Saturday 3 October 2015

[REVIEW: CHINESE BL NOVEL] Hua Hua You Long [花花遊龍] by Xing Bao Ni [星寶兒]


Sadistic lover. A devil with the face of an angel. A twisted romance of brutal and dysfunctional relationship. Be ready for multiple stab wounds on your poor heart. 

This book left a bitter aftertaste. Yet I am appreciative of the author's skill at manipulating the fragile human heart. I am also grateful for the author's effort to keep the story real. So real, it left an indelible mark on my mind. To me this meant the author is successful in his/her work since their main aim should be to grasp the reader's mind and mold it to their own desired shape. A book that is able to control the psyche of its reader is a winner. That's how I see it. And this book had subjected me to various onslaught of intense emotions of amusement, joy, fear, anger, sadness, disgust, frustration, anticipation, surprise, expectation and last but not least love. Yes, love even-though this is a very brutal romance story which I had nearly lost hope of finding a flicker of romance within its pages. Some might reject the ideal of romance in this story due to Jing's (seme/antagonist) violent and selfish way of pursuing love and also Lu Cang's (uke/protagonist) seemingly masochist acceptance of abuse from his lover. To be fair, I too could not exactly shake off the possibility of Stockholm Syndrome in play as I did find it hard to see how Lu Cang as broken as a battered rag doll could ever find in his heart to forgive Jing's incessant cruelty upon this mind and body. Nevertheless how ever twisted their love is, love is still the catalyst of their tragedious joining. Sigh such highly dysfunctional relationship this pair has. I am still worried for Lu Cang's future even upon finishing the book. Afterall, to serve the king is like accompanying a tiger. (famous Chinese proverb). 

The version I read was in Chinese Text via TTS (text-to-speech). If you are interested, you could try the fan translations in English here: [Click Me]. I am not sure how the translation fairs but I do believe the real thing is surely better than a translated copy. For the record, I have read the manga adaptation up to volume no. 5 and am keen on reading its next installment. The artwork is not bad and so far the story sticks with the original novel. 


BOOK DETAILS
Title: Hua Hua You Long [花花遊龍] 
Author: Xing Bao Ni [星寶兒]
Type: Novel  
Genre: Chinese M/M dark erotic romance 
Description: In order to help their chief find a wife, the bandits kidnapped a woman from the bottom of the mountain in order to offer her up to him. The chief of the mountain stronghold, Lu Cang falls in love at first sight with the absolutely stunning beauty! However, on the night of the consummation... 



READ FAN TRANSLATIONS: ★|| Hua Hua You Long (English Translations) ||★ 



* Reviewed on October 3rd, 2015 
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**Read via TTS in Cantonese** 

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