- #1
Keep in mind that I've only read up to the current translated chapters (ch 66) so my opinion is subjective to change as I advance through the story, but I feel that 60 chapters is long enough to serve as an overview for people who are interested in reading this novel, so I'll relay my current impression of it so far.First off, the writing style and the translation are both top tier; as expected for anyone who's familiar with many of this author's works, they're someone who does a decent amount of research on the topic or at least creates the impression of a world well constructed and a believable string of events, which draws your attention and suceeds in making the plot engaging. As someone who loves to feel enshrouded in the world within a story beyond just the MC's interactions, I feel like the social media aspect is also a pretty nice touch, this story does a great job in portraying the stories within a story in a way that's attractive and interesting, which feels ironic to me, because sometimes it's to the point where I relate and invest more of my emotions in the movies and dramas the actors play in than the actual main story; which brings me to my main issue with the whole novel, that is: the main character.Rong xu is likeable enough so far, at first, he came off as too Mary Sue-ish for my tastes (the long, and repetitive descriptions of his beauty doesn't help his case), but later he grew on me a bit, but that's it, just a bit, and the problem lies on how unrelatable and distant his whole character seems. Unlike ML, who I quickly came to like thanks to his clumsiness, cute mentality and inner air-headedness, MC is basically perfect and has no obvious faults or interests aside from acting. Essentially, to this guy, there's acting and then there's only more acting, although it's briefly mentioned that in his previous life he used to have friends, trough the course of the story he has yet to make any deep bonds, only connections, and even his attitude towards ML is only lukewarm at best. In other words, it constantly gives me the impression that even when he's not actively acting he's still portraying a role, like everything from how he smiles to how he acts towards people he does it in order to appear likeable and ingratiate people to him for the sake of his career. Unlike ML, whose motivations are transparent, it's like we never know what MC is REALLY thinking in a deeper, more core-level, it's almost like nothing ever touches him... I don't know, maybe it's just me, but that's how he comes off to me, like he's more of a medium towards a story and the embodiment of the perfect actor than an actual, human character.Anyways, for now I'll continue to follow this novel because I'm interested in seeing the story through, but my greatest hope goes to Rong Xu eventually growing into a fleshed out character and the CP actually, properly falling in love with each other in a believable way and not just forced into a one-sided relationship for the plot's sake.