he got his coloring from ash but that's about it lol.
also, take away the wrinkles and that's literally nathaniel. the artist def got that right.
Title: Run Away If You Can / 런 어웨이 이프 유 캔
Status: Completed
Uncensored: Explicit Uncensored
Year: 2025
Chapters: 114
Language: Korean (available in English)
Spice: 🌶️🌶️
Flag: 🚩
Rating: 6.5/10
I had pretty low expectations going into this one because I read multiple reviews that said it was kinda disappointing and felt very rushed. Having read this for myself now, I can confidently say that yes, all the criticism I’ve read regarding this novel is unfortunately correct. ZIG herself has said that RAIYC has many shortcomings that she plans to correct in the side stories.
Having said that however, this was easily one of my favorite ZIG novels. I absolutely loved Chrissy Jean from the very start. What can I say? I’m a sucker for sharp-tongued bottoms that don’t let no asshole top walk all over them. I loved his vicious temper, his cunning, and how firm he was about his convictions. I also liked how willing he was to walk (or run away from) Nathaniel. He did not put up with that man’s crap unless it benefitted him in some way and I love him for that.
Now… Nathaniel. I really liked him at first. I adored his banter with Chrissy, and I absolutely loved how Nathaniel’s polite, well-spoken, but utterly ruthless personality contrasted with the rough but kind-hearted Chrissy Jean. The problem with Nathaniel is that the story progressed, but his character did not. In fact, it became abundantly clear that his character wasn’t fleshed out properly. In the LMUIYC extras, Ariel says that Nathaniel reminds her of Dominic, and I think that becomes a major unspoken conflict in RAIYC. A certain event (spoilers for that below) felt like it was shoehorned in solely to up the stakes and make the readers fear that Nathaniel would turn out to be just like his grandfather, and that Chrissy might end up like Ashley Juliette. When we finally get Nathaniel’s POV following that event, we are reassured that Nooo! He isn’t like Dominic after all! We are given a flimsy excuse for his behavior and we move right on. It honestly felt like ZIG was so focused on the Nathaniel/Dominic parallels that she forgot to make Nathaniel his own person. And just to be clear, I’m not saying that Nathaniel’s just Dominic 2.0 or that she should’ve cut the Nathaniel/Dominic parallels entirely (I actually really enjoyed the chess scene). I’m just saying that Nathaniel was a very interesting character at the start of the novel, and sure, we didn’t really know him that well yet, but that didn’t matter because the story is from Chrissy’s POV, and he hadn’t gotten to know Nathaniel yet. The problem is that as the novel progressed, we should’ve really gotten to know who Nathaniel is. Instead, we just got “oh he’s his grandfather’s flesh and blood alrigh- SIKE! Don’t worry guys he’s actually better lol.
>!Like, maybe it’s just me but forcing Chrissy to act like a dog just felt pointless. It did nothing for the plot or characterization whatsoever. It just made the readers nervous. !<
Now that we’re done with our leads, let’s move on to plot and pacing. So. I actually did like the reveals, esp since I found the original murder mystery to be pretty boring. The main problem I had was the execution; the ending was super rushed, so we were left with some unanswered questions. Likewise, the relationship development was also rushed. 85% of the novel was spent on the banter-mind game-courtship phase, and then all of a sudden, we’re hit with a love confession. >!And while I do like Nathaniel confessing at the police station, that way way too sudden.!< I also felt like this rapid development lobotomized Chrissy a bit. There’s this scene where Chrissy thinks about how his behavior was “disrespectful” and “outrageous” and says that his prejudice blinded him… Chrissy what are you saying Chrissy look at me this isn’t you. >!This man attempted to blind you with a cigarette on your second meeting and tried to rape you on the third you had EVERY right to behave the way you did. Hell, you should’ve been worse. !<
And then there’s then end… >!Nathaniel discovers who the Child of the Moon is and doesn’t bother sharing this information with Chrissy. He doesn’t discuss anything with him despite this being a very personal and sensitive topic for Chrissy. He just goes and kills that mf. And while I love that he died the way he did, I wish Chrissy was more involved here. And we never learned what happened to the detective either, which is kind of a huge blunder considering his disappearance is one of the main things that brought Chrissy and Nathaniel together in the first place. !<
Phew this is getting long. One last thing. I love how enthused Chrissy was when they fucked at the end (I love when bottoms take initiative) but I wish we got to see more of them being domestic together because we didn’t really get a clear idea of what their dynamic is like now that they’re in a relationship.
Despite my many complaints, I really, really enjoyed this one. Hell, I’d even go as far as to say it’s one of my top 3 ZIG novels. I wasn’t sure what rating to put down because enjoyment-wise, I’d give it a 9/10 but that’s a very subjective rating that doesn’t take RAIYC’s many flaws into account so 6.5 it is. I definitely feel like this is one of those novels that just can’t be rated. It’s also hard to talk about the things I enjoyed, such as a scene where Nathaniel kisses Chrissy’s fingers while he’s asleep (I was internally squealing when I read that) because small details like that just don’t belong in a review yk? But I fear my review ended up coming off as quite complain-y as a result. Whoops.
I’d love to yap more about RAIYC so if there’s anything y’all wanna discuss just hmu!
