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Just finished the novel and wow, I knew I'd be disappointed but wow. I can't believe people actually write stuff like that and that people actually enjoy reading it?? It's basically glorifying domestic violence, rape, torture, and manipulation
the manga wont be like the novel btw!
Really? How so?
one of my friends told me that the artist said that this is just inspired from the novel, its not a 1 to 1 copy of the novel
Ah, well I sure hope it ends differently, but I don't have high hopes. I wonder what they mean by that, because it makes me wonder exactly what or how they're going to change it, because the rest of the novel is just repeated abuse and torment with a disappointing ending. I won't spoil it though, in case you don't want to know
I read the original novel in the hopes that perhaps it would offer a redemptive or meaningful ending, but unfortunately, that was wishful thinking. The story only continues to descend into deeper psychological and physical torment. Eventually, the uke chooses to stay with the seme, not out of love or healing, but due to long-term manipulation and isolation. The seme confines him to a single room and treats him like a pet—literally using pee pads for dogs. The uke, deprived of any meaningful human connection, begins to crave even the seme's abusive touch simply because it's the only form of contact he receives.
He later escapes, only to be gang raped again—this time by people he once considered friends. In a disturbing sequence, the seme recounts the events of their high school history while the uke is being assaulted. To summarize that backstory: the uke and seme attended the same high school, where the uke—along with his friends—raped and humiliated the seme, even distributing videos of the abuse. Eventually, the uke was injured in a fight and lost his memories, which triggered the seme’s elaborate plan for revenge. He intentionally enrolled at the same university to manipulate the uke, despite the latter having no recollection of the past.
After the second assault, the uke is hospitalized with severe injuries, like broken bones, and falls into a coma. During that time, he dreams of their shared past and begins to confront feelings he may have had for the seme—complicated by internalized homophobia. When he wakes up, he panics at the idea of facing further violence and begs the seme to stay with him out of fear. This leads to their continued, toxic entanglement.
The uke begins hallucinating as a result of his trauma and even attempts suicide. The abuse doesn’t end—in fact, the seme resumes degrading him: sending him to school with a vibrator inside him, tying him up in bathroom stalls (mirroring the abuse the seme once suffered), and reasserting control. Eventually, the uke pleads with him not to leave. The story ends with them together, though not in any emotionally healthy or consensual sense of the word.
The novel is undeniably psychological, and how readers interpret it will largely depend on their own values, sensitivities, and understanding of trauma. On one hand, it's true that the uke committed horrific acts as a teenager, and the seme’s desire for revenge is not entirely unfounded. On the other hand, the uke's amnesia removes the possibility of true reckoning, making the seme’s retaliation more like prolonged sadism than actual justice. Even a character within the story tells the seme he’s gone too far.
Both characters are deeply flawed and morally compromised. One could argue that they deserve each other, but that doesn’t erase the sheer discomfort that comes from witnessing the uke's suffering, especially when he becomes a shell of himself, clinging to the very person responsible for breaking him.
As someone who studied both writing and the sociology of rape in college, I find myself grappling with stories like this. It’s disturbing to see a “revenge” arc constructed almost entirely around themes of rape, manipulation, and dehumanization. These are real-life horrors, and while fiction can absolutely explore difficult topics, the way these elements are portrayed matters immensely. This isn’t a romance—it’s the story of a person being methodically dismantled until they believe abuse is love, which is textbook psychological conditioning.
It’s hard not to see stories like this—and others like Sadistic Beauty: BL Story—as glamorizing or fetishizing rape. The storytelling doesn’t challenge the violence; it seems to dwell in it. Of course, many survivors do stay with their abusers, for complicated and tragic reasons. If the author had handled these themes with more nuance or sensitivity, the narrative might’ve stood as a dark but important portrayal of trauma bonding. But instead, the framing often feels like it's catering to a rape fantasy rather than condemning it. That’s what unsettles me the most.
10/10 comment
I like you man
Thanks for summarizing this. As someone who has an itch to finish every manhwa i randomly started I actually just wanna know what happened so i come back checking a few panels from latest updates but my stomach cannot handle the blatant crimes in this story. Now i can peacefully ignore it and hope that the author gets psychological treatment, he/she seems to really need it
Totally get that—I’m the same way with needing to finish things, but this story just kept crossing the line. I read the novel out of curiosity, and honestly, it only got worse. I agree 100%—the author seriously needs psychological help. There’s a difference between dark storytelling and outright glorifying abuse.
It's not even the author's first manhwa like this. I guess it's partly my fault I should've known better not to be curious on this author's work. I srsly cannot fathom how his/her mind works
Thank you for this… i think I might drop it :) thanks to this explanation
I feel the same way. I had hopes it would get "better," but after seeing no hope in the horizon, I finally checked out the novel myself... boy, was I disappointed. It's a shame that beautiful artwork is wasted on a terrible, tragic plot
Whyyyyy do people keep saying this. Revenge was not written by the Sadistic Beauty lady. It’s literally right there in the credits page.
It's tagged under the same author here? Shows in other works as well. Idk, sorry i didn't get to the credits page, i was so disturbed by the contents lol
Yeah, gotta read something wholesome to cleanse after this
In their defense, Sadistic Beauty is under 'authors other works' when you're looking at the Revenge comic. Not everyone knows of the novel or knows that not all novel writers illustrate their own comic, so it's easy to assume it's the same "author" because it literally says "authors other works." Whether or not it's the same author was not the point for this post lol
Idk why they seemed annoyed by that when it was a fair judgement by you. It literally says "authors other works," so you're valid for assuming it's the same author. It also took me awhile to realize some novel authors don't illustrate their own comics
So valid. I always need something wholesome after reading stories like this. And honestly, I get so tired of the “if you don’t like it, don’t read it” argument. Sure, people can read what they want, but when a story repeatedly glorifies abuse, manipulation, and trauma, it’s not unreasonable to question why some readers enjoy it. It makes me wonder what kind of normalization or fantasies are being catered to, especially when there's no real critique or consequence built into the narrative.
Idk brother it’s very, very easy to see who did what. I understand that mangago has a completely broken author tagging system (it’s an illegal site, so there’s not much to hope for) but I just don’t get why people are STILL correlating the author of Revenge with the author of SB. If they were so disturbed then why would they still be here? People just hate to READ, I guess.
Whether or not the author was the point of the post is irrelevant when you have people saying “omg I can’t believe they made TWO stories like this there’s something wrong with them” with 100% confidence. Mangago users are so addicted to performing outrage over yaoi that they’ll just be proudly wrong.
That’s fair, but the confusion makes sense. On sites like Mangago, both stories are listed under “author’s other works,” even though they’re written by different people and just share the same artist. It’s not exactly transparent. I don’t think most people are being “proudly wrong”—they’re responding to a trend of stories that rely heavily on graphic abuse without offering any real insight or depth. At some point, it stops feeling like storytelling and starts feeling like exploitation, and I think it’s valid to call that out.
I get where you're coming from, but it feels a bit unfair to assume people “hate to read.” When both stories are listed under the same “author’s other works” tab and share the same artist, it’s easy to see how people might assume they’re by the same writer—especially on a site known for tagging errors. It’s not about refusing to read, it’s about a confusing system that leads to reasonable misunderstandings. And sure, people could look it up to confirm—but expecting every casual reader to cross-reference sources outside the site kind of misses the point. The platform itself is presenting the information in a misleading way, so you can't put all the blame on the person, especially if they, themselves, don't know that the website has credit errors.
Yeah well sorry to say i didn't come interested enough with both stories to know who the authors are. Calm down, i'll just swear both authors, they both seem to have psychological issues with me anyway lolll
And yeah, it's not my fault it was tagged under same author, it could easily confuse a lot of readers here. I read over a thousand BLs by now, i dont dig deep on author's/illustrator's bg on each story, i came here to enjoy reading
Yeah, I do get that. I worded my comment pretty badly, so I'm sorry for that. I appreciate you being civil. I expressed doubt that this other person could read this story, come back repeatedly to "check on it" (their words, not mine), and still not know who the author was. Despite the credit page being on every single chapter. But hey, that's between them and the lord. And the whole "this person wrote something I hate so therefore they are a bad person/mentally ill" mindset is extremely tired to me. People can hate the content all they want but their personal opinions on the story have no bearing over the author as a real person. Thankfully this mindset is starting to slip what with people being galvanized to advocate for nsfw and disturbing fiction ever since those aussie ladies tried to muzzle porn in the US a few days ago. So if anyone gets to win, it will always be the perverts.
Why is it that every time someone goes on a tirade about how mentally ill the author is THE SECOND I go to their favorites lists BOOM, yaoi rape and underaged sex. You just hate this one because there is no romance between the characters. Have some shame.
Exactly. Reading this FOR ME, it just makes me feel hopeless. Like why? So Im gonna choose to drop it.
Bold of you to judge what kind of BLs i read when i told here that i've read lots of this and is tired of this shit. I used to think that these are just "stories" but i just get a certain limit how much you can tolerate. I'm not proud of all the things i've read just because i want to finish what i've started, i dont know you either or am not interested on what kind of stories you're reading but...
Srsly, what kind of shame are you aiming for? Shame for me not liking this because of too much rape and SAs "without romance" as you'd say? Or of not properly knowing who the author is because they're tagged under same author? You funny af hahaha shame on you :)
@ just some broke bitch: Ho you gave Yarichin Bitch Club 5 stars I know exactly what kind of yaoi reader you are. Find some fucking dignity.
Yeah, shame on me for not liking a story/author with so many rape. :)
Shame on me for having a limit on what SA i can read that i didn't even read the proper author on the credits page :)
You’re basically saying: I can tolerate rape but not too much rape.