novel enjoyer

Rating: S 

Summary: The MC (Sheng Wang) and the ML (Jiang Tian) both live in single parent homes, the MC with his father and the ML with his mother. By chance they find their families merging and struggle to deal with the awkwardness of the situation and the trauma from their childhoods. They slowly grow from disliking each other to reluctant acceptance to close friends and then.... to something more. Their journey is filled with hardships, mainly their identities as step siblings and male lovers, but in the end, as quoted by the ML himself, they don’t owe their happiness to anyone but themselves.

Thoughts: I have to place A Certain Someone at the top of my modern/school danmei ranking. It was fantastic. First and foremost, there was so much depth to the story, with each individual character having an influence on the plot and their backstories just making sense in how future events unfolded. The development was steady and the timing was perfect, not too rushed but not dragging either. I like how the MC wasn’t a genius - yes, he’s smart, but he has his limits and it’s not like he made his way up the rankings by just loafing around. This novel did a really good job of showing just how much studying someone of his exam scores might do, and the same goes for the ML (who falls into that typical “first place study god” archetype a little more but the story didn’t make him infallible either, which I liked).  

Overall, the development between the MC and the ML is the star of the novel - I mean, aside from how it’s literally a romance story, the author did everything right. It didn’t feel like an instant love at first sight, but a plausible attraction that stemmed from the ML and the MC’s loneliness reaching out and finding each other. I loved the way they teased each other and how palpable it was that they cared - a big thing for me is if I can feel the mutual emotions, not just one sided attachment, and they certainly delivered.

The writing was great and I thought the author dealt with the homophobia aspect really well. I think a lot of novels really fumble and shoot themselves in the foot sometimes when trying to talk about it, but here it felt realistic and not over the top. Some people are going to accept you, some people won’t, but who cares? In the end, love who you love.

In the end, I still found myself disliking the parents. The MC’s father bringing the MC to his mother’s grave after finding out about his relationship to the ML - haaah, you garbage, garbage man. The ML’s mother is slightly (very slightly) more redeemable, but still frustrating all things considered. I’m really glad both the MC and the ML are able to stand up to their parents about their relationship and basically tell them “No, I’m not ashamed! He makes me happy, happier than you ever did, and the people who care about me, other than you, don’t give a damn about us. You fucked up our childhoods, but I’m not going to let you ruin our future.” In the end, of course, you see the parents beginning to come around, but at that point I’m not so sure their redeemable. Of course, I don’t blame the MC and the ML for being more forgiving - these are their parents, after all.