- #1
Rebirth of Chen An, the showbiz version. It's difficult to bring yourself to care about the male leads and, even if you manage that, it's harder to convince yourself to like them because just about all of them have come off rather psychotic. I feel that the MC is rather... careless with his feelings I guess? Now I'm all for cold/calculating characters, but Fiennes feels more emotionally stunted than anything else; even after being sold, r*ped, or his life/safety in jeopardy, he doesn't doesn't seem to be able to feel anything beyond mild annoyance. Unfortunately, even the showbiz parts of the novel are... lackluster? Somehow, they bore me to death even more than the "emotional" chapters.All in all, it's a very 'meh' novel for me. I wouldn't call it bad at all, it's just that I don't particularly care for the MC, dislike 3 (of what looks like 4) of the male leads, and the underlying plot is very draggy and repetitive, despite not saying much of anything. Plus, the author's obsession with Robert Downy Jr is a little bit... off-putting? Embarrassing? It just makes some chapters/sentences a little difficult to read without wanting to face palm.
