Childhood Friend of the Zenith Chapter 222 Discussion

The trend of hating on black hole dense main characters has been prevalent in recent years now. In fact, I dare say I am one of those haters, but this time, I wanted to give novels like this one with dense as heck main characters a chance. Why is that? Because I think it would be unfair to base off my review for this one on web novels that I've read before.

And this did not disappoint. The utilization of a dense main character here actually fits perfectly with its slow pacing. Over the course of the story as I read, he gradually starts to realize their feelings for him. In fact, he's only dense for a somewhat small portion of the story. Although I've had some gripes with the novel, they are something I was able to get past through and although this one wouldn't be worth 5 stars of rating, I decided to give it one since it came close.

My gripe with the novel is obviously the unnecessary suspense for the sake of suspense. The repetitive use of 'him', 'that man', 'that thing', 'it', or anything similar is fairly pervasive in the author's style of writing, making it feel cheap. As if in an attempt to combat this weakness, the author's use of other forms of foreshadowing, such as showing certain engaging scenes, and subversion of expectations is nothing short of exceptional. The author subverts expectations in a manner that keeps you engaged with the overall suspense despite the occasional feeling of cheapness that you may experience. Overall, this novel has done a very good job in that department so far.

Another gripe of mine with the novel is the fact that the protagonist's thoughts pervades throughout most of the streams of consciousness, making chapters feel sometimes tacky to read. And once again, as if to combat this, the author's use of stream of consciousness during emotional scenes really shines in a manner that you simply can't help yourself but relate to the characters' experiences.

The novel starts off fairly slow and the characters may give the impression of being 1 dimensional, but don't let the first 50 chapters fool you. The characters gradually develops as the dynamics of their relationships change over the course of the story. Once the novels starts taking off, you would certainly enjoy the experience. THIS IS A WISH-FULFILLMENT NOVEL with the harem and all, but it's well-written one and manages to execute what it wants to execute.