Even though I am reader of bl novels for a lot of years and regularly visit this site, I usually don`t write reviews. The reason was initially, because I was not used to share my toughts with other people but recently I started making more friends who I share mutual interests, as exchanging information and making suggestions of novels and I gained enough confidence and experience to make my first review.
I usually read a lot of reviews before I decide to start reading a novel and I know how important a review can be when you dont have any other means to decide if a novel is worth reading. After I saw a reviewer who recently compared the novel with the drama and how he thinks that the drama managed to exceed the novel in almost all aspects and recommended people to not waste the time reading the novel and only watch the drama, as those that will come reading the novel after watching the drama will be disappointed, it didn`t seem a right thing to say and so I had to finally make this review.
As someone who read the novel and watched the drama as well, I want to give another opinion of everything that person said.
Firstly, I want to say that the drama adaptation Word of honor is in my opinion not as a faithful adaptation of the novel as people think, because the drama changed the sequence of a lot of events, added a lot of original plots, and a lot of storylines about the side characters and villains. The drama also changed a lot the character of Zou Zishu, not that much for Wen Kexing, and by adding a storyline where the two of them meet each other when young, the premise that they should meet and treat as strangers is gone. I will not mention more as to not give spoilers to the people that didnt yet watch the drama. All the dynamic ZZS and WKX had in the novel, was based on the the premise that everything starts from a destined meeting between two strangers who meet in a time in their life when one of them don`t have much time to live, and has accepted that and is only waiting for his time to die to come, and the other is about to see his revenge he prepared all his life to take place, even if his plans will get him killed.
The other reviewer only talked about what the drama appear to have done better than the novel, and I understand some of the things added as storylines for side characters, villains, but why did they have to change the personality of ZZS, and all the dynamic and development of the relationship that ZZS and WKX had in the novel. The drama changed a lot of things from the novel, how about all the times that the drama disrespected the source material ? Word of honor cannot be compared with Untamed, that drama is the best danmei adaptation drama made until now. Untamed had its shortcomings, but it adapted the novel almost chapter to chapter identically and it didn
t changed almost anything about how the characters were in the novel. If is one thing Untamed cant be accused of, is of not being a faithful or a closer adaptation of the novel as it could be. When an adaptation is made, being drama or donghua, I think the majority of novel readers were burned a lot of times, so we don
t ask too much. In my case, and I think for many other people as well, I always expect that the characterization of the characters to remain as closely to how it was depicted in the novel, and to not change the dynamic between the characters too much, but this is where the drama failed me the most.
PLOT. For a novel this short, I read is an earlier novel writed by Priest, so didn`t have that much experience probably, considering how consistent the main characters were writed and how everything that happens was explained well, it's still one of the best novels out there. The reason why I like to read Priest novels so much, who until know is still my favorite writer, it's because she don't reveals too much about how the characters are from the start. Priest describes their actions, gestures, words, and then to understand all at a more deeply level you have to connect the dots or clues. Sometimes when I reread a novel writed by Priest I feel that, oh I didn't know that, as you can easily overlook things if you read in hurry or you are distracted by other things.
The story basically tells the story of how a unexpected meeting between two strangers at the time when one of them know hell die soon (Zhou Zishu), and the other put himself in danger, as he is willing to die if he has too (Wen Kexing), who did equally bad things in the past, but not trying to change each other, come to genuinely accept, understand, sympathize with each other and manage to find solace and hope in the posibility of living a life differently as how they lived before they meet each other, away from the martial arts world, if only they have each other. I
m sure WKX knew how dangerous his revenge plans were, as before they were started to be carried out, he went to experience the world outside Ghost Valley and enjoy all he can, so he probably thought that the chance to die was quite big. The story is about those kind of characters, who are attracted to each other because they feel they can really understand the other, because they sympathize to what they had to do in order to survive and be who they are in the present. Their story is as interesting as it is, because they can empathize with each other but at the same time, not trying to change each other and only intervine in the other life to give hope and willingness to continue living, as they now found and have each other.
ROMANCE.
The novel has two unique, charismatic, strong and mature characters, who respect each other boundaries and are possesive of each other. WKX is more possesive than ZZS, but they dont stop the other in doing something that they have to do, mature is the key word for this couple. Both main characters are understanding and have a healthy and harmonious relationship. In the other review, it was mentioned that WKX followed and sexually harass ZZS, and this is not true, how can it be interpreted as s\*xual harrasment I don
t know for the life of me. Yes, he was persistent, he followed him for a period, but he knew his boundaries. When he sexually harass ZZS ? People should think more before they wrote something, every intimate moment they had was completely mutual. Also ZZS is not that weak of a guy to let himself suffer s*xual harassment and be pursued for a long time, without making it clear to WKX to stop or trying to get rid of him. ZZS just didnt bother with him at first, then he wanted to see how far he can go or if he can come to like him. If it
s something as i`m surely of, is that he was as attracted to WKX, as the other was of him as well. WKX was behaving as someone who tried to make the person he was interested in be closer with him and create situations to know each other better.
It was also mentioned that the relationship between the main characters is forced. The relationship between them isn't at all forced, is slow burn, all the clues can be easily spoted, and is in line to how ZZS would have behaved and reacted if he will fall in love. ZZS is gloomy, a bit depressed, he had lived almost all his life with a lot of pressure on his shoulders, and saw how relationships can be destroyed easily, even those deeper than that of lovers. Because of this, it has taken ZZS a lot of time to convince himself that WKX is serious with him, and to give himself a chance to love him. Also, ZZS didnt spend half of the novel flirtling with girls, its only a few times and when he does it, he has other intentions, he don
t does it for fun, or because he likes them. The reasons WKX like ZZS are many; first it was curiosity but more importantly he saw in him that their past are similar, that they both lived a life until then that it was not their choice, then he slowly started to love him, it didn't just happen. In real life this happen too, sometimes after a short time of interacting with a person, you just feel that person is similar with you, or different but you just know they have something that happened to them, that it's similar with what happened to you. Because of this, you just feel more closer or something similar to sharing a bond with that person.
CHARACTERS.
The characters are not unidimensional. Priest dont write unidimensional characters. She creates the most amazing, memorable, multifaceted characters in BL. The supporting and side characters indeed in this novel weren
t all memorable and they received very little screentime, only to move the story forward. But the ones that were described more, were charming, had a distict personality and were vivid described like; Cao Wei Ning, Gu Xiang, Zhang Cheng Ling and Ye Bai Yi. Liu Qianqiao also has a more memorable characterization than in the drama, as is described as a pitiful woman, who because she has low self esteem as a result of his face being destroyed. As a result of this, when someone has showed her love, she will fall in love and care for that person easily, and is showed how being this way hurt her the most. Also the villains didn`t do everything by themselves, 'as all they did was plotting against each other and WKX just given the fatal blow'. It was explained everything was carefully planned for many years by WKX, a big part of what happened is because he intuited and manipulated what the ghosts from the Ghost Valley would do, everything started from there.
This is in my opinion one of the few novels translated of Priest, that not only the story but the characterization of the characters is very unique, besides Silent reading, Sha Po Lang, Lord Seventh, Liu Yao and Imperfections. Also, is a novel where you can read about two characters that are writed to be equally strong in temperament, quirks, the ability to read the other people intentions, and that aren`t trying to brush things of, or avoid talking about serious stuff. It has funny, bickering moments, but also moments when the characters are doing things in a mature serious way, as in most of Priest novels.