What Are The Best Completed Murim Novels To Binge-Read?

Right now I’m reading ‘Court of Mist and Fury’ by Sarah J. Maas. It’s the sequel to ‘A Court of Thorns and Roses’ and I am absolutely loving it right now. The characters’ emotions are so intense to read in this book and the stakes are even higher than before. Plus the romance is getting even better which is making it hard to put down. Another darker but equally as romantic book is ‘Shadow and Bone’ by Leigh Bardugo. I really enjoyed this because it had just the right mix of magic and adventure, and I loved how the characters got pulled into the world and the epic journey that they were on. Plus there was just the right amount of romantic tension to make it a super binge-worthy read and have me turning page after page.

I’m here for the art. Some of these panels are literal wallpaper. I mean that in the best possible way. The lighting in “Like Wind on a Dry Branch” is just really beautiful. And the costume details in “The Fantasie of a Stepmother” are incredible. Sometimes I find myself reading a story just to slowly scroll through the pages to take in all of the art. The romance reads intensely when every glance is beautifully framed. Is anyone else here reading for aesthetic reasons?

I'll preface this by saying rankings are so subjective but if you're looking for the rawest form of erotic content with plot to back it up (so not porn), Killing Stalking has sort of a cult following for a reason. The dark twisted psychological horror is wrapped up in a beautiful little boy story and is just masterfully tensioned. Obviously it's not a comfortable read but that's because it explores the topics of obsession and abuse in a twisted form and isn't exactly romance. But if you're looking to be gripped by a very very disturbed dynamic and are in the right headspace to read it, it's definitely a standout read. For a more recent webnovel, Painter of the Night seems to be getting a lot of love lately. I haven’t read it myself, but the art is apparently gorgeous and adds a ton of value to the story.

I’ve quietly been adding every single title from this thread to my ‘Plan to Read’ list on Anilist. Thanks so much for the great discussion – my weekends are now booked for the foreseeable future.

Oh, the novels of Renaissance romance are just so beautifully, magically crafted to contain so much passion and politics and poetry. One of my absolute favorites of all time has to be The Duchess of Malfi by John Webster, which, yes, is rather outside the mainstream of typical romance novels in being very dark indeed. Yet it is such an utterly fascinating and so very intense novel, and this particularly in terms of its exploration of the power of love. Written as it was by a playwright (of another epoch), the novel offers a powerful sense of drama, and remains as forceful and as moving as ever. As for arcadian romance, Euphues: The Anatomy of Wit by John Lyly is another absolute treasure, above all for the dialogues which are so full of wit and of sparkle. For a more grounded exploration of the tortured conflicting feelings of love, however, it would be hard to think of anything better than Arcadia by Sir Philip Sidney. The rather cardboard characters in this sprawling, rather idealized novel of a half-dozen or so love stories all involving rather knight-like shepherds are so beautifully and imperiously mapped out against the backdrop of a completely fictional idyllic rural context, with all their conversations consisting of the sharpest and wisest repartee, and their glances at each other swimming with hidden meanings. Another different approach to the romance novel of the Renaissance era is found in ‘Euphues: The Anatomy of Wit’ by John Lyly. Most readers would consider it to be outside the genre of romance yet there are many great dialogues regarding the complexities of love and friendship. For something totally different, maybe one of the most celebrated poems of the Renaissance era would be ‘The Faerie Queene’ by Edmund Spenser. Written as an allegorical romance featuring knights, damsels, enさ chantresses and fantastical quests, it is a magnificent read with lots of romance woven throughout the very moral tales of the imaginary land of Faerie. Yes, it is written in a very rich and dense language but after a while you can fall into its rhythm and be transported by a mighty wave of beautiful poetry. I love Renaissance romances, including their imperfections. The great love stories of the past are not as neat as modern tales with happy endings. Rather, they are fraught with the agony and politics of love and contain many unpredictable human interactions. Every time I return to a book I have read before, I discover something new about the human experience and the time period in which the author lived.

It is hard to go wrong with a perennial favorite recommended on every academic list of great novels – including ‘Middlemarch’, ‘Anna Karenina’ and ‘Moby-Dick’, all of which have been lauded by generations of literary critics for their groundbreaking structures and themes. Today, we also have a list of more recent novels that have received widespread critical acclaim. These include ‘Wolf Hall’ by Hilary Mantel, a revolutionary historical novel written in the present tense that swept the board at last year’s book awards, and ‘The Goldfinch’ by Donna Tartt, a ‘Dickensian’ novel that divided opinion among readers but won the Pulitzer Prize. However, it is the longer lists of novels that have been shortlisted for a prize that really offer the most interesting suggestions. For example, the shortlist for the International Booker Prize introduced me to a number of stunningly great translated novels including South Korean novel ‘The Vegetarian’. These are the novels that literary critics praise because they expand the literary conversation in some way.

As someone who has spent countless nights diving into the world of danmei, I can share some fantastic places to read these novels for free. One of my go-to platforms is Wattpad, where you can find a mix of original danmei works and fan translations of popular titles like 'Mo Dao Zu Shi' and 'Heaven Official's Blessings.' The community is vibrant, and many translators pour their hearts into their work. Another great option is Novel Updates, which aggregates links to fan translations across the web. It’s a treasure trove for discovering hidden gems and keeping up with ongoing translations. For those who enjoy historical danmei, sites like Chrysanthemum Garden specialize in high-quality translations of classics like 'The Husky and His White Cat Shizun.' Just remember to support the authors if you can by purchasing official releases later!

I love ‘Shinigami-sama to 4-nin no Kanojo’ for example. This one is a harem-comedy where the main character is a death god. One of the heroines of the story is even a full-blown yandere – Mao tries her best to hide her murdering intentions towards the main character while at the same time trying to get close to him and compete with the other heroines for his love. It’s extremely funny and very silly – lots of over-the-top moments. The humor is always light and therefore it never tries to be scary in any way. You can therefore completely enjoy the yandere-trope as pure funny moments and not get dragged into any kind of in-depth psychological analysis of the yandere. That can be fun too from time to time.

Honestly I just bounce between a few sites depending on the novel. If the MTL is too rough, I usually give up and look for a fan translation instead.

I was just here searching for something. I have a reading list a mile long already, but I wanted to see where this thread went.