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 I'm going to rant about it as follows. However, it's not a burning hatred, it's 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 I've ever read. Prior to that, I had only read black-and-white 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 I'm not saying this just because I'm 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 here's 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 couldn't wait to see what new monster they'd have to fight, or how close they would get to being killed. But obviously, it can't just simply end with them clearing the tower, because there would be no real resolution to the ongoing crisis that plagues all of humanity. It's 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 it's impossible to stay put in one building for the rest of their lives.

That's 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 that's when the excellent suspense and thriller elements are lost, because now it's not human vs. monster, it's human vs. human, and it's just not as exciting to see. While the most wicked and basest of human cruelty can be truly monstrous, it's 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. They're basically not a real threat anymore, because there's too much in-fighting going on between the humans themselves, and none of the other monsters are difficult to beat, since the new cast of characters have another half-monster with them. That's 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 lame-ass inconsequential mobs. Yes, yes, while they are still dangerous, it doesn't 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 spider-like one when it evolved, because that's 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. It's 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 one-by-one. It's like when you fight stage bosses in a video game, you'd remember the difficult fights, and you'd 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. It's 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 you're 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 he's 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 doesn't turn into a monster, while everyone else succumbs to it very quickly, besides the other half-monster, who has DID. He doesn't 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 don't 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 doesn't make him so supposedly special, because there's lot of average Joes who do that too. In short, I have no clue why he is the way he is, and he also doesn't have a clue, and I'm suspecting the author doesn't have a clue either, because Hyun is protected by god-like plot armor. Honestly, it makes him a typical main character who is difficult to actually like, because he doesn't stand out in any other way besides his unique ability, and you know he'll succeed, one way or another. Ultimately, it makes his whole journey a bit bland, due to him being a stunted character who doesn't develop any true emotional growth or maturity.

However, it's not only Hyun who has this problem. Almost the whole cast of characters are similarly one-dimensional. It's like they're 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 they're too superficial, and both too short and too invasive to the ongoing narrative of the story, especially Hyun's flashbacks. He'd be fighting a monster and suddenly there will be a flashback, at the most inopportune time. Other characters flashback when they're 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 wasn't remotely touched here. Even easy ones like between the sibling pairs are not shown, everyone is either scattered around the building or conveniently off-screen. The only interactions between characters are either when they're discussing plans or fighting monsters, and it's impossible to develop emotional bonds during such adrenaline-fueled moments.

Additionally, I didn't 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 don't, why the cocoons were so important that all the monsters came rushing in when just one was destroyed. If they did address it somehow, I'm afraid it was far too subtle or heavy-handed, since the running-out-of-desire-to-become-emotionless-vessels-after-cocoon-formation plotline totally went way over my head. I know the author wants to make this some extremely deep exploration of humanity, but it didn't 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 don't 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 don't 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, I've complained enough, so now it's time to address what this webtoon does right. The horror in here is perfect, and that's all thanks to the brilliant artwork and panelling of the artist. Every panel drawn in the chase or fight sequences serves a purpose, and there's 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 it's still frighteningly clear what is happening just a ways off-screen. It's really amazing. I'm a total wuss when it comes to horror, and I hate cheap jumpscares the most. But there wasn't 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 dread-filled 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 I've ever read. However, it is still quite good, even if it's not the best, and it's definitely worth a read.

Overall Breakdown:
Characters: 6/10
Story: 7/10
Art: 10/10
Lore/Worldbuilding: 7/10
Enjoyment: 10/10