Subjective Beauty and the Beast Review

Summary is under my comment.

I remember reading the unofficial translation, and waiting for this to marinate. I don’t know what I was expecting, but it’s alright enough to pass the time.

Fair warning that the setting may not be everyone’s cup of tea. It’s really messed up, especially considering today’s modern standards. The people are really shallow and value beauty. Idk if they really know what love is: there’s a law called “Newlywed Rehearsal” where couples can live together for a year before getting married. But also it’s acceptable to cheat on your spouse??
MC was reincarnated into the original FL of the story, but it's a dark mature romance where 3 MLs take turns with her and she ends up imprisoned and killed by CP. MC understandably wants to avoid that ending, so with her hack cheat makeup bag, she makes herself look ugly and undesirable.

She enters a contract marriage with the ugliest (by society’s standards) bachelor, who happens to be her type, and as they do with contract marriages, fall in love and decide to stay together. She also befriends her future nephew, and teaches him skincare.

I like the nephew’s love interest, but I’m laughing and crying angrily that she’s another “ugly” stereotype: glasses and braids combo

The plot/villains: Charlotte’s appearance was not a coincidence. She’s also reincarnated, being the actress who bullied and died with MC in their past life. I wonder if they reincarnated at the same time or if she came in later OR if her pride got to her head (beauty is power in this world) because she still tries to bully MC despite being in a lower status than her.

I’m not buying the reaper’s statement that it wasn’t him who brought the actress into this world with MC. It’s too convenient to blame it on a demon who impersonated him.

Thanks to MC’s cheat, she’s able to evade the MLs’ attention and the law until her engagement is set and confirms mutual feelings with her endgame.

Silver seems to be the lesser of the evils, wanting love. I would believe it if he was the first one to be engaged with OG FL, and because of how meek and weak he is, somehow got scammed/lost her to Alfonso who’s the sick bastard with twisted tastes. Or maybe he was second, where OG was unfortunate to fall for Alfonso’s mask and went to sliver for refuge, only for him to obsess over her and fail to protect her when things went downhill.

And then she ended up with CP, who was essentially her endgame but he couldn’t fix her broken soul and ruined her will to live.

But of course, MC cannot get away completely undetected. So there’s a backstory behind the original plot, that royalty have powers thanks to wolf heritage, and their mates have amazing scents that only they can smell. OG FL chose CP, but he fumbled so MC, armed with her knowledge of the plot, picks someone else who better aligns with her tastes and could help protect her.

Apparently Lucas was never a contender due to his insufficient looks, but thanks to MC’s transmigration and disguise, she was able to match with him.

If I had a dollar for every OG ML who turned back time for OG FL from regret and hoped for a happier ending… gimme my two dollars lol

Except for some reason he really thinks they can work things out. I’m not sure what his plan was if OG FL was so done with her tragic life that she didn’t even want to move onto her next life, let alone go back to that hellscape. But she did seem to want to get revenge, which MC didn’t fulfill (or she didn’t understand that living well is the best revenge and MC is focused on surviving her way) so MC is tormented by OG’s nightmares of the past.

I’m sad that OG FL didn’t have the revenge that she wanted, but it’s not like she straight up asked for MC to get it for her. MC was given her body since the reaper was essentially killing two birds with one stone: give MC a protagonist life and put a soul into a body whose world turned back time because the original no longer wants to live.

Even though MC literally has the same hair and eye color, not to mention her alluring scent, the makeup is too OP and repulsive haha so there’s no way that she’s his dream girl… until it’s revealed that she is!

I think CP completely lost his mind after finding out, because for some reason he’s repeating the same cycle despite knowing that he turned back time. Was his sacrifice his IQ? They called him “wise” in his introduction (ch 3), but clearly he’s not.

Because he can’t comprehend the reality that’s in front of him. OG FL/MC doesn’t want him, she chose someone else and skipped the rehearsal law. He’s fixated on the idea that they’re soulmates because of his happy dreams and chooses to ignore the ones where she tells him to die. He doesn’t even make good plans, all he does is try to see and “rescue” her when she’s constantly rejecting him. Because he thinks this time it’s his relative who’s imprisoning her this time, instead of the other 2 MLs.

What was the point in remembering there was a “reincarnation” tag for the original story? Was it supposed to be a hint for MC that she’s not living the beginning of the story, but rather the second half? Was there supposed to be a redemption arc for CP, but she forgot/didn’t know where in the story she was at and messed up his plans by changing her face and causing CP to glitch out? What about OG FL who was like “nah, I don’t wanna live anymore“.

But either way, she knew it wasn’t a good ending, and this is just me trying to piece together why CP was going psycho at the end.

Plus Lucas still needed to have one rival, and this was the only way to have that final stand off since the other MLs backed off once MC was officially off the market since they couldn’t go against Lucas’s protection, and they were content with sharing Charlotte.

I’m still mad that they didn’t get any karma, but to be fair they didn’t do anything to current Laila because she was able to protect herself. And Charlotte had to have her harem somehow as the main character. Not a full harem tho, since CP was the only one who received karma for going after MC.

Also, the main character syndrome is weird in this story. Apparently MC was able to debuff it with the power of disgust through makeup. After revealing her true beauty to the world, she was ensnared by the rules of the plot (where MC must face hardships/misfortune, whoever storyboarded this section was really lazy with it), but after remembering her past life, she was able to snap out of it. And was somehow able to pass off the protagonist halo to Charlotte after getting married.

Then again, it’s not like CP ever deserved a second chance, but this story low-key feels like it’s taking a shit on popular troupes, like red-eyed, black haired MLs, and the reincarnation into the villainess’s body to fulfill a wish and become the protagonist - but she failed to get a happy ending haha. But when you give them low IQs like this (what even gave them the confidence that they could break the leads apart?), it’s not a win. But it was pretty satisfying to see MC directly throwing hands with the villains haha

But that scene where Charlotte pushes Michael and still tries to get in Lucas’ good graces??
Her: my dress is hard to move in
Her dress with a slit: …

Also, they also used cliches such as endgame ML being the exiled Duke of the North. Mature novel setting but not for leads. “You’re horny and scared of losing control? Here, take modern day pain medicine as a suppressant!”

They went way overboard with the cliffhangers with foreboding words, “little did I/we know what was coming up next”. The first time, understandable. The second and third times were nothing burgers or just a standard follow up scene. I’m guessing that the numbers of readers were dropping and that was their way of trying to keep the interest, but it comes off as annoying when it turns out that it’s not a big deal in the next chapter.

Also I thought they were having their wedding in February, so after the first one was ruined, ML’s like “let’s have our wedding in February” and I’m just like, IS IT NOT STILL FEBRUARY?!?! HELLO?! (╯°Д °)╯╧╧