Well, color me surprised. In the first pages, I thought, "I won't be able to handle this," but it mixed 18 year old thinking with 28 year olds who have never resolved their 10 year old issues. Somehow, this...worked. Vicious (stupid name) is cold and unfeeling, Emilia is the Southern ingenue who challenges him without blinking. If we couldn't see the inner workings of Vicious, understand how he came to be him, see his love for his mother, none of this would have worked. But Shen made him compelling enough and his story left you curious enough that I was absolutely able to stomach moving from her point of view (highly unstable/manipulative relationship) to the explanation of why it happens that way. I wouldn't call it the healthiest love story, but it won me over in the end--and it certainly wasn't simple hate to love.