- #1
First of all, thank you, translator; the novel is very well done. The glowing reviews for this novel are what led me to begin reading it, that and the author’s Waiting For You in A City which I just read for a second time after stumbling upon the recent drama adaptation. However, no matter how much I tried, I could not like this novel. I put it down and picked it back up three times, but eventually felt that I was forcing myself to read it.While I was not particularly enamored of male lead Han Ting (although I loved his perceptive reaction to the attempted blind date scene in Waiting for You in a City), my main problem was the female lead: A.N.N.O.Y.I.N.G. “Petty, spoiled, self-righteous, naïve, and extremely temperamental” are all descriptors for Ji Xing. I did not care for how she interacted with others in the novel nor her childish and petulant reactions to issues of her own insecurities.At first, I thought my reaction to her would be similar to the one I had for Xu Qin, the lead in Waiting for You... , Qin-qin’s hesitancy and indecisive wavering are off-putting until you understand the depth of brain-washing, emotional torture, and verbal ab*se she has undergone since childhood from the Wicked Witch of the East - - oops, I mean her adoptive ‘mother’. I empathized with her struggles to assert herself and grow a backbone because I knew she was fighting against years of negative nurturing from one of the most important figures in her life. I could cheer her on even when she frustrated me.But, I have run out of patience with Yiu Are More Beautiful... I’ve read the reviews that boast about the beautiful, tearjerking ending regarding this “perfect“couple, but I’m just not feeling it. To each his own. Actually reviewer “luathas” makes many of the same observations that I would, so there is no need to reinvent the wheel.