Shadow Slave by Guiltythree

The novel has a lot of potential, yet ruined by the glacier pacing of the story.

Has good use of grammar, flows well, interesting magic system etc.

Yet here we are in the 200s and the character has barely gone anywhere.

We will have flashbacks that go on and for dozens of chapters that only needed a paragraph or three.

It's just spinning your heels waiting while author goes for word quantity over wuality of story.

Beware before reading.

The mask from the novel cover ( the one in webnovel) is finally here

I don't recommend this. It gives the impression to be relatively good, but it's not. The snail pace is exhausting, making you bored. Its more teen drama than adventure.

The flaw of the MC is "you can't lie" , but it isn't. It should be "you have to say the truth". At least the author thinks it works that way. You have to speak, you can't choose not to. Unless the author forgets, which happens.

The two things that make this unreadable, the self inserts by the author, when they forget that the character is a poor beggar who hasn't read webnovel tropes. The other self insert, when the MC feels insecure and ogles everyone as really, really, really ridiculously good looking. It's obsessive. It's super cringe gtfo

Will be get our cold , ruthless , calculative MC .... who deceives people with truths ( due to his flaw) in the next arc or what
Bcozz I wanna see that

I Read This Novel On Panda Novel And Let Me Tell You It a Big Piece Of Shit Period 💀💀💀💀💀
First It Like Author Hate Our Mc.....Sunny Does Not Get Any Room To Breath Crisis And Ordeals After Another...Come On Author Your Killing Your Main Character
Second...When I Read The First Chapters 1 To 8 Mc Was Cautious And Intelligent But Now It Like Combining Naruto And Luffy Into This Big Dummy,Goofy Idiot Mc(☉｡☉)!💀💀💀💀💀
Third....Sunny Has No Character Development I Don't Even Know Where To start
Fourth Mc Powers And Abilities 💀💀When He Gained Shadow Slave Which Forced Him To be A Slave When Others Knew His True Name I Lost It... What The Fu#k Is This Power?????But That Was Not All He Received A Flaw That He Cannot Lie💀💀💀All That Cautious Intelligent And Cold Mc Disappeared And We Got A Idiot Goofy Asshole

#Mc Is A Glorious "SIMP"

This is too much I continued reading the novel hoping that Sunny our Mc would have chance to improve himself. But the Author is always kicking our Mc while he is down with no regards whatsoever. Just when we see him improve a little "remember that he is skinny, ugly and anti social" it's like the author enjoys punishing our Mc, its too much. Even after all those setbacks our Mc doesn't learn much or improve he would repeat the mistakes. I hope the author uses 'The Hero's Journey' to improve the story telling in Volume 2 and onwards. Normally in story after the challenges there would be a transformation but for sunny it means more punishment after the Ordeal.

I have high expectations for this novel, based on my previous review Im Keeping it at 4/5.

I was gonna read this until i saw the reviews and oh boy nevermind then

TLDR: I felt it had potential, but I eventually found the MC too unlikable and the story too masochistic to continue. Cool setting concept though.

(It's worth mentioning that I reviewed a few chapters on Webnovel and the author kept it up, so maybe they also thought this was fair criticism?)

Aight. Here's my take.
I really liked the first few chapters. The setting was interesting, the MC was thoughtful and cold and calculating, it seemed well written and I had high hopes after those chapters.
And then things went kinda bad imo.

Here are my 3 issues.

Issue #1
The MC received his first flaw. His Flaw is that he is literally compelled to answer anyone who talks to him and to tell nothing but the "truth". Which just sorta turns him into an unbearable goofy jackass.
But the real issue for him, is if anyone ever asks him what his real name is, he will become their eternal slave. Yep. Forever slave. And he is compelled to tell them the truth if they ask, mind you.
Being forced to only speak truth was enough. Being forced to open your mouth and babble anytime any jackass speaks in your direction, is too much.

Issue #2
Sunny's personality goes through a dramatic shift after he gets his Flaw.
In the first few chapters we are shown that he is a cold and intelligent killer. A master manipulator who has what it takes to survive. An antihero who can rise to the top, if you will.
But he very quickly becomes a whiney, goofy, betaboi idiot. His Flaw forces him to talk, but it doesn't force him to be such an annoying twat. That's all him.
Everyone rightfully hates him because he's a "I'm sOoO RaNdOm LoL!!" jackass who "truthfully" insults everyone he meets and apparently our previously cold blooded killer can't even look at a girl without cowering. He becomes... kinda pathetic? And not in a fun way.

Issue #3
The author really, really, really, loves whipping and screwing over their MC. They love it so much, that it often spoils the plot. Setback after setback with very little payoff.
He just gets more and more pathetic. And it makes me feel bad. I don't wanna read 200+ chapters of the MC getting beat like a dog.
The author said something about him needing to hit rock bottom when I asked, but guys, Sunny is literally a dirty, malnourished, orphan, slave boy who has been beaten every day of his life. His family was murdered, he has those annoying Flaws I mentioned earlier, and he's stuck in a death game and only has borderline useless shadow powers to live.
He f#cking started at rock bottom! We don't need to punch down anymore! It's bad storytelling!
It's almost S&M smut.

Bleh. Anyways. This is just my opinion after reading up to volume two. I dipped out after I saw it was more of the same.
Maybe I'll circle back someday and give it another shot. Maybe not.
Hope this helped.

Has volume 2 ended?
If not how long will it take as I am stacking chapters

Noice
A very well written story .