Lost You Forever

Lost You Forever was a drama that I didn't think I wanted to watch because I had heard it was gonna be very angsty. Also one female lead with four guys seemed like a perfect recipe for heartbreak. But I kept seeing clips and highlights about it all across my socials and couldn't resist, instantly falling in love with the drama. After almost coming closer towards the end of season 1, I found the completed fan translation of the book and just had to binge read it every second of free time I had, because who knows when the second season will air.

And wow was the book absolutely brilliant. It's been a while since I've read a new cnovel, so it was exciting to dive into it. Also, I like going into these books after watching a bit of the drama, because I like visualizing the actors while reading and it was such a wonderful experience here. The writing and translation were great, with amazing dramatic moments, so much emotion throughout, complicated relationship dynamics, and overall a very heart wrenching story. I didn't know that there was a prequel book with the previous generation as the main characters and I loved that the translator gave enough background (and sometimes even some important scenes from the prequel), so that we could understand the stakes of the current characters better. It made for an even more meaningful read and I really appreciated getting the little details which aren't necessarily in the drama adaptation.

But the heart of this book are the characters. The author is clearly very talented at creating an ensemble of characters, every one of whom is impressive and unique in their own ways, making the reader unable to pick our favorites. I obviously went into the book with already my favs in mind coz of the drama and that didn't change much as the book progressed deeper. I definitely appreciated Xiaoyao much more because all she wants is a simple happy life with the man she loves and she has to suffer so much to get there. Tushan Jing is definitely not in my top 3 but I can totally see how he is the one and only for Xiaoyao. Feng Long is a lot of fun to follow along, so I didn't actually predict the way his character arc would develop.

Ultimately though, my heart is swayed by the stunningly written characters of Zhuan Xu (Cang Xuan in the drama) and Xiang Lu. They both look cold and keep their feelings buried deep in their hearts, but the lengths to which they'll go for the sake of their loved ones is beautiful as well as heartbreaking. For the most part of the book, I absolutely adored the relationship between Xiaoyao and Xuan, and how much they were devoted to each other. While I did like Xiang Lu's character and imagining Tan Jianci playing him in the drama is amazing, I completely fell in love with him towards the latter half of the story, and I can't wait to see all that angst on screen in season 2 and bawl my eyes out.

On the whole, I really didn't think this would become a favorite but now I can't imagine not having experienced this brilliant story. It has an interesting world, very captivating storyline of fighting for your love in various ways, and characters to die for and who are utterly unforgettable. I'm gonna remember this story for a long time to come and let's see, maybe I will checkout if I can find any other translations of this author's works.