a fast-paced book centering around 2 women w/ their own baggage as they stumble and walk towards love w/ one another. the devil's heart can be cinematic at times w/ high stakes scenes and set pieces. the writing is prolly the best thing abt this book: beautiful, flowing and lyrical. it also defies expectations w/ rapid development esp in the first half, but seems to flounder character-wise in the second. i wouldve enjoyed the book more had i not have 2 major qualms w/ it: the unrealistic and ??? treatment and world of the 2 heroines, and their frustrating, needlessly angsty relationship often spurred on by the stupidity of jonghwa.

for the first point, the heroines' positions on the zenith of society are only acknowledged and used when convenient to the plot, and completely disregarded in others, leading to questionable characterization and story development. jonghwa, for example, is a chaebol wife and president, yet goes gallivanting around w/ other men and rarely has security around her, not to mention the unrealistic public nature of her lgbtq+ relationships in a homophobic society like south korea. more reflection on major plot points would be good as well, such as when suho died and nothing of the aftermath was mentioned. for the second point, for characters supposedly as smart as they are, yeongjin and jonghwa are stupid when it comes to their relationship, w/ an endless loop of wrong assumptions, misunderstanding, mis- and non-communication that is completely unneeded and frustrating. they didnt have to do all that and any growth achieved previously is often made nonexistent by the next few chapters.