).
The book is writen in a very visual and entertaining way, it's almost like watching a movie in the way the scenes are described. Action scenes are exciting and keep you stuck to the book. In that sense it's a bit different to "In the Dark", which is writen in a more classical way, feels more like a proper book using proper prose, not a light novel, if you get what I mean.
Interactions between characters are great! they feel alive and the cammaderie is really fun! some things are not directly told, and that's amazing because you can see by yourself the kind of relationships they have or how they change with time. Nobody directly tells you that Yan Xie trusts Han Xiaomei or that Yang Mei does care about Yan Xie's well being, but you can see all those changes in those relationships as time passes by and I love that!. In other stories, I always complain about the "told, not shown", where author tells you how things are instead of letting you notice them and how it feels like lazy writing, but in Po Yun that doesn't happen.
In the romance department, it was really good while they were still flirting and realizing they were in love, it gave you butterflies and made you nervous in a nice slow-burn way. But here comes my conflict with this book! once they're together, Yan Xie's character becomes really annoying, so annoying that I almost dropped the book! but seeing it with a colder mind (and considering his parents), this could be part of his character, part of how he was raised and part of the mental conflict he was going through at the time. That's a possibility and if that's the reason, then the writer did a great job at making him insuffearable ^^U
[Spoiler (click to open)]Soft spoilers if you want to know more details: First, as soon as they kissed a first time, Yan Xie became VERY horny, trying to get in Jiang Ting's pants everytime they were together, when he finally does, his personality changes a lot in bed! before, he was always worried about Jiang Ting's health but in bed he's just rough and keeps doing it many times, even when Jiang Ting fainted because of it -_- (don't get me wrong! the smut scenes are VERY hot and well done, sexy as hell BUT so out of character for Yan Xie that the mental conflict makes them annoying... for any other book or without any context then they would be amazing!)
At the same time, he became obssessed with marriage in a creepy and not cute way, to the point he got angry when JT rejected him over and over again. In this last point is where the story could be part of this change because, at the time, he felt he was going to be killed any minute and never told JT about it, so it's kinda explained that his desperation came from that and how he wanted to secure a good life for JT in case he died (whiiiich doesn't make sense since there's not gay marriage in China so marriage is legally pointless, in that case just open a bank account for him and end of the story *shrugs*).
At some point this is more less solved or at least toned down, but the bad taste already damaged my enjoyment of the story.
This is related to a constant "wife" joke going on. The joke was fun while they were just flirting and not together, but it scalated and became extra annoying to the point even Yan Xie's parents call Jiang Ting "daughter-in-law" (this is why I say that Yan Xie might be annoying because of how he was raised). Jiang Ting is a man and it really bothered me that they don't recognize that, being a bottom doesn't make him a woman! grrrrrr
Anyway, this lead me to a burning hate to anything that calls a guy "wife", so if I see "wife" anywhere in a title or summary of a danmei, I automatically discard it.
The book has extras I didn't read because it's MORE marriage stuff and I can only imagine how annoying it can get with the "Jian Ting is woman haha lol" joke, grrrrrrr
I don't know if I'll ever read it again, it was good but the bad points ruined it a bit, maybe in a distant future, with a colder mind, I'll enjoy re-reading it and I'll just roll eyes or skip the parts I didn't like.
Now, will I read the spin-off, Swallowing the Seas /Tunhai? YES! of course! why? because people say it's better than Po Yun. If I read Po Yun it's because I constantly saw Tunhai highly recommended but I knew Po Yun was a "prequel" so I did things in order, as it was meant to be read, even if you didn't need to read Po Yun to enjoy Tunhai. This author's writting is good, it's fun, quick, interesting and very worth it. If Tunhai has all the good qualities and avoids the things I didn't like from Po Yun, then I know it's going to be a great read! (because... there's no way she will use again the same trope/joke, right? I should be safe this time!)
I have complex feelings about it. I really loved it... until I didn't anymore.
First, let's talk about the good parts (and it has many!).
The book is writen in a very visual and entertaining way, it's almost like watching a movie in the way the scenes are described. Action scenes are exciting and keep you stuck to the book. In that sense it's a bit different to "In the Dark", which is writen in a more classical way, feels more like a proper book using proper prose, not a light novel, if you get what I mean.
Interactions between characters are great! they feel alive and the cammaderie is really fun! some things are not directly told, and that's amazing because you can see by yourself the kind of relationships they have or how they change with time. Nobody directly tells you that Yan Xie trusts Han Xiaomei or that Yang Mei does care about Yan Xie's well being, but you can see all those changes in those relationships as time passes by and I love that!. In other stories, I always complain about the "told, not shown", where author tells you how things are instead of letting you notice them and how it feels like lazy writing, but in Po Yun that doesn't happen.
In the romance department, it was really good while they were still flirting and realizing they were in love, it gave you butterflies and made you nervous in a nice slow-burn way. But here comes my conflict with this book! once they're together, Yan Xie's character becomes really annoying, so annoying that I almost dropped the book! but seeing it with a colder mind (and considering his parents), this could be part of his character, part of how he was raised and part of the mental conflict he was going through at the time. That's a possibility and if that's the reason, then the writer did a great job at making him insuffearable ^^U
[Spoiler (click to open)]Soft spoilers if you want to know more details: First, as soon as they kissed a first time, Yan Xie became VERY horny, trying to get in Jiang Ting's pants everytime they were together, when he finally does, his personality changes a lot in bed! before, he was always worried about Jiang Ting's health but in bed he's just rough and keeps doing it many times, even when Jiang Ting fainted because of it -_- (don't get me wrong! the smut scenes are VERY hot and well done, sexy as hell BUT so out of character for Yan Xie that the mental conflict makes them annoying... for any other book or without any context then they would be amazing!)
At the same time, he became obssessed with marriage in a creepy and not cute way, to the point he got angry when JT rejected him over and over again. In this last point is where the story could be part of this change because, at the time, he felt he was going to be killed any minute and never told JT about it, so it's kinda explained that his desperation came from that and how he wanted to secure a good life for JT in case he died (whiiiich doesn't make sense since there's not gay marriage in China so marriage is legally pointless, in that case just open a bank account for him and end of the story *shrugs*).
At some point this is more less solved or at least toned down, but the bad taste already damaged my enjoyment of the story.
This is related to a constant "wife" joke going on. The joke was fun while they were just flirting and not together, but it scalated and became extra annoying to the point even Yan Xie's parents call Jiang Ting "daughter-in-law" (this is why I say that Yan Xie might be annoying because of how he was raised). Jiang Ting is a man and it really bothered me that they don't recognize that, being a bottom doesn't make him a woman! grrrrrr
Anyway, this lead me to a burning hate to anything that calls a guy "wife", so if I see "wife" anywhere in a title or summary of a danmei, I automatically discard it.
The book has extras I didn't read because it's MORE marriage stuff and I can only imagine how annoying it can get with the "Jian Ting is woman haha lol" joke, grrrrrrr
I don't know if I'll ever read it again, it was good but the bad points ruined it a bit, maybe in a distant future, with a colder mind, I'll enjoy re-reading it and I'll just roll eyes or skip the parts I didn't like.
Now, will I read the spin-off, Swallowing the Seas /Tunhai? YES! of course! why? because people say it's better than Po Yun. If I read Po Yun it's because I constantly saw Tunhai highly recommended but I knew Po Yun was a "prequel" so I did things in order, as it was meant to be read, even if you didn't need to read Po Yun to enjoy Tunhai. This author's writting is good, it's fun, quick, interesting and very worth it. If Tunhai has all the good qualities and avoids the things I didn't like from Po Yun, then I know it's going to be a great read! (because... there's no way she will use again the same trope/joke, right? I should be safe this time!)