Atonement, For Your Cruelty

Explores themes of familial legacy, loyalty/trust, family(blood & found), and, of course, atonement of several generations.

Highlight: The Wolf Family Favorite character dynamics: Thebes & Simon(enemies/rivals), Thebes & Abel(bullying"pretty boy" lol), Raon & Abel(troubled flirt > devoted knight)

ML's insecurities and approach to love were learned through his parents' screwed-up relationship(RIP Ernst, wish he poured his love on someone else or communicated with Charlotte... not that that would change anything because Charlotte is a Bch). At the same time, the FL has similar insecurities, so they match one another's needs? Either way, nice couple & ML does go through a rough time after the sht he does to the FL.

All the villains of this novel get what's coming to them, some more poetically than others. Charlotte's is emotionally brutal. Peter's is physically brutal.

The atonement & its cruelty likely refers to Ernst, since it kicks off the novel's story and his letter(which literally says "This is my atonement"). It can also refer to Raon/Peter's atonement's cruelty on the people around them(where even her father and mother's healing from Peter's sins are met with Peter's cruelty & Raon's path to atonement reveals the cruelty of her grandma, Ernst, Ernst's living family, and Peter). There are other atonements in the novel, but the last one I'll highlight is Countess Jerome's at the end.