A cruel world starts off with Sarah and her mother preparing for Theo’s arrival. Ms. Blake constantly inculcates to her daughter in the beginning that Theo has to be impressed. This was for the sake of their family’s business which was not doing too well. Theo’s proposal for marriage was the only way for the business to continue going.
Sarah continuously built upon her nervousness as she kept wondering why, out of all women the most attractive man could wed, it had to be her. He hadn’t even glanced at her when discussing business with her father in earlier times.
The nervousness gets to Sarah, forcing her to eat a piece of chocolate that her mother detested for weight gain. Sarah questioned why her father was always ignorant of the idea of the marriage not happening, which her mother intricately brushed away.
Sarah was told to be grateful that a man of his stature was doing so much as to face her, and with that, the bell rang, and Theo arrived.
Theo took Sarah to one of the most expensive restaurants in town, one that was nearly impossible to get a reservation in. Though, Theo’s investments added to the stakes of the restaurant for his reservation to be declined. Theo made several advances on Sarah like kissing her cheeks and holding her hips beforehand. Theo ordered for her at the restaurant and, being unable to control her urge, she asked Theo why he wanted to marry her other than just for business purposes. Theo reassured her that he WANTED to marry Sarah, to fulfill another purpose that cheered her up.
However, that purpose was to ruin her for what she did to someone else.
- Part 1: Main Theme of Cruel World
- Part 2: The Lacking Writing in Cruel World
- Part 3: Exceptional Character Development within Cruel World
- Part 4: Unapologetic Bizarreness in Cruel World
- Part 5: Conclusive Remarks
Part 1: Main Theme of Cruel World
While the synopsis feels more like a thriller drama, Cruel World is a romance story. Though, it’s not any ordinary type of romance story. It is one about a madman, one driven by rage and fury who gradually learns and accepts his forced companion which all amalgamates into a beautiful story that you love and appreciate.
Revenge is a driving force of the novel, in the sense that Theo was initially driven fully by the concept of revenge. Though this novel takes a sweet take on the concept. Revenge is something that needs a very strong background for it to be serious to the point that you want to marry a person to ruin them.
Extinguishing this yearning for revenge is difficult, and Theo goes through those difficult situations to eliminate his negative desires.
Romance in this novel is a product of numerous conflicts, fights, and tears. That is something I can always appreciate about any love story and it is no exception to the case of Theo and Sarah.
Theo initially has a minimal romantic interest in Sarah as he just wanted to destroy everything about her life, though he learns more and more about her while she does the same which results in some of the best, heartwarming romances imaginable.
Erotic scenes within this novel are something you can expect quite a bit, with some being wholesome and others being disturbing. They naturally should fit alongside the other tones of this story, though there’s a distinct reason for them not to.
Part 2: The Lacking Writing in Cruel World
The writing in this novel is simply atrocious with no essence of any understanding of fluent English. I don’t mean to be harsh, though the facts have to be presented.
The grammar is just barely understandable, with there being very many moments of having to re-read sentences numerous times over just to understand what the writer was trying to convey from that particular scene. There was hope that the writing would get better, though it never does. In fact, some scenes get worse.
The romantic scenes, the erotic scenes, the dramatic scenes, and the emotional scenes all get HEAVILY impacted by this major flaw within the novel. The worst thing about it is that the entirety of the novel suffers from this issue, not just the beginning few chapters.
The ending, especially, felt a little lacking with the misplaced erotic elements and horrible grammar despite it being a very meaningful and conclusive ending.
This may be attributed to the novel being a Chinese novel that had to be translated, though this is most definitely the biggest negative of the novel.
Part 3: Exceptional Character Development within Cruel World
This novel is one of those which revolves around character development. Since the cast is very defined and limited, Theo and Sarah’s personalities and events basically define the story itself. What can certainly be said is that this novel has very appropriate character development that influences itself based on the situations that occur.
Sarah changes in the sense that she was nervous, afraid, and a little confused from the very beginning of the story. Though, as she develops a relationship with Theo (and almost gets broken in the process), she starts to exert an aura of comfortability and openness. These changes in her character are very appreciable.
Theo had the most extreme case of character development. Going from a revenge-driven maniac to a loving husband is a difficult task in itself though you can see for yourself after reading.
The point is, this story knows its characters and so do we. The personalities they carry are at times a little plain and predictable, though they’re being drastically changed from time to time adds an element of variety to them.
Part 4: Unapologetic Bizarreness in Cruel World
The novel explores various moments that are plain weird and could never in a million years be classified as cliche. This can be a good thing and a bad thing, though you can go around mixing and matching them to see which one fits your tastes.
Though, it must be said that the craze and sheer outlandishness of the novel give it a fair bit of character, which anyone can appreciate.
Part 5: Conclusive Remarks
A Cruel World is a novel that really depends on how the reader feels about it. The writing is so atrocious to the point where it genuinely could be the sole purpose not to read it. Though, once I found myself getting used to the writing, and making micro-translations internally, I started enjoying and appreciating this novel much, much more than before.
My recommendation would be to accept the shortcomings of this novel, because getting past the writing displays to you a bizarre yet oddly beautiful stylization of romance, drama, and character development. Reading this novel is an adventure, and all there is to it is one rough start followed by waves of ease and enjoyment. This novel most definitely deserves a read.
