2020년 6월부터 2022년 2월까지 많은 독자분들의 사랑 속에 연재된 웹툰《살인마 르웰린 씨의 낭만적인 정찬》이 완결 후 종이책으로 출간되었다. 총 6권 완결이며, 묵부 작가님의 섬세한 작화와 영리터 작가님의 흥미진진한 연출이 종이책 페이지 안에 새롭게 재구성되어, 독자분들께 웹툰과는 또 다른 신선함과 즐거움을 선사할 것이다.
빈민가 이라 스트리트를 떠들썩하게 만든 연쇄살인 사건과 셰본의 집 앞에 쪽지를 붙이는 스토커 그리고 매일 계단에서 양파를 까는 수려한 외모의 미청년 등 반전에 반전을 거듭하는 미스터리한 사건들로 가득한─ 오싹하지만 그 이면에 애절하고 아름다운 진실이 담긴《살인마 르웰린 씨의 낭만적인 정찬》을 종이책으로 다시 한번 만나 보자.
“Why stop there? Let’s leave this place and buy a home… we’ll live together in a red brick house… with a dog and a warm fireplace… what should we name the dog? what about Happy? or Clover? I love you….”
emotional damage. I regret wanting to know their past, those flashbacks were a punch to the gut when the chapters started off with them.
This series has me in a chokehold I fear. I am very upset that the next volume doesn’t come out until June.
This volume continues to show up flashes of the past that Lewellyn and Shavonne had within the prison and although I still have so many questions I felt so much while reading this. Multiple times I felt myself fighting tears. I feel so bad for Lewellyn and the hell he was put through even if he’s a serial killer. I also feel badly for Shavonne because clearly something happened that stripped him of his memories.
Do I think these two will stand the test of time and end up living happily ever after? Honestly I don’t think so. I could be wrong but this volume showed me that Lewellyn just attached himself to Shavonne because he was the first to ever show him kindness.
I never would have thought when I read that first volume and was so annoyed that I would be here at the fourth volume emotional. This is a heavy read but it’s so worth it.
This is such an interesting story that deeply confuses me at times.
We got a lot of answers in this volume: basically all of Lewellyn's backstory, including everything he knows about Shavonne. The only piece still missing is...well, the missing chunk of Shavonne's memories that somehow left his childhood intact but wiped out everything that he knew about his time with Lewellyn.
The "prison" makes more sense now that it's been identified as more of a military testing camp. I don't know who else was kept there, but they were essentially using a combination of physical abuse and medical injections on Lewellyn to test healing properties, maybe? Or just to build him up as a sort of super soldier. Since there's information later on about how their spies need to be attractive for their work, it seems clear that he was specifically selected as a child who had the traits they'd need for an adult assassin.
But he was too feral, maybe, because it doesn't seem like there was an intention to actually move him into that line of work, until Shavonne left him and he became desperate enough to promise anything. Unless the connection with Shavonne was intentional, too? There is so much intense worldbuilding that isn't entirely shared on the page, because we're still seeing everything through Lewellyn's very limited point of view, trapped in a jail cell for his entire life.
When he does finally escape, it's because their bargain was broken: Shavonne was supposed to be safe and happy with a nice home and a good career and a loving partner and family. When Lewellyn finds out all of that had been a lie - that Shavonne has amnesia and is broke and nearly homeless with scattered flings and no friends - he flips out and resolves to kill every last guard who'd worked in their prison. Which finally loops back to explain why Shavonne was finding dead bodies in Lewellyn's apartment. It was something he was doing for Shavonne...only for Shavonne to tell him to stop it...
The romance is still really twisted and deeply obsessive, but...weirdly, not in a bad way? Lewellyn pretty much learned how to love from fairy tales and other books, and he gets all mixed up about whether he wants to be Shavonne or to be with him. He pretty much worships Shavonne and sees him as the only thing worth living for.
Which is a whole lot to put on another person's shoulders, but Shavonne is also deeply lonely, so maybe it can work. Right now, they're in a surprisingly good relationship, with Shavonne feeling a lot of affection for and concern about Lewellyn - waiting outside for him for hours when Lewellyn is off somewhere. And even though his new editor is clearly set up to be his next controlling love interest, ticking off every box Shavonne would typically respond to, he doesn't feel any interest because his thoughts are always with Lewellyn.
I still don't get how Shavonne lost his memories, or what was actually going on with him in that prison. He was kind and friendly and optimistic and working hard on treating Lewellyn like a real person instead of an animal...then everything shifted, he disappeared for a while, and he came back dead-eyed and empty inside. But he still had days where he was affectionate with Lewellyn, so it's that back and forth that confuses me.
Was he being experimented on too? Had he just found out what the prison really was, and couldn't go along with it? Had he simply lost his enthusiasm for life? Did his memories get wiped in exchange for him being able to leave his job at this super-secret facility?
I still have so many questions. But it continues to be a really unique, interesting story.
The flashback was long, I agree, but definitely necessary. And ahhh I am still crying from the ending of Season 1, it was definitely an emotional rollercoaster, the flashback, and the starting of Season 2 definitely made the whiplash of the final panels… more understandable, and less jarring.
And oh my gosh I don’t think I’ve ever rooted for a couple so hard, especially with the amount of trauma and history surrounding them, as I have these two. But seriously, must protect Lewellyn at all costs 🥺 Must protect Shavonne too (and damn it please for Christ’s sake, I’m scared for you).
Hope more about and is covered in the next volume, and about the heir of Bunch (as lovely as it is for once to see an author had put in effort in naming the places and locations properly, instead of country X or company ABC… I still can’t get over the translation for Bunch namely HAHA). But yeah, I’m curious why we get few panels of him, because we know of his sister, but… barely anyone in that universe talks about the prince save “oh, guy’s name is Lewellyn, and it’s the most common name of that generation thanks to him”.
Ehrlich gesagt hab ich ein wenig die Übersicht bei der Charakterentwicklung verloren :D wenn ich ehrlich bin, deswegen nicht so gut wie die anderen Bände, but vermutlich nur, weil ich irgendeinen wichtigen Plotpoint übersehe. Generell ist auch Band 4 wieder extrem düster, wir bekommen noch viel mehr Hintergrundinfos zu Lewellyns und Shavonnes Vergangenheit, und wieso Lewellyn so unglaublich auf Shavonne eingeschossen ist. Es ist alles ziemlich düster, immernoch interessant, aber wie gesagt - ich glaube irgendwo fehlt mir gerade ein wenig der rote Faden.