Okay, I have a lot to say about this story. I won't hide the review BUT I have a spoiler warning for those who wanna read it. First thing is, I literally just made a goodreads account to write a review about it lol. Second, I handed in my BA thesis a week ago - which is about the fanfictions Ukiyo by Sharleena and House of Cards by sugamins (and yes I have been quite stressed about it I have no clue how it will turn out I'm just waiting and suffering thanks). Third, after I finished reading it I literally begged Sharleena on Twitter to publish a printed version because I was so desperate about it lol. HOWEVER, I think these three facts are evidence enough about how much this fanfiction caught me when I first read it. I started it in summer 2021 and inhaled it in the course of like two weeks to the point that my arm hurt from holding up my phone lol. Okay but now let's get to the story itself: It is basically about family heir Min Yoongi who gets involved with a succubus called Park Jimin as the latter one is an important witness in a drug theft. Things get out of hand very quickly as it turns out that the person responsible for the theft wasn't just after some easily earned cash but actually wants to overthrow Yoongi. Said person causes chaos in Seoul which is reigned by mafia like families such as Yoongis. If you want to read it, DO IT. You won't regret it I swear. Even if you don't like Real Person Fiction or don't know BTS. It's just a very good story on it's own. Just beware it's quite dark. Everything that follows might contain spoilers so go read come back later lol. (SPOILER WARNING) Okay, what shall I say? Sharleena has a true talent for words. The world she created and the way she told the story is very artistic. It's a lot about finding beauty in the ugly as I like to call it. Beauty being the pureness and authenticity of Yoongi and Jimins depiction. The ugly is everything that gets thrown at them during the cause of the story - but also way before all of that started. Especially their trauma which gets addressed in throwbacks, dreams, interactions and eventually in dialogues is described so complexly it has you stopping and taking a moment to just process and feel. It's truly hard to not feel with the characters. From the beginning, there are hints of how unhappy Yoongi is about his life and his position as a drug lord. Why that is so gets revealed way later. Yoongi - to me - seems like the personification of what happens to your inner child when you constantly 'feel' alone and not being taken care of. That especially is something many readers might relate to in a way. I did for sure. No call out but I think it speaks especially to those who have lived through trauma or mh issues themselves. Like, as mentioned, Ukiyo is a very dark story. That's not just because of Yoongi but also - or especially - because of Jimin. I mean fanfictions often have the tendency to create an erotic setting. Ukiyo is no exception to that. But the emotional struggles Yoongi and Jimin live through seem very authentic considering their past. The story shows at no point that all of that is easy but that there might be a solution if you work on it and show acceptance. And that you can't really help your feelings. I would even dare to say both characters seem 'too' human compared to those fanfictions that objectify characters for the sake of some erotic story. Like of course, there still is this erotic utopia in a way - but even that makes sense considering the fact that Jimin is a succubus in the story. It was also a pleasure to read Jimin opening up slowly, being more himself, being comfortable maybe for the first time in years in this setting. Even though it broke my heart to learn about his past. That chapter was hard. But the way Yoongi got Jimin out? Like - let me fangirl here - WHAT A BADASS MOVE AHH!!! I LOVED those badass Yoongi moments - the SALTTTT. But i also loved those sassy Jimin moments, especially when he stopped Yoongi being both bad and ass lol. Lmao now I just talked about those two. Maybe because I analysed them for my ba and therefore have the most to say about them and their dynamic. Though I also really liked the way Shareena incorporated not only the other BTS members as characters but also other k pop idols (most of which I didn't know at that time tbh. But it was fun to find out!). I think what really made it special for me was to read the story with the playlist Sharleena made on spotify. With the trailers, fan art etc it feels like a multimedia experience and not just a quick read. I'm seriously confused why there isn't even more fanart tbh - but maybe I just didn't find it yet. However, I could go on about it, but that would feel a bit unstructured at this point. Whoever has read it though and wants to have a chat about it feel free to reach out! I'm so sick of the bad reputation ffs have when masterpieces like this exist. It's a shame. However. Ukiyo's great, as the other stories I read by the author btw. And who haven't read House of Card yet and liked Ukiyo, I can highly suggest that as well. Even though that story is even darker than Ukiyo ngl. But from what I know those are the BIG two of the BTS ffs (if I'm wrong let me know I'm happy to read other good stories as well lol). And a must-read for BTS fanfiction fans in my opinion.
I've read this years ago, just found out that it was on goodreads, so why not giving it a shout-out it deserves 💁🏻♀️
First of all, a disclaimer: I'm absolutely not fond of any RPF (Real Person Fiction), especially the idol types. Reading them usually makes me uncomfortable. But at that time, this fiction link and quotes kept popping out on my timeline, and the writing was so good that I can't resist to check it out ((—and my brain was like: "c'mon, try opening and reading it, one chapter is all you need to judge it")), and (at that time) I thought this would be a flop and end up making me feel uncomfortable. But boi I was wrong. This piece of work is just insanely good. I absolutely adore the characterization and the world building. Sharleena's writing style is exactly my cup of 🍵. And their characterization, despite being a RPF, is not tied to the real person or the muse's persona. The characters stand for themselves. It just felt like reading a story with characters who happen to have the same name as [insert-idol-names]. I didn't even imagine how the characters look like. I don't even use the muse's face as a visualization ((did that even makes sense lol idk pals)) which is good bcs if I visualize them, I can't read it without feeling weird. And that's what makes me can finish this long long long story 'till the very end. Idk if this can be considered as a good compliment for a RPF writer but Sharleena, for me this is the biggest compliment I've ever said for a RPF ((bcs i don't really read RPF)). Never imagined a Mafia x Succubus fanfiction will be this awesome [chef's kiss].
If Fifty Shades of Gray can make it big, I am sure this one can too 🍻
you know it’s good when people wrote fanfictions of a fanfiction. (AGAIN I KEEP LOGGING THESE TODAY IM SORRY BUT THESE DESERVE TO BE PUBLISHED W DIF NAMES!! love hypothesis did it so why cant we!!)
I read Ukiyo first time in May of this year and haven't been able to stop thinking about It. I feel like after recommending this fic to my friend we've spent hours and hours talking about this story.
There's so many good things about this fic that I don't know where to start. The writing style is amazing, the characters feel like living & breathing people and Sharleena paints Seoul in such a vivid, beautiful and cynical colors.
I loved all the different motifs, symbolism and metaphors. At points the storytelling felt almost poetic, which I'm a big fan of.
The story never got boring and I was surprised time & time again by the different plot twists. But they still felt natural and not forced. The story felt like it had been tought trough properly and the storyline was easy to follow.
And the characters,,,, My favorite part of the whole story! First I want to say that I'm not a fan of shipping real people, but in this fic's case it didn't really matter since the characters truly were their own people and shared nothing in common with the people they've been inspired by.
A common problem I see with fanfics is that a lot of characters are kind of plain and you don't really get any kind of image of them. That was Not the case in this fic: Especially the main 7 characters feel incredibly real with their own backstories, secrets and relationships. It doesn't feel like the other characters only exist for the main character. It feels like every character only exist for themselves.
Sharleena also understands the importance of strong milieu and how it sets the mood to a story. The city of Seoul is in a major role and the writer never let's you forget that.
This is honestly my favorite fanfiction I've read so far. I really wish I could read it for the first time again!
I read many people talking about Ukiyo on twitter and boy NOW I get what they were talking about.
Sharleena's writing is one of the most beautiful and precious things I've ever witnessed. The story is full of flashbacks (all well distributed and making perfect sense with the rhythm) and metaphorical dreams. The way the autor describes the emotions and the character development trough the dream patterns is quite breath taking and I wont say anything else bc no spoilers here yay.
I love characters with a weird moral compass and all that grey area stuff and I simply love how the author portraits all of them as somehow cursed beings with a lot of trauma that keep reflecting on their actions. All of them are destroyed in very different ways.
This is the first time I read a story with those kinds of mystical creatures (such as succubus, banshees etc), honestly I had absolutely NO IDEA of the plot as I started reading and I kept being surprised by the traits of said creatures.
Last but not least, I've read the whole "gangs take over seoul" trope before, but the way seoul is portraited here? Almost as a character itself? Yeah that was pretty new and fcking amazing tbh the city speaks and those who are clever enough listen to it. What about the families dynamic?! I could go on for hours.
Now lemme go back to my daily life in which all I wanna do is talk about ukiyo and tattoo a hummingbird and keep replying every single tweet with "mf ukiyo vibes".
(Also someone literally made an ost for this story you guys were really invested thank god)
Wow con lo que uno encuentra en la relectura ♡. Los detalles que dejé pasar ahora tienen sentido, hice las paces con la relación de Hobi (perdón, ahora lo entiendo), Yoongi que difícil ser tú pero también no ayudas a ayudarte y Seoul es el mejor personaje definitivamente.
Sigo diciendo que maravilloso que los fanfic existan, que estén fuera del canon literario y expongan temas tan importantes, y que mejor que lo hagan a través de un universo de fantasía oscura como lo es Ukiyo
HANDS DOWN best book ever !!!!!!!!! i never read something that can be so painful but healing at the same time. it really changed my whole perspective of life, nothing to say.
It's been two years, but I still go back to my favorite parts. And I cry every time. And it hurts just as much as the first time. But it's the kind of pain I live for. Because it makes me feel.
It’s somewhat familiar to when they had this same conversation: both sitting at a restaurant, one in front of the other. And yet, it couldn’t be more different.
Jimin takes a deep breath and he leans back in his chair, the sun begins to slowly set behind him.
“There’s so much to that question,” he says. “The word means “floating word”. But it’s a homophone with the Japanese term for sorrowful world. And in Japanese Buddhism, the sorrowful world is shorthand for the endless-the endless cycle of rebirth, life, suffering, death and, again, rebirth. Then there’s art. You know, the woodblock prints.” Jimin pauses and he stares at the wooden table for a few moments, fingers stroking the side of the bowl mindlessly. “Then, during the Tokugawa Period, the word began to be used to describe something more specific, the-the kind of meaningless, pleasure-seeking lifestyle of brothels and red light districts. Especially in the center of Edo , in the Yoshiwara district, it was the licensed red district. But it was more than that. It was a closed society, almost. A floating one, that could only exist within the walls of those districts, amongst the brothels and tea houses, that served as job for some and escape for others and— I don’t know. I don’t know why I thought of Seoul as something similar. They’re so different, couldn’t be more different, but—” Something pained and miserable flashes in his eyes just for one moment. “God, when I was brought there and realized that I couldn’t leave the city, it felt like I was living in a fleeting, ephemeral, floating world. Something that would just-just pop like a bubble one day. Something that, at some point, would have disappeared and be forgotten by most. Just like a dead word, only few would have remembered it.” Jimin’s mouth curls into a small, bitter smile. “Because I find comfort in dead words. And so telling me that my situation in that city was just something fleeting brought me comfort."
What a ride this book has been wow i am speechless. The fic is about Yoongi, heart of Seoul, ruling an empire left by his dad, little did he know his dad also left him an enemy to deal with. Enter Jimin, a succubus that signifies the start of a war for Yoongi. A war in his empire and a war in his heart.
The writing style was absolutely beautiful, the descriptions were succulent but my favourite by far were the dialogues. Considering this book is crime slash mystery, the characters could surely be hilarious in the middle of chaos. That made me love the characters way more than I should considering I could trust no one and I was so sure everyone was capable of betrayal! But they were lovable.
This book contains several plot twists which I guessed one of them but the rest left me hanging by a thread like what the fuck. The scenes were really smart the author did a great job for sure.
The reason why I didn't give it 5 stars is because at some point I felt like some bits of the story were fillers, I lost interest in one part of the book and I thought of quitting reading it then because I thought it needed more action and it wasn't happening. But I'm glad I pushed through because the ending had me biting my nails.
All in all, a recommended read this should be published as an actual book.
No persona lectora, el fan fiction no es siempre ese estereotipo que tienes en la cabeza en estos momentos.
Qué increíble que esta maravilla exista GRATIS en internet y qué triste que por prejuicios la gente se pierda de esta historia.
Estaba intimidada por la cantidad de páginas, pero la pluma de la autora es tan buena que se van volando. Aunque sí decidí ponerle pausas por salud mental en situaciones densas (y también porque no quería terminarlo tbh it's sooooo good).
Es uno de los poquísimos ff que te urge sean publicados para que más personas puedan comprender el nivel de literatura que existe en este mundo literario no canónico. Con los sentimientos al full y mi cabeza creando mil hipótesis, disfruté cada diálogo, cada personaje, cada plot twist y cada escenario, por más tenso que fuera.
Hay fallas en algunos capítulos y honestamente el final no es tan bueno. Sin embargo, pese a ser puntos negativos importantes, no arruinan en absoluto la experiencia (and she did this for free guys I mean). Es inagotable la cantidad de temas abordados en esta ciudad tan distópica pero que se siente tan real.
Gracias por existir Sharleena, no sé quien seas y a qué te dediques, pero yo quiero ser como tú cuando sea grande. Ya quisiera Bolaño o Murakami tener lo que tú tienes.
The person that recommended this to me told me it was life changing…
She was right.
It’s not because I’m an ARMY (which of course makes everything in life better) it’s just a great story.
Sharleena is creative, funny, an asshole (most of the time) and someone I would love being friends with. She created this characters out of real people that I started to like, and love and become invested in their well being apart from the humans they were based on. I miss them as much as I miss reading her talk to us in the beginning of the chapter notes.
I thought I was going to be devastated when this ended because I’m a series bitch, I cannot by the life of me read just ONE book of something I like, but the ending was SO SO SO SO GOOD that I’m at peace. It had a beginning, a middle and an end….and what an end folks.
But if there’s more I will be there, oh god please let there be more!
I cannot thank this woman enough for the gift she made us.
Hace mucho que no me movía tanto una historia, me identifiqué, reí, lloré... me emocioné hasta saltar en mi asiento y me deshice por las noches en lágrimas, de verdad que me parece una obra de arte. Mi personaje favorito es Seoul y creo que el mundo que creo Sharleena lo voy a llevar conmigo siempre.
história simplesmente lendária, memorável e magnífica. arrebatadora em todos os sentidos. tem fantasia com realidade, e realidade cruel. autora sabe exatamente o que contar e como contar dependendo do contexto de cada capítulo.