When the Villainess Died, the Male Lead Went Crazy Chapter Completed Discussion

I read this novel to completion and about halfway through, I really wanted to stop, but I'd already spent too much time on it so I decided to give it the benefit of the doubt and just push through and..... Hm. I'll speak in vague terms so that everyone can get the general gist of it all.

The first issue this novel has is the pacing. It takes sooo long for even the most simplest of issues to be resolved, mostly because of the ML's own incompetence. The whole novel is 159 chapters long when everything could have been neatly tied up in about a fraction of that. For the first ~50 or so chapters, it feels like the author is writing just for the sake of having more chapters, as very little of the plot or the characters are developed in that time. The writing is rather flowery so it's fun if you're a bit of a linguist, but it can be such a drag when you just want the plot to move in any direction at all. I enjoy slow burns, but this wasn't well constructed.

The second issue is the ML (minor spoilers).

Spoiler

The ML is supposedly super super in love with the FL. After her death, he went mad trying to find out a way to revive her only to get a fake version of her while the real FL wakes up in a different body. I sincerely think the only reason why this novel has a good rating on Ridi is because we all got bamboozled by the premise. I feel like a lot people assumed this would be a story of the ML recognizing the FL's soul, realizing his mistake, and trying to help restore her to her real body but that's not what we got at all.

Where the problem lies is that the ML is.... how you say, not very smart. The author does a good job setting up the premise, showing us how much he loves her and how desperate he is to have her back, but for all the love he supposedly has for her, he can't even recognize that she's not acting right???

Then it becomes the FL's problem to try and convince him that she's real and the woman by his side is a fake, but he never listens to her. He's so convinced that the fake he has by his side is the real one and in doing so, he treats the actual FL like garbage. The whole time I was just like ???? You're supposed to love this woman with your whole heart to the point of resurrecting her and yet you can't even recognize her soul? His love is written to be pure and noble and yet.....

It's written like it's supposed to be tragic but it's more aggravating to read because it shouldn't be this difficult. The fake is clearly not acting right and the FL knows things only she would know and yet the ML just REFUSES to believe her for so long. By chapter 100, he still doesn't believe she is who she says she is. I think its around 105ish when he finally gets smacked upside the head with a sudden realization, but even when we got there, it didn't feel worth it. More than 2/3 of the story gets wasted on watching this man deny what he claimed to be the love of his life.

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A good chunk of the novel rinses and repeats the same song and dance for the sake of the tragedy and the drama, but none of it feels organic because again, this shouldn't be this hard. I feel like this novel could be a good read for you if you like this kind of 'tragedy' and don't think about it too much, but I found to be extremely exhausting to read.

Overall the novel is a 1 star experience, but the writing itself was nice so 2 stars.