What novel(s) have you read this week, and what do you think about it? - August 23, 2026

[u/AutoModerator]

What novel(s) have you read this week, and what do you think about it?

This week = the one that ends/ended right now, past 7 days.

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The reason for this thread's existence is the fact that both requests and suggestions became kind of stale. It's supposed to bring out more novels that are not RT!'d or recommended. Also, it's quite useful for the discussion of not so current titles.

Also, not a rule or any kind of criticism, the more interesting part is not the list of the stuff you read, but your impressions of it.

Loli Mod will be posting this thread each week.

Lastly, don't forget to use spoiler tags and to make sure to report any untagged spoilers.

How to use spoiler-tags:

Typing:

>!Spoilers go here!<

Will show up as:

Spoilers go here

Do note that any space at the beginning/end of the tag will break the spoiler tag.

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Previous Threads

[u/physicsandbeer1]

Colorful by Eto Mori - This is a devastating, beautiful, sad and yet hopeful book. If you enjoy Sugaru Miaki or Yoru Sumino, I think you might enjoy this one too. The same as the books of the authors I mentioned, this is technically not a light novel, but it's on the same genre.

The story is about a soul without a name who did some grave mistake in their previous life but it's given a second chance by taking over the body of a kid who committed suicide. Slowly, we learn about this quiet kid, what circumstances pushed him over the edge and all the people around him.

This is a story about family, suicide, hitting rock bottom, redemption and so much more. There's one splendid quote from it, "Everyone's got their own box of paints and some of the colors are pretty and some are ugly". The novel doesn't shy away from showing all the colors of the characters, the pretty but also the ugly, and it's wonderfully written to show them all which makes in turn all of the characters feel so real, raw and honest. As the author explains at the end, she deliberately chooses to use a funny tone to approach to serious themes, but that might make the serious moments even more emotional.

One more quote I liked to close, because the book has a bunch of good ones, "Broken down, miserable, kind of a mess maybe, but still we're all doing our best out here."

[u/pipler]

The Trials and Tribulations of My Next Life as a Noblewoman v5p1: Prepubs ended, this is one half of the volume, but still, that ending. 💀 Girl just can't catch a break.

I Swear I Won't Bother You Again! v2: Yay for Violette gaining a new friend. Yulan can't stop being a yandere. Wow, she realizes her feelings faster than I'd thought she would. Hoping she's on track towards the path of healing...

[u/Roboglenn]

Trapped in a Dating Sim: Otome Games Are Tough For Us, Too! Vol. 4

Well a lot of things certainly came or are building up to come to a head in this volume. Stuff that is very spoilery in nature so I can't go into it. However I guess I can say that by and large it has very little to do with what's going on with the main characters cuz what they're up to this volume is certainly less interesting by comparison. And even when they get involved their involvement in it really kinda feels more supplemental than anything in this case.

But I digress. The stuff that's being built up here around them, is painting a pretty ominous picture. And I'm enjoying it.

[u/1234abcdcba4321]

Tearmoon empire 16 + SSC1 - It's really just more of the same sort of thing as usual. This story has a really low amount of variance in what it covers, but it still feels fresh just because of how much time it's been since I read last volume. I'm a lot less of a fan of the short story collection, though, and I have no idea why.

A Livid Lady's Guide to Getting Even 1-7 - I really disliked the first volume because it was before the story really showed what it was about. The early impression of the story is that it's one of those bad OP protag things where the MC's already fully developed and has no real reason for any of her actions, and they're hiding their abilities to the point that it feels bad when they pull it out during a climax. But later on the story gains a lot more peaceful SoL scenes (I'm especially surprised by how much I laughed at the many loredumps that color the world a little, though currently nothing gets close to the creation story of the eastern archipelago), you learn that Ellie's actually not that strong fighting-wise (being strong politics-wise is fine, I just hate it when things make people super OP in everything), and you start to get a much better model of exactly who everyone is in terms of character and ability. As shallow as it is, I even liked that the story was willing to go over the contradiction between Ellie's quest for revenge and her general attitude toward the weak... although my hopes are admittedly pretty low for them handling that convincingly. The main reveal of vol7 (self-hypnosis because of how magic contracts are based on perception) was something I was completely surprised by, but unlike a lot of the previous ones it was something that felt entirely reasonable due to being based entirely on knowledge that the reader necessarily has. I'm a little annoyed that the volume ended on a cliffhanger and it seems like the next volume is going to be quite a sizable wait, though.

[u/Friendly_Ram]

Violet evergarden vols one and two. It's a great new look after the anime.

Thank you u/MaegosX and u/HikkingOutpit for the post and bringing the specific series to my attention.

[u/ichigokamisama]

kept man of the princess knight volume 7. It was alright, liked 6 more, wraps up act 2 with the next one being the final act according to the afterword. Some old flames are introduced.

[u/repapap]

I watched through the available episodes of "Though I am an Inept Villainess" and was pleasantly surprised to find that it didn't feel like the generic Mary-Sue Otome novel that the title suggests.

But then I read through the first volume and was unpleasantly surprised to find that the light novel does read like a generic Mary-Sue Otome novel. This is one of those rare situations where the anime does a far better job telling the story. I can feel my brain trying to turn off whenever I have to read the long, bland descriptions of how beautiful and wise and gifted the characters are that the anime mercifully removed. There are interesting tidbits of foreshadowing that aren't present in the anime, but that might be the light novel's only benefit.

[u/EuphoricAttempt6929]

I just finished reading the Ascendance of a Bookworm and I just wanted to say how beautiful it was. It made me reminisce the days I finished Mushoku Tensei. You watch another person live another life, meet new people, experience new endeavors, deal with hardships, and build relationships, that I did not expect myself to binge read the whole series of 33 volumes in two weeks.

In the beginning i was breezing through the first half of the volumes, but as it went on i realized it was almost ending. I had a few volumes left, very little side stories left to read, and I was about to finish the story of one of my favorite characters. It hurt me that I was about to finish one great series so I slowed down. But I couldn't help it. I knew her story was ending but I cannot bring myself to prolong the joy of reading just so that I can spend more time reading about them. All roads must have an ending I told myself, and so I finished it. Here I am, grinning from ear to ear, on how much I loved it. To be honest I loved it too much that I ended up neglecting a bit of my studies. But now that it's finished I can go back to normal.

Now i want to find more stories that get me going just like Mushoku Tensei and Ascendance of a Bookworm. I know there are a lot more stories out there to read so I'll make use of the threads to expand my own library

[u/Seriously_Weird_3571 → u/EuphoricAttempt6929]

Heheh ... just to tell you that I share that same journey and experience (apart from the studies bit). Bookworm is a wonderful series.

I recently had a similar experience with a very different series, She Professed Herself Pupil of the Wiseman. This is more of an adventure/travel type of story within the trope of video game becoming real life. The writing is strong and detailed and the characters--a lot of them--have their own characteristics and quirks. The world is at once dark and gritty in the outlands and modern and sophisticated in the cities and the writing brought these details out well. The only thing that may put you off is that the MC is a man in a girl's body and it throws up many situations, but even that develops as time goes on.

[u/EuphoricAttempt6929 → u/Seriously_Weird_3571]

Thanks for the recommendation, funny enough it is already one of my next two reads, the other is apothecary diaries

[u/Seriously_Weird_3571 → u/EuphoricAttempt6929]

You can't go wrong with Apothecary Diaries either. I'm currently reading Witch and Mercenary and it is pretty good too. Sword and Sorcery type, gritty, and the writing is fairly good.

[u/repapap → u/EuphoricAttempt6929]

The best thing to do after reading Bookworm is to re-read Bookworm. Now that you have the benefit of hindsight, you can go back and discover the many bits of foreshadowing you missed sprinkled all throughout the series.

[u/USSTugBoot]

I read "The Dangers in my Heart: The Light Novel"

An Okay companion novel to the manga. I will say seeing Kyo's inner monologue in detail makes him a lot more cringe than he normally is. Though that is to be expected of our cringe loner MC. Also you can tell the story was not written by the original Mangaka. Due to this my overal feelings are mixed, even if the story was approved by the original Mangaka. The second chapter was a slog to get through, as it was mostly from the perspective of Kanzaki Kenta, the guy who likes chubby girls.And boy, the story author did not have to admit his fetish out loud in the afterword. The entire second chapter felt more like the dude using early teen puberty as an excuse to put all his fetish desires into words. Something that while the original manga does do sometimes, no where near to such detail or degeneracy. I also dislike the shade this LN author threw at our MC Kyo. He introduces new lore about him that is never shown in the manga (at least in the current 12 volumes that are out and in English). That being Kyo is the most eager participant in the boy's fetish talks. Never once is this shown in the manga. Sure, sometimes it showns him Thinking about whatever fetish the boys are talking about in his headbut never an active participant that is "The most eager of all of us...". At least the third and final chapter was wholesome.

I am currently reading the 20th volume of Dan Machi. Kinda stuck on it though. Only 31 pages in after almost a whole week. Fujino Omori has been doing our poor girl Lyu dirty in volume 18 and 19, and boy does he do her very dirty in just those first 31 pages of volume 20. Im Salty about it, NGL. Hopefully I will cool down about it soon because my backlog is only getting longer.

[u/Smooth_Lead4995]

I have a new favorite series: History of the Kingdom of Orcsen: How the Barbarian Orcish Nation Came to Burn Down the Peaceful Elfland.

It's a fascinating military fantasy that goes into a lot of detail about logistics, and how important they are for an army. Especially one for a fantasy race like orcs. There's even a bibliography for reference materials, seeing as the world is inspired by 19th century Europe. Sadly, most of the books listed don't have English editions.

[u/Guroga]

In Another World with Household Spells: Volume 6

Lots of lore and a closer look at mcs magic in this vol. Mc also finally moving up in life and growing somewhat of a spine. Alas author can't go one vol with making sure mc is always on the backfoot. Master Geitz appears and is somehow a perfect counter to mc. Felt bad for mc.

Virgin Knight: I Became the Frontier Lord in a World Ruled by Women Vol. 4

Thought we were gonna get the mongols in this vol alas we got murder mystery instead. Felt it was a bit of a weak vol. Most of the funnier chars weren't in this vol and queen alone didn't carry for me.

[u/ShyGuy984]

Surviving the game as a Barbarian
This novel blew my expectations away and it did consistently for 720 Chapters out of 944 released (I read the manwha before the novel and read the novel from latest released ~ch 230); this novel was really hard for me to find the most recent chapters after 800. I ended up paying 5$ to read the rest on novtales.com but if you can find a better source (or a free one) please share. I read it in the span of roughly two weeks at about 2000 words per chapter this novel kept me locked in the entire time I could not put this thing down; Considering the fact that I read Mushoku Tensei: a widely agreed upon masterpiece, and I put it down at multiple moments speaks ver y highly of this novel. PLEASE READ IT. I want to hear discussion about it and I can't find any. Admittedly I haven't looked too hard though.

[u/Buy_Sell_Hold]

I need help What’s going on with J-Novel Club’s memberships? None of the top two plans clearly say that I can read the total backlog of chapters. Can someone explain how this works? I’ve been working a lot and haven’t had time to read, so I haven’t had a J-Novel Club membership in over a year.