A Certain Someoneย Review (w/ spoilers)
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 thenโฆ. 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 donโt 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 wasnโt a genius - yes, heโs smart, but he has his limits and itโs 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 typicalย โfirst place study godโ archetype a little more but the story didnโt make him infallible either, which I liked).ย ย
Overall, the development between the MC and the ML is the star of the novel - I mean, aside from how itโs literally a romance story, the author did everything right. It didnโt feel like an instant love at first sight, but a plausible attraction that stemmed from the ML and the MCโs 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 wonโt, but who cares? In the end, love who you love.
In the end, I still found myself disliking the parents. The MCโs father bringing the MC to his motherโs grave after finding out about his relationship to the ML - haaah, you garbage, garbage man. The MLโs mother is slightly (very slightly) more redeemable, but still frustrating all things considered. Iโm really glad both the MC and the ML are able to stand up to their parents about their relationship and basically tell themย โNo, Iโm not ashamed! He makes me happy, happier than you ever did, and the people who care about me, other than you, donโt give a damn about us. You fucked up our childhoods, but Iโm not going to let you ruin our future.โ In the end, of course, you see the parents beginning to come around, but at that point Iโm not so sure their redeemable. Of course, I donโt blame the MC and the ML for being more forgiving - these are their parents, after all.
Anyway, A Certain Someone was a fantastic, amazing novel. I found myself enjoying it so so much, even more than I thought I would. Iโm sad I binged it so fast (I couldnโt help myself) and definitely a story I would recommend.ย ย
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