Chinese GL

I read 19 baihe novels and two baihe novellas this year. Here's the full list in order of when I read them, with links to my reviews where available.

( Read more; spoilers have been kept to a minimum )

If I were giving out awards:

Best reads: To Embers We Return, Ravenous, The Little Alpaca.
Compact and compelling: Scrapped, A Broken Bough.
Fun and mostly light: Hunger. Lust.
Biggest letdowns: Above the Fates, The Wayward Disciple.
LET ME EDIT YOU: In Love with a Substitute.

I started reading this novel because, frankly, who can resist the premise of 'the protagonist transmigrates into a xuanhuan novel... and into the body of the villainess' pet alpaca'. It was a delightful experience, and I'd even go so far as to call the novel wholesome although parts of it are objectively harrowing. It does also vibe quite a bit more Young Adult (in the current Anglo publishing sense) than most baihe novels I've read so far (with the possible of exception Her Mountain, Her Sea (她的山, 她的海, pinyin: ta de shan, ta de hai), which is literally a high school novel), though the prose and plotting are more sophisticated than the recent YA fantasy books I've read, and even some of the marketed-as-adult recent fantasy releases I've encountered.

( Read more; some vague spoilers )

I read the uncensored print edition of the novel by morefate, which also has a bonus post-ending extra chapter. The web version of the novel can be found here on JJWXC.

Pre-orders will be opening on 30 December for the print edition (traditional Chinese, uncensored) of transmigration baihe novel The Little Alpaca (小羊驼) by Wu Liao Dao Di (无聊到底), published by the Taiwanese company morefate. The pre-order period runs until 14 February, and customers who order within the first 24 hours will receive a card signed by the author. More details of the cover art and publisher-provided inclusions can be found on the publisher's website here. Details of the channels through which I pre-order these books can be found in this post.

The web version of the novel can be found here on JJWXC. The protagonist of the novel, Yi Qiu, reads an old-school, trashy webnovel and is incensed by the lack of logic in the ending — then finds herself transmigrated into the novel, not into the body of the female lead, nor into the body of a secondary character, but into the body of the villainess' pet alpaca (or possibly pet vicuña).