—; xie qingcheng's acceptance of femininity and its strength juxtaposed to his rigid, inflexible view of masculinity and homosexuality, etc.
- "if you jump, i jump" love the titanic reference that keeps popping up! xqc is truly the Rose to hy's Jack

Case File Compendium (BAB) Vol 5 | Meatbun - 5/5✨

- easily the best volume: he yu's confession and mental breakdown in the car; xie qingcheng understanding the depth of he yu's love; the WOMEN, the WOMEN, the WOMEN 🤌💋; jiang liping!! the woman you are!!😭; the plot twist of who the informant is—

Case File Compendium (BAB) Vol 4 | Meatbun - 4.9/5✨

- cover is STUNNING
- so, so glad to see xqc continue to NOT forgive hy for what he did to him at the club as well as see hy's development as he comes to understand how his actions are/were wrong
- murder plot continues to be satisfying

Case File Compendium (BAB) Vol 3 | Meatbun - 4.7/5✨

- read a review that I would hate this for the SA scenes but surprisingly this is my fave volume so far
- I want to tuck HY and XQC into my pocket
- xqc's secret is chef's💋
- always a fan of meatbun making me want to simultaneously laugh and cry

- that being said, i've read Erha and i knew what i was signing up for when i started reading this, so i can't complain too much lol

Case File Compendium (BaB) vol. 2 | Meatbun - 2/5✨

- TW: the SA scene towards the end of this volume genuinely made me want to quit because of one) how drawn out it was, and two) how it tries to convince the audience it's dubcon when it's explicitly noncon. IDk I have mixed feelings 🫠

Case File Compendium (BaB) vol. 1 | Meatbun - 3.7/5✨

- baby's first modern danmei!
- genuinely fearful of the 'enemies to lovers' tag in this
- the main characters are NOT good people imo LOL
- sci-fi murder plot is VERY intriguing and might have my attention more than the romance at this point

Scum Villain vol. 5 | MXTX - 4.1/5✨

- the novel reads like a fever dream even when wrapping up, but i can always trust mxtx to deliver
- tianlang-jun and zhuzhi-lang were my favorites. i could read 4785743 more extras involving them and su xiyan
- (un)surprisingly ship moshang more than bingqiu

- also kind of hate how the cover spoils it's a happy ending for the main ship. you have major character deaths but fear not, they get a happy ending! i can see where its nice for readers who already know the story going into it, but for us newbies it lessens the angst tbh

Remnants of Filth vol. 7 | Rou Bao Bu Chi Rou

2✨/5

- i finished the main story and gave up on the extras. it was the most lackluster ending (and story) from this author
- somehow everyone lives because *handwave* why not?
- the twist with murong mengze also felt thrown in for no reason at all

"I could recognize him by touch alone, by smell; I would know him blind, by the way his breaths came and his feet struck the earth. I would know him in death, at the end of the world."

"He is half of my soul, as the poets say."

😭😭😭😭😭!!!!!

The Song of Achilles | Madeline Miller

4.4✨/5

- some of the most poetic, romantic lines ive read in literature
- despite knowing Greek mythos and thus being prepared, i still felt each character death like a devastating blow
- bildungsroman that ends in tragedy (w/ a sprinkle of peace at the end)

Extras for The Captive Prince trilogy:

Summer Palace: 4.8✨/5
Green but for a Season: 2.5✨/5
The Adventures of Charls, The Veretian Cloth Merchant: 4.5✨/5
Pet: 5✨/5

- enjoyed the extras that provided epilogue content; however, my fav ended up being Pet. I wish we would've gotten more Ancel content!

Kings Rising | C.S. Pacat

4.5✨/5

- i would die for laurent and so would damen
- feels a little bit rushed in some areas (a lot of walking and transporting from one setting to another), but a solid ending to the story. antagonist deaths also felt underwhelming tbh
- handled written trauma well

Prince's Gambit | C.S. Pacat

4.8✨/5

- personal fav of the three novels; the character development for laurent and damen both individually and together as a couple is chef's kiss
- side characters are good
- author does a fantastic job with foreshadowing, and plot twists are genuinely unforeseen

Captive Prince | C.S. Pacat

3.7✨/5

- begins in medias res, but you quickly get acclimated with the setting and structure of the novel.
- if you're squicked by rape/sexual slavery, this novel is not for you!
- actual enemies-to-lovers (but the 'lovers' part won't happen for another two books)

Remnants of Filth | Yuwu: Volume VI (English)

4✨/5

- Finally giving me the political and familial fuckery I was craving from the get-go. Novel had been pretty lackluster until now.
- Murong Lian redeemed the plot. 10/10 character.
- Pacing felt more solid but still all over the place.