Comment by Add86 on IVAN IS ALIVE.

@IVAN IS ALIVE. It is A LOT of ra** in this story, but in the novel I didn't have the feeling it was romanticised at all. Taekjoo doesn't fall for Zhenia's behavior and he does NOT get used to the ra**. He continues to search for escape routes even if they endanger his life. BUT both characters come to understand one another. Taekjoo comes to see Zhenya as a person, not only the monster he was raised to be, and Zhenya slowly starts to understand compassion (and the fear of loosing someone important to him) and that he doesn't NEED to be a monster all the time (he can be vulnerable around a trusted person).