#HOWEVER the papapa in the reader and the protagonist???

[tazzmanien]

Every Day the Protagonist Wants to Capture Me - Review

I finished Every Day the Protagonist Wants to Capture Me during winter break and it took me a while to write a review for reasons.

Did I enjoy the novel? -   Well kinda. Would I recommend it? -   Not really. Would I like that others read it, so that I can talk to someone about it and gush over Xie Xi, Fu Chongyi, Wei Ciyin and Demon Lord Yan Heng? -   A huge YES!

But let's get in the details for a bit here... SPOILERS AHEAD!

The good:

Length - Happy it was relatively short; reasons in the bad.

Pace - The pace at the beginning was quite fast, which was nice for the fact that I really didn't want to read a book about a 13 year old child falling in love. I’m not big on teenager love stories. But ... see the bad.

Narration - point of view - I love how the inner monologue of Chu Yu is written, so that it could also be interpreted as the narrator voicing his own thoughts. I caught myself thinking “the narrator is funny” several times, before figuring out that this was actually Chu Yu thinking.

World - Not sure about this point. I would have probably liked the world if it were described better at times.

Fights - The fights were actually really fun to read. Very simple, yet entertaining. 

Characters

Chu Yu our main guy - A simple soul that did not particularly receive a privileged treatment from mother nature when he was created; a moron I gladly adopted within seconds. We must be related I think. I love him. Why? Well, I can complain about cliches all I want, at the end I always end up liking the most cliche characters (Chu Yu) or the biggest or craziest villains. I loved the fact that he did pretty much gave up on his aloof act. I don’t think I would have liked reading about another unapproachable older and wiser figure transmigrator. BTW pretending to be dead to avoid the enemy could be a genius move from me, love you for that lil brother. It was also nice that he got the protagonist plot armor at some point.

Xie Xi our mains love - At the beginning he was “The Cutest™ with cheeks made for pinching” and later became “naughty flirting master say one word and I'm all yours”. No but honestly, at 16 he already had the flirting skills of an immortal master! It made me a little uncomfortable to be this into his flirting. Even if you don't give this book a chance, then at least read the wine incident (chapters 16 - 18). I'm still blushing thinking about it. I once wrote and am still standing by it:  "Xie Xi, you are not flirting with me and aren't even real and yet I’m blushing like crazy. How about you grow up a little and then come to reality and pay me a visit" And honestly he only got a) better at it and b) more blatant over the course of the novel.

For the rest ... Even though there were characters that did not get enough screen time or story, there were a few that I really really loved, like Wei Ciyin (a sensual lil bastard), Demon Lord Yan Heng (I mean wouldn’t you fall in love with a stunning demon lord whose laughter sounds like crows above a burial mound in the middle of the night?) and Fu Zhongyi (you beautiful creature, you and your lil adorable fox awwww). Worth mentioning:

007 System - My queen! (I decided it had to be a woman.) I loved that there was a comment function in this system. Although towards the end it wasn't used as much and in general it could have been used more effectively in my opinion. Nevertheless, a nice touch.

Chu Sheng - If you think Chu Yu is dumb, well then just wait til you get to know his overprotective brother. He would even win an idiot competition against me, which should tell you all you need to know. Love him nonetheless. Also he deserved better! To have to do the things he had to, is really devastating! I am a proud member of the “protect Chu Sheng squad” and will forever love the fact that Fu Zhongyi exists!

Insects (would you count them as characters?) - You know what, I have no issue with insects in general, but swarming insects are a thing I could gladly live without. There were a few chapters that gave me the creeps. I guess this would be called good writing, as it arouses emotions from the reader. It had the same effect as the face disease in Tian Guan Ci Fu on me. So a “negative” good I guess?

Couples 

Main couple - First and most important Koala snuggling will never be a boring couple trademark. I was a little nervous that the beginning would drag and we would have to watch a 13 years old child falling in love with a grownup for too long. So I was glad they skipped that part soon. They got together quite fast after the skip, which was more of a negative thing for the overall story, but it also was kinda nice to read more on how they grew as a couple. For example how Chu Yu showed more and more love over time. So even though the story suffered it was kinda nice to follow this couple.

Other couple - Chu Sheng and  Fu Zhongyi were even a better couple in my opinion, but unfortunately we didn’t get enough of them. 

Side-plots - A few side-plots were kinda nice I must say, but could have had more detail and better transitioning into the big plot.

The bad:

Writing style - The writing style, or maybe partially the translation (which I don't believe as they did a terrific job with SVSSS), is not my thing. Short sentences, with little to no flowing transitions in the writing. Many things don’t get describe at all, like the surrounding, the looks of characters or any background information about why certain things were happening. But it is quite an easy read, maybe exactly because it’s written this simply. Still it took me a little to get used to it and finish it.

Pace - The time jumps were, well how to describe it? Sudden, weirdly placed and paced and mostly never really effectively used for shock effects (even though the author surely had those intentions). There was this one jump where Chu Yu was talking with Wei Ciyins father (forgot his name) and then it just cut the scene to the future and it never got resolved satisfyingly. It should have been important, but when it was mentioned again later it was just ... well boring.

World - As written above, the world was not really described in detail, so I’m not sure about this point.

Characters 

The novel had a decent amount of characters and should have been able to build their side stories properly, however, was not able to deliver many details for most of them. I think only for that reason I was kinda bored whenever Shizun Lu Qingan or what was his boyfriends name again appeared.

Chibi Chu Yu was fun, but stayed for far too long for my taste.

Xie Xi - At times he didn't seem very bright, which put me off somehow. After he got together with Chu Yu he lost most of his "screen time" and whenever he appeared it was just to ask for fish (papapa). To be honest the plot could have ended without him, as he had no importance in the second part of the novel, which was very mehh I mean why write a strong, charming, troubled and loving character and just make him this second grade s** obsessed fangirl annoying our main guy. Okay, yes, he did that to Song Jingyi and had one decent high grade fight, but this was not enough for my taste.

Wei Ciyin - I don’t know what it is about picturing Wei Ciyin with his devilishly beautiful face, dressed only in a snow-white inner robe, lying on top of a cluster of flowers while drinking wine, but that part got stuck in my head and I was so disappointed to find out, he was just an unimportant sort of villain canon fodder and had not much of an important story overall.

Villains in general - Well, what to say about the villains? They were strong, mystic, menacing and cruel, but somehow the whole novel felt like the author was not sure who the big bad boss was supposed to be and jumped from one canon fodder villain to another and "killed" off the supposedly strongest villain Demon Lord Yan Heng within 2 chapters. Why? He was amazing! Give me a whole novel about this character only, NOW! In the end there was a red string throughout the whole story, but it was not as good as it could have been, exactly due to the fact that the villains were so unconnected somehow. Well, I should probably mention Song Jingyi, who was a decent a-hole at least.

Couples

Main couple - Even though I was happy we got a time skip early in the story. The main couple got together waaaaaay too early for the story to be able to go on without a very intriguing plot, which the story unfortunately did not have.

Other couples - Even though it seems like a nice fan service, I think it is quite boring to give every character a love interest (reciprocated or not doesn’t matter). So some of them just were kinda meh in the end.

Plot - It felt like the novel was full of subplots. The big plot lost all its drive due to the way the novel was written. At the end of the book you can clearly see a red string throughout the whole story, but while reading it all just felt unconnected, like a collection of short stories. The mains couple love was the driving factor, but the fact that they got together in the first half (or was it even third) just killed the suspense totally and felt like those american shows that drag on for 8 seasons, when you would have loved it to stop at season 3.

But my biggest disappointment in this novel is not what you might think... It is actually this: Xie Xi was asking Chu Yu “let’s do it” like at least 100 times before their first time. So of course I was hoping that before they actually have their first time, Chu Yu asks Xie Xi the same thing in retour. That would have been perfect. At some point he said something like "are you not going to do it”, which was ok, but not THE THING!

Conclusion:

Lots of potential, but not the best. Still I liked it a little. I’d call it guilty pleasure, if for nothing else then at least for Xie Xi.

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