Do you want to read a book but want to ask about the plot first to make sure you won’t be disappointed?
Or did you particularly like/hate a plot twist and need to scream about it into the void?
This is the tread for you! Make sure to keep you spoiler hidden, though, so that people only get spoiled on purpose. For now, the only method is to use a dropdown (potentially multiple in a row if you want to hide multiple levels of spoilers). Example:
The idea for this thread came from this discussion, especially since I didn’t want to derail more the original thread.
Here we go, then.
(Edit: I already mentioned the basic premise in the other thread)
悪食令嬢と狂血公爵
So, the first volume focuses on the count trying to get her to become his fiancee, despite the opposition of her father. On the surface, the problem is that
she has a bad public reputation, as it is known she eats magical beast meat, which goes against the precepts of the main local religion
the count has a reputation of being a bloodthirsty killing machine (due to his role as the leader of the army corps in charge of magical beast extermination).
That being said, since he is generating a lot of dead magical beasts while his people are having trouble getting enough food, even politically, that marriage is invaluable to him.
The real reason why the father is against the marriage
The titular 悪食令嬢 has a lot of arcane magical knowledge, which she got from the teachings of her dead mother (as well as her research notes), plus further research on her own. It focuses on a type of magic that has, a long time ago, fallen out of favor due to difficulty of usage. However, her mother made some crazy advances in that field, and so did her. She is using that magic simply to prepare the magical beasts and thus make them edible (otherwise, you’d get sick eating that kind of meat, which is why it became culturally frown upon), but she can use it for a variety of things, including offense. It’s like she has the knowledge to build atomic bombs when everyone else is at the technological level of bows and arrows.
Her father and the count realize that and both want to keep that for themselves. That being said, I think they both care about her and just don’t want that magic (and rumors of that magic) to spread.
Volume 2
The father is finally (a bit forcibly) convinced to let her go with the count and, after some traveling, they get to his fortress. The volume features a mix of them dating (?) and fights against magical beasts.
I read those novels together with the anime when that one aired. I theme went on to read up to the then newest volume 9. Compared to manga I haven’t that many novels, so that’s actually the bulk of my Japanese novel reading experience.
I’ve bought the newest volume (10). But I don’t think I’ll read it because I in the time I spend thinking about the series in between the release of volume 9 and 10 I have cover to hate the series. Maybe it’s not completely fair to the series, but I’ve become really negatives about it.
People say it’s a slow burn romance. But after having read 9 volumes I feel confident in saying that no actual burning takes place. In fact, the fuse seems longer than at the start.
Yes, they “get together”. But that really feels like it’s because the MC has nothing else to do with her time or maybe she feels sorry for her partner.
And then there are glimpses of possible conflicts or plot points that just never get any continuation. Instead we get AU (alternative universe) and flash forwards (the canon status of which is uncertain) short stories that cement that even as adults, no progress in their relationship or any character development took place.
When reading, it seems like both characters seem to have obvious “flaws” in their personality. And you’d expect them to grow in certain ways. But that’s never happening. I guess it’s important to have stories about kinds of personalities without presenting those as flawed. I love it when introversion is presented as something that’s part of a character, not a flaw to overcome. But in this case I just can’t relate. And if the story isn’t about character growth it lacks something else to be about.
I’m not planning to read that series, so I went ahead and checked the spoilers for
安達としまむら
God, I hate those so much. Like, why am I even reading the book, if I am being told that nothing will happen later either . That happened in another series I read, but “at least” it was the epilogue of the whole series. 10 years later, they are still in the will-they-won’t-they state. Great, thanks I hate it.
Edited to add: he only found out when he came to formalize their betrothal with her father.
Also, some more stuff I like
They are actually really cute together and they really like to geek about magical beasts (while the general population find them scary and/or disgusting).
On the political front, the Count (I should try to remember his name ) is also mistrusted on the political level because (by necessity) his army is made of elite seasoned soldiers who could just steamroll the rest of the kingdom if they wanted to. I wonder what will happen if people learn he might have weapons of mass destruction
Sometimes I read spoilers of books I assume I won’t read and other times I read them way in advance of whenever I’d read the book and trust my weak memory to throw away the info ahead of time
Like @cat, I read spoilers of books I wouldn’t read anyway. Also, it’s fun to complain about stuff. Like, this time around, I would complain about the plot of 獣人隊長の(仮)婚約事情 but I can’t even be bothered. Oh, I guess I could mention it involves borderline non consensual stuff between a 13 years old girl and a 25 years old guy.
It took me almost two months to read because I just kept rage quitting. The only reason I didn’t throw it away is that I paid for it…
Anyway, I’m now going to move on to better stuff (hopefully)
I was going to wait until I was done reading the whole thing, but anyway, here’s my favorite retort in 草魔法師クロエ (so far)
(Note that it’s from the free なろう version, it might not be in the published version, or it might have been edited; also, it loses a lot of impact out of context, but still)
Summary
This exchange is between the queen, who’s trying to get the main character (クロエ) to get betrothed to the first prince, and said main character.
Let’s bring this thread back, I’m feeling this mood.
So I’m a little over half way through 天使の傷痕 | L33 and I’m trying my best to finish it before October so I’ve been racing through it after setting it aside for awhile and oh my, the plot has gotten juicy.
So to recap the intro / plot - a news reporter and his girlfriend (soon to be fiancee) go for a walk in the woods and while they’re there a man stumbles out in front of them with a dagger in his chest, he dies dramatically, but not before gasping out ‘テン’ on his dying breath. Good stuff already.
Now the spoilers:
Ok so first they thought the てん was for 天使・エンジェル and they found all these pics of this girl in the dude’s apartment. One of the cops happened to frequent a strip club where coincidentally that girl danced. They interviewed her, she had no alibi, and while tailing her to make sure she didn’t flee town she died in a car accident.
Next they came across info that the dead man used to frequent a 水商売 type bar called 天使 and the ママ of that bar he was leading on to believe he’d marry her. Surely she was the suspect! But they couldn’t find much there and they knew the dead guy had been extorting women so they chased in that direction. Ok well a woman who was not either of these first two ladies deposited 二十万円 into his bank account and signed some slip so they’ve got a handwriting sample. Also they found a undeveloped photo of a lady in a kimono in his apartment vaguely labeled ABC but because it’s a shot from behind they can’t identify the lady.
Oh also, amidst all this the 管理人 for the dead dude’s apartment dies in an apparent suicide that is probably murder and the news reporter has evidence of this so he barters that with the police for what they have found out. He gets to see the bank stuff and has a crisis because he realizes the account and branch match up to an unusual note he found in his girlfriend’s apartment. He’d thought it was a coded telephone number and was in crisis about her maybe cheating on him but now he’s like ‘maybe she’s a murderer?’.
Like I said, good stuff.
Anyways he traces her banking info and days off work (side note: I know it’s 1960s Japan but the idea that the bank and your job would just willy nilly give out that information is wild) and determines that she was the woman making the deposit which means she was likely being extorted as well. But for what?!
I just ended a chapter where he went and rummaged through her apartment while she wasn’t there, then bumped into her at the train station. They went to get coffee and he realizes that one of the cops has been tailing him. Whoopsy!
So now I’m intrigued to know what 昌子 (girlfriend) was being extorted for, who that woman is (wrong age to be the same person, but maybe her older sister who she went to visit on her day off?!), and why there is a picture of a doll on the front cover and what is this “angel’s scar”.
I’m so intrigued I could burst.
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. That happened in another series I read, but “at least” it was the epilogue of the whole series. 10 years later, they are still in the will-they-won’t-they state. Great, thanks I hate it.
) is also mistrusted on the political level because (by necessity) his army is made of elite seasoned soldiers who could just steamroll the rest of the kingdom if they wanted to. I wonder what will happen if people learn he might have weapons of mass destruction 
