Responses
The Veronica plot-line did have build-up, It’s just very subtle in a way that requires a re-read or two to catch. I felt like her obsessive behavior was sporadic the first time around, but honestly you can really see that she’s not all there from the second she tries to trap Conor with the pregnancy lie. How she behaves around Conor, having shown blatant interest in him before he was outed to his parents, etc.
So this is another one that I put off reading, mainly due to not liking the art style at first. But after a long time, I decided to give it a chance and I'm glad I did. It was a beautiful story and I warmed up to the art style rather quickly. This manwha is now one of my favourites. Very high quality work, with interesting characters and real topics. Shouldn't it actually have a horror tag though? It was very brutal and disturbing at times. The ending was happy though! :)
Now to the spoilers....
Gale's character stood out to me. At first I thought he was just your typical sadist psychopath (and clearly he IS disturbed). But, what made him interesting to me is that he only seemed to target vile people. One good example is when he nearly got arrested and he could have killed the detective easily, but decided to just leave him be. He also seemed to care about his brother Simon in some way, even saving his life and wanting to protect him from getting killed by the prosecutor's schemes. So yeah, Gale was a disturbing and sick character, but it was interesting to see those little hints of sanity here and there.
I think the plot twist with Veronica was a little bit too much out of the blue. I think a good plot twist should be foreshadowed in some way, so when the plot twist happens, it makes you go "Ohhhh so that's why, now it all fits." But Veronica's mental health only deteriorated towards the later half it seems and until then she just seemed to be a normal, harmless girl. I feel like too many of the previous plot events were tied to her. It would have been better if she had just been a sensitive girl who went insane from jealousy towards the end, that none of the previous events had anything to do with her. That's my opinion at least.
Part of me finds it almost too disturbing that Pete actually died under ground. Don't get me wrong; I have no sympathy for him at all, he was filth. However, I would have preferred if he was dug up, put on trial and placed in jail. It would have been fitting for him to rot away in jail (and to end up as someone's bi**h), while seeing how everything he did up until that point was useless and how those he hated ended up happy instead.
Finally, I must say I really like how Conor and Simon actually took turns with being the bottom. I wish that happened more in BL. Their relationship felt truly equal and respectful, and they just enjoyed being intimate with each other, regardless of position or role. That is a wholesome relationship. It always bothers me in BL when the top refuses to bottom and seems to treat sex like a way to dominate the uke.
Overall, this story was amazing and a great read. It gets a 5/5 from me.