CAUTION: REVIEW MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS. READ AT YOUR OWN RISK. Okay I usually write lengthy negative reviews so you may think that I absolutely hated this webtoon with the way Im going to rant about it as follows. However its not a burning hatred its more like a dull pang of disappointment. Anyway on with the review I really really liked Bastard which was a previous work by the same author it was one of the first webtoons Ive ever read. Prior to that I had only read blackandwhite manga so I definitely have fond memories of my first webtoon which opened up a whole new world of media for me to consume. Incidentally my first manga was Fushigi Yuugi. If you asked me which was better Bastard or Sweet Home the latter definitely falls short of its predecessor and Im not saying this just because Im soft on my first webtoon. While the two of them are both thrillers Bastard was neatly wrapped up in a tight little bow of storytelling while Sweet Home imploded due to the lack of focus. And heres why. I enjoyed the first half of Sweet Home immensely where it focuses on pure survival and the arduous daunting task of climbing up or down the floors as the two major expedition parties struggle to meet up in the middle without knowing the other party even existed. It gets the adventurous blood in me pumping Every chapter kept me at the edge of my seat because I couldnt wait to see what new monster theyd have to fight or how close they would get to being killed. But obviously it cant just simply end with them clearing the tower because there would be no real resolution to the ongoing crisis that plagues all of humanity. Its not a video game stage after all although it reminds me of one. It is technically supposed to emulate real life albeit with very extreme apocalyptic circumstances. The people in the building will need to eventually leave because its impossible to stay put in one building for the rest of their lives. Thats where the webtoon goes downhill when the team goes out for the very first time introducing a new gang of characters who swarm in to take over the building. This leads to complete chaos and thats when the excellent suspense and thriller elements are lost because now its not human vs. monster its human vs. human and its just not as exciting to see. While the most wicked and basest of human cruelty can be truly monstrous its just not the same when compared to a real live monster that threatens to rip you apart or impale you. Not to mention all the monsters get nerfed hard. Theyre basically not a real threat anymore because theres too much infighting going on between the humans themselves and none of the other monsters are difficult to beat since the new cast of characters have another halfmonster with them. Thats right the monsters that were previously a crucial part of the story and the key component to the horror atmosphere of the apartment building were reduced to lameass inconsequential mobs. Yes yes while they are still dangerous it doesnt feel as dangerous as they used to be. I can still vividly remember the terror of the monster with no eyes stalking around and the spiderlike one when it evolved because thats when the webtoon was at its best. It captured the utter futility of fighting these almost immortal beings that just come back again and again no matter how many times you knocked them down. Its also worth noting that the new monsters that appear in the later parts of this webtoon lack a certain amount of creativity in both their designs and their powers when compared to the earlier monsters. I can name almost all the early monsters that prowled each floor while the ones that came after are a complete blur since obviously there was no longer a focus on fighting monsters onebyone. Its like when you fight stage bosses in a video game youd remember the difficult fights and youd never remember what mobs you beat up to get there except this was the reverse. You fought a bunch of extremely difficult bosses only to get swarmed by mobs with generic abilities. In the end the remaining humans had to rely on other people becoming monsters themselves to fend off the countless hordes of monsters that came to swarm the building. That was predictable and simply not refreshing to see. Its when a fictional work explores how truly helpless and weak we are that it hits close to home. Turning into a monster just negates all of that development because youre no longer human. That brings me to the most glaring flaw in this webtoon which is the failure to develop deep characters and a subsequently muddled story that was predicably going to suffer as a result. The male lead Hyun is the typical unwilling hero who only becomes a hero because hes special and he can help others in ways no one else could. Specifically his unique ability to resist monsterization which is never explained. Only he is so special that he doesnt turn into a monster while everyone else succumbs to it very quickly besides the other halfmonster who has DID. He doesnt really have a unique personal experience which can explain why he is so resistant to giving in to his desires. He lost his whole family in an car accident but I dont think that this makes him stronger just from this lone tragic incident. They showed that he used to be a nice guy who stood up to bad people but this again doesnt make him so supposedly special because theres lot of average Joes who do that too. In short I have no clue why he is the way he is and he also doesnt have a clue and Im suspecting the author doesnt have a clue either because Hyun is protected by godlike plot armor. Honestly it makes him a typical main character who is difficult to actually like because he doesnt stand out in any other way besides his unique ability and you know hell succeed one way or another. Ultimately it makes his whole journey a bit bland due to him being a stunted character who doesnt develop any true emotional growth or maturity. However its not only Hyun who has this problem. Almost the whole cast of characters are similarly onedimensional. Its like theyre all cups of water with some drops of fruit flavoring added because the only differences between the characters are their backstories. Everyone has a tragic backstory but it feels perfunctorily tacked on and lacks emotional impact. A lot of the flashbacks feel unnecessary because theyre too superficial and both too short and too invasive to the ongoing narrative of the story especially Hyuns flashbacks. Hed be fighting a monster and suddenly there will be a flashback at the most inopportune time. Other characters flashback when theyre about to die. If the characters had spent more time developing their relationships with each other I would have cared more about them but that wasnt remotely touched here. Even easy ones like between the sibling pairs are not shown everyone is either scattered around the building or conveniently offscreen. The only interactions between characters are either when theyre discussing plans or fighting monsters and its impossible to develop emotional bonds during such adrenalinefueled moments. Additionally I didnt like how it never finished exploring the very important concept of monsterization that was brought up leaving lots of questions unanswered about why this was happening why some people turn and some dont why the cocoons were so important that all the monsters came rushing in when just one was destroyed. If they did address it somehow Im afraid it was far too subtle or heavyhanded since the runningoutofdesiretobecomeemotionlessvesselsaftercocoonformation plotline totally went way over my head. I know the author wants to make this some extremely deep exploration of humanity but it didnt really go anywhere. Sometimes the simplest concepts are the best. Also the romance did not work well here. It was understandable in Bastard but completely unnecessary in this webtoon. I did not care for the main couple at all and I dont get why they get to have a happy ending just because Hyun is the main character. Why is it that no one else dies after their apparently successful escape and how come the people in the military zone they wind up in dont turn into monsters too? Would the military zone people accept a former monster such as Hyun even if he is not emotionless like the other hatched cocoon beings? Will the crisis ever end? We will never know. Well Ive complained enough so now its time to address what this webtoon does right. The horror in here is perfect and thats all thanks to the brilliant artwork and panelling of the artist. Every panel drawn in the chase or fight sequences serves a purpose and theres zero waste. Everything adds up to the impending sense of doom and terror that runs through the first half of the story keeping readers on their toes. The monster designs for the first half were memorable and truly horrifying in their own ways. The gore and blood are expertly cut away but its still frighteningly clear what is happening just a ways offscreen. Its really amazing. Im a total wuss when it comes to horror and I hate cheap jumpscares the most. But there wasnt a single cruel jumpscare here and I really appreciated that. Some people really understand how to make a proper horror experience and here is one of them right here. Overall Sweet Home excels at weaving a dreadfilled but suspenseful thread for the first half of the show but it leaves far too many gaping plot holes and inconsistencies in its second half for me to declare this as one of the best webtoons Ive ever read. However it is still quite good even if its not the best and its definitely worth a read. Overall Breakdown: Characters: 6/10 Story: 7/10 Art: 10/10 Lore/Worldbuilding: 7/10 Enjoyment: 10/10