Injured Athlete is Unknowingly Stalked by Childhood Friend
About:
Warning:
There will be spoilers for the manhwa series Recipe For Disaster.
Content Warning: There may be references to fat-shaming, obsession, bullying, violence, drugging, mentions of human trafficking, excessive drinking, manipulation, mentions of enslavement, stalking, PTSD, assault, career-ending injury, blood, self-harm, invasion of privacy, gossiping, prejudice, homomisia, and mentions of nepotism, as they do appear in the manhwa.
Synopsis:
Taesoo is a college student. His life isn’t exactly what he expected it would be, but it’s not too bad. He enjoys time with his friends, runs the taekwondo club, and makes the best out of everything. However, things get a bit more complicated when a new neighbor moves in. The man is very extroverted, which already turns Taesoo off, but somehow, this man knows Taesoo’s name. As it turns out, this stranger isn’t a stranger at all. It’s his childhood friend, Junghyuk, who used to be a chubby, bullied boy that Taesoo spent much of his time protecting.
Junghyuk is unrecognizable. He’s buff and unnervingly handsome. But more important than all of that, he bakes. Taesoo has an unquenchable sweet tooth, and while he’s a bit disturbed by how touchy-feely Junghyuk is, he craves more of those sweet treats Junghyuk makes. But while Taesoo is dealing with the obsessive man in front of him, another more obsessive man lurks in the background, waiting to strike.
Review:
The art style is really sketchy and very inconsistent, but I actually really like it. Something about the coloring and the style really speaks to me. I wouldn’t say the designs are great, as I think the friends and some of the other characters look very similar and can be confusing, but the two main characters are just really attractive to me for some reason. I imagine most people will not like it as it is very inconsistent, but there’s just something about it that I like. I would love to see more from this creator because I imagine as they work on their craft, this will only get better.
I also find the comparison between our love interest, Junghyuk, and Taesoo’s stalker interesting. To be real, they’re both stalkers. Junghyuk is what I would call stalker-lite, while the other guy is just generally a horrible stalker. The main difference is that Junghyuk doesn’t want to harm or confine Taesoo. But otherwise, they’re both stalkers. There’s a suggestion that Junghyuk might have drugged Taesoo via sweet treats (unconfirmed), he takes secret pictures and asks for pictures from Taesoo’s mom, and he somehow finagles a spare key for Taesoo’s apartment, among other creepy, obsessive things. That’s bad. Mega bad. Red flags all around. However, the other guy purposefully injures Taesoo to confine him, then comes back and tries to hurt him again, either physically or emotionally, including trying to harm himself. It’s wild that they went with two red-flag love interests (granted, one is not a genuine love interest) and pit their obsession against each other. Having someone more obsessive was the only way to make Junghyuk palatable. I don’t like it, but it’s an interesting choice.
However, I can 100% say I despise the narrative’s structure. It feels like a million stitched-together scenes without any real transitions. That might be a little exaggerated, but it is a very disjointed story. I feel like we’re constantly hopping from scene to scene with little to no transitions. The result is a rushed story with side stories that are almost entirely nonsensical. I feel nothing for the characters or their stories; the additional love interest of the friend feels terribly random, and it is immensely unsatisfying. Smut can make up for a lot, but this is, unfortunately, a shounen-ai title, so there is no sex. There is implied sex, but that can’t save this title.
Now, I’m ending on a really harsh note, but I think this is important. I actually purchased this title on TappyToon, but upon starting it there, I discovered that the translation and editing on it are absolutely abysmal. Terrible font choice, odd phrasing, poor spelling, and just misplaced punctuation marks everywhere. This needed some quality control badly. It was so bad that this was the first time I contacted a platform for a refund. I was denied the refund, which is fine, but I could not read it there because it felt like a really bad, illegal Google translation. I repurchased it on Lezhin and was pleasantly surprised that it had much better quality. I say this, so if you want to read this, do not get it on TappyToon. I love a lot of TappyToon titles, but this is not the one. Lezhin is the way to go here, for sure.
Results:
This was a major disappointment on two fronts. First, I was super disappointed with TappyToon’s translation. It reminds me of the illegal translations I read back in my youth, which is not good for something I paid for. Then, when I got a chance to read a better translation from Lezhin, the story was weak and disjointed. It’s unfortunate. I would certainly not recommend the TappyToon version, but I also wouldn’t recommend the Lezhin version. There are better titles to spend your coin on.
Have you read Recipe For Disaster? If so, what do you think? Do you agree with my assessment? Do you not? Let me know, and comment below!