Savage Garden by Hyeon Sook Lee- Volume 7-complete
Gabriel is an orphan who impersonates her friend, Jeremy in an all-boy boarding school in England set in the 18th-ish century. But this is not your usual gender bender. We are all too familiar with all the tricks involved in gender bender titles where the boys are unaware of the protagonist's true sexual identity in the likes of Hana Kimi, You're Beautiful and Sungkyunkwan Scandal etc. But this one takes all the fun elements then spins it with dramatic and darker flair. There's also mature and BL themes. Not for kiddies.
It's been a while since I have read a really good manga (it's actually manhwa, but I'll be referring it as manga for generalization), thus it's getting harder and harder for me to pick up one nowadays. But this one restored my faith in reading mangas again. The plot is not perfect and there are a lot of loose ends but it's addicting that I read this in one go. I missed the feeling of having this urge to read it really fast to know what happens next and you get caught up in their world and after you finished it, it becomes a part of you. I hate it when you root for a character to develop into something more but the mangaka tries to distract you with other characters. And once you finally take the bait and notice the other guy, the mangaka will snatch it away like a candy to a baby. When you finally started to care about that character the mangaka will tear your heart to pieces. I rooted for the wrong guy...again.
There are also some characters that were introduced and weren't fully explored. There's a lot of good background for the other characters but I feel like at the last minute it was ditched or the editor didn't like where it was going and it was just left there. What a waste. The drawings are incomplete at times but overall, I find myself mesmerized with the art style.
I hated how it ended. I wished it was a happier ending but after the denial and mourning stages I have accepted the the imperfections and the pain. If it had ended differently, it would have been just another forgettable shoujo manga.