my friend read the novel and yes, unfortunately, all you've mentioned above about the novel is true..
the atmosphere in the novel is much more darker, gruesome, and explicit which probably is why the manhwa is now rated as "shounen ai" to lessen the impact.
and about Karas.. let's just say he becomes the typical obsessed red flag who forces himself to Abel when Abel is yet to be sure whether his feeling is romantic or not (i said this bcs my friend said it is actually stated that Abel is scared when Karas approached him to do the R rated stuffs).
Hopefully it’s not that bad in manhwa ToT
The story itself started really interesting tho. I remember I got so hooked when I first read this and go around looking for novel. Then I got warned by the comments there haha. Thank you for confirming. I’ll see how this turns out, tho I won’t expect too much.
I was the same as you XD I planned to read the novel as well bcs it's SamK, it bounds to be entertaining, but also unhinged at the same time,, but then my friend went ahead of me on reading it, bombarded me with all the things happened there, and in the end literally said "let's just wait for the manhwa."
so, yeah, let's just wait for the manhwa ( ̄∇ ̄")
Not sure if it’ll turn out good I saw someone saying that Karas is a red flag even after knowing he is Abel (based on the novel) the reason why I didn’t start the novel.
But do tell me if I am wrong please. If the original story is somewhat depressing, hopefully in this manhwa it’ll be a better adaptation.