- #1
As I get older, I find myself enjoying mature romances more and more. This is a pretty rare find among all the feel-good novels on this site, and it has a stellar translation, so I highly recommend everyone give it a try. The novel's biggest impressions on me are CLEAR communication, understandable character motivations, and a mature philosophy on life.However, I do want to highlight one huge discrepancy -- and that is the character setting of Lang Feng (the ML). He is introduced as a devout Catholic follower, one who is particularly rule-abiding but is active and open to same-s*x relationships. This is a contradiction in itself, as the Catholic religion forbids homos*xual relationships.As the Catechism states: "2359 Homos*xual persons are called to c*astity. By the virtues of self-mastery that teach them inner freedom, at times by the support of disinterested friendship, by prayer and sacramental grace, they can and should gradually and resolutely approach Christian perfection."Anyone who believes in the Catholic faith must not engage in same-s*x relationships because if you do, you are actively going against Catholic teachings and, therefore, NOT actually a pious and devout follower. However, the ML and his family don't react to this, and instead of believing that the ML is committing a sin against their religion, they believe that it is actually the priest of their past church being discriminatory. While it is correct for priests to not discriminate against others based on whether they are LGBTQ, for a Catholic person, they are going against their religion.Seems to me that either the author did not know this, or this is an intended plot hole in the persona of the ML. However, it wouldn't make much sense to give the ML an identity as a pseudo-Catholic, since it doesn't align with his other personality traits, I would say that the author just didn't do enough research.