WannRezensionen

:gloomy doom face:

I don't know how to rate this.

I knew, from the GIVE TO THE HEART series, that Ano, Ganok & Chio had a tulmultuous​ relationship. At some point to the ends of which Chio's sexual relationship with Ano is, at best, dubcon. I just...

:rolls around agitated: WHY IS IT SO HARD TO RATE??

Any justification I make for why Chio is treating Ano this way sounds like victim-blaming, but it's not really that. Saying so would be too easy an explanation. Ano loves Chio, she does, but to her love & physical intimacy & "doing stuff men and women do" is a nightmare. Her "guardian" used such against her as a way to keep her in line. But she doesn't explain that to Chio or Ganok, she doesn't see a REASON to because to her the fact her work, her brilliance, is not undermined nothing else matters.

She doesn't see that Chio supports her every effort. That everything he's done has been to protect her and the joy she finds in her research. She doesn't understand that he doesn't do any of that as a way to manipulate her but as a way to help achieve her every wish. Chio's "interest" in her stems from about as selfless a place as it can.

But they're adults. Her constant abuse and distance, which she has good reason for but which she never explained to him, has become entangled with his own inferiority and self doubt. Resentment builds as Chio sees her treat Ganok no differently, but pushes him away. Hatred festers as everything he's done to protect her goes unnoticed by her.

He doesn't see that she can treat Ganok that way because her feelings, while true & deep, are not ROMANTIC. Ganok doesn't make her heart pound or confuse her into wanting things that are at direct opposite to how she thinks she should feel. The physical intimacy she instinctively wants with Chio is at war with her conscious belief that such things will lead to him manipulating her.

Familiarity breeds true contempt after all. But under it all his core reason for being exists - protect her at any cost. Protect her dreams. He'll become any monster he has to, to make that happen.

Oh and the dubcon part - when we first see the scene (back in GIVE TO THE HEART) she's screaming "no! stop it!" and Chio more or less believes he's a monster for forcing her. Later in the series we learn that Ano wasn't telling him to stop because she hated him or didn't want him she just was terrified. She admits to having always loved him blah blah blah

I'm thinking part of that terror has to do with the scene we see between her and her Guardian here. Ano states "that stuff" men and women in love do repulses her, but she's dense as fuck when it comes to emotional nuance. I can easily see how after her one experience was so traumatic she'd have issues separating the two.

So I don't know. This series is as problematic as the first series (this is a prequel to that), but then in all honesty this storyline/character behavior is no different then most k-dramas so...whatever. I love Wann-unnie so it doesn't matter to me quite frankly. Just keep drawing Ganok so beautifully...

THIS SERIES.

So this is the final book in the series - some of you may remember the issues I have (up to and including THE ROMANCE IS MESSED UP). But Wann as a creator is a favorite of mine and for some reason I can't quit her work ;-; Like her other series [b:Can't Lose You: Volume 1|1470484|Can't Lose You Volume 1|Wann|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1347333088s/1470484.jpg|1461434] is also highly problematic (again THAT ROMANCE IS MESSED UP. Also Ilya! :sobs:), but its one of my favorites. (I haven't read [b:100% Perfect Girl, Volume 1|356334|100% Perfect Girl, Volume 1 |Wann|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1347684263s/356334.jpg|346505], though I plan on buying it all eventually)

This series...ok. In no particular order we have an aloof, domineering, arrogant jerkhole of a main guy (Ganok), a reckless tstl heroine (Sooyi), a charming would be rapist genocidal maniac secondary love interest (Niroo), a bratty selfish bitch (Ano) and a callous cold-hearted asshole (Chio). These are our main characters folks. In my opinion NONE OF THEM DESERVED TO LIVE AND THEY ALL DESERVED THEIR FATES.

And they're all in FINE form in this final book up until you know the last half when a sacrifice from Sooyi makes them regret all their decisions to certain degrees. But her sacrifice is mostly in vain since Margot the wonder computer AI more or less pulled a God Complex and made it all ok in the end.

:flips table:

AND YET I HAD REAL TEARS IN MY EYES AND DREAD IN MY HEART. though to be honest Wann pulled a similar trick in Can't Lose You, so I shouldn't have been that surprised .

In the end this was a roller coaster ride that I'm only partially sure I enjoyed. I'll have to reread it all back to back to kind of ascertain how I feel.

Welcome to volume 5 of "Give to the Heart" or as I'm going to dub this "Stab in the heart" cause seriously Sooyi & Nariga, that is NOT how you repay someone who saves your life.

We continue with the back story parade to find out that Dior is completely hopeless (I still love him), Ganok is severely malformed when it comes to emotional development, Nariga is one Nice Guy cliche away from being a Doormat and Sooyi has no sense of self preservation.

(I'd also like to point out Sooyi has gone through four hair color changes on the covers)

On the one hand the amount of communication issues these two suffer from is ludicrous. At some point I hope we find out whats up with Ganok's responsibility. Also Chio is a BITCH. "wah we gave up our humanity so you should too!" shut it you blond toad. Where's Ano?

Welcome to volume 5 of "Give to the Heart", it's with a heavy heart (ha!) I must report in a more somber tone the tragedies of this volume.

We get to the crux of why Sooyi ran from Ganok and refuses to be his wife (despite her feelings) and it's heart breaking. The failures of humanity play out as Sooyi desperately begs her townspeople to save themselves. Why do people need to suffer for another's greed and jealousy?

Because of her inability to understand Ganok's need to be an individual, Ano set into motion Sooyi's hometown's destruction. because of his petty jealousy, Chio gave Ganok an ultimatum that served the good of no one. Because of his arrogance Ganok left Sooyi to come to her own erroneous conclusions about who he is. Because of his greed the mayor sentenced his entire town to death.

I understand why Sooyi is disgusted with humanity and the gods. Why bother being a better person when you lose in the end?

So welcome to volume 2 of "Give to the Heart", a manhwa that kind of takes pieces of other series and cobbles them together (intentionally or not). Being the kind of reader who loves this genre I felt a weird sense of dejavu at times actually.

Anyhow. Sooyi & Niroo meet up and OH GOD GANOK CAN YOU JUST LET IT BE? Like. This dude. For the life of me i can't figure out why Ganok is obsessed with Sooyi? She's very clear about her hatred of him (like. crystal clear.) and Dior is like NO BUT MAYBE TAKE HER WORDS SERIOUSLY.

My heart to Dior for reals.

Niroo meanwhile is super super shady. Not even trying to not be shady. And a brat. Oh but Looden, the bandit guy is pretty amusing. I felt bad for him...though jeez why is everyone threatening to rape Sooyi? Presented humorously or not, she was in a bad situation.

AND OH LOOK DIOR FINDS OUT SHADY GUY IS HELLA MORE SHADY THEN I GAVE HIM CREDIT FOR. Niroo takes it to a new level. It escalated QUICK.

This is the third in the series about a poor girl who looks exactly like a rich girl and trades places with her. She's so nice and, as the bodyguard put it, her warmth has no place in such a cold world. The story is interesting enough to keep me reading the series. I don't feel terribly attached to any of the characters but I'm liking the story.

This was a pretty quick read - this one was Korean. Two high school girls look exactly alike. One is wealthy, one is poor. Since an assassin is after the wealthy girl - well, why not use her doppelganger for public appearances? It gets complicated when the look-alike falls in love with the rich girl's fiance. . . .

I might read another one, I'm a bit curious how it all plays out.

So, I'm reading this and thinking - maybe I want to see what happens. Maybe I will do volume 3.

It's interesting in a way to see this saga of the two identical girls - one rich, one poor - with the poor one taking the rich girl's place because of some assassination attempts.

Some of the characters look alike. That's been difficult.

I don't love this but I don't hate it, either.

This book had a lot of qeerbaiting in it and the ONE TRUE lesbian/bi story was done in such a way to be as vague as possible until the end.

Why did this volume have to end?

Continuing with the backstory. We are learning more about what happened to bring us to what was happening in volume 1 and 2.

I give 100% perfect girl five stars because I enjoyed it very much.
The characters are interesting and have good back stories and interesting development. They annoyed because I could see what they needed to do to make things better, but none the less I kept reading because I enjoyed the characters.
It is a long series and I recommend it anyone who doesn't mind the long read with a few twists and turns to get to the happy ending.