So, this was a straightforward light horror story. It was fun to read for sure, but it didn’t really have that menacing atmosphere I was looking for.
As an aside, I seem to frequently come across books about urban legends, and people who doubt them (this story was one of them). It seems to be a popular theme. Usually it’s from the mystery side, where the urban legend and “real” ghost stories have a rational explanation, but the reverse is also true.
So I looked at this more carefully, and read several reviews (yours included), and it looks really interesting actually! It’s now on my list, and I may get to it sooner rather than later, because I’m sure the sound of real-life cicadas will add to the enjoyment.
Well I wouldn’t have even made it in the first place had he included “no BL” as a requirement since he knows for a fact that, just like with fan service, he’s never going to read anything with more than minimal. There’s really no difference between deleting a completely unnecessary rec and not even making a completely unnecessary rec
Meanwhile, I was idly browsing the Horror category and thought I might have found a book that could fit what I’m looking for, and then I looked up the author and found out about animal cruelty, not even in fiction, but in real life.
So yeah, that’s out.
But by that logic, if someone looks through the recommendations based on what was asked for, they may be okay with BL, even if it turns out the original poster was not.
For this specific instance, I didn’t see your rec, but I wouldn’t mind a 4 koma BL, so you can just recommend it to me instead
in fact, just feel free to recommend me any BL, manga or not.
If you like ghosts and BL tease さんかく窓の外側は夜 1 | L29 was a lot of fun. The live action movie adaptation unfortunately took out a lot of the BL-ness but they did deliver well on the ghost front.
About the first one I’m adding a link, there was a voiced promotion when the second volume came out and I think it’ll give a much better representation of this then anything I will write here
The second one is pretty famous, I know plenty of manga readers who want to/have already read this. From my experience even non-BL readers enjoy this one, it’s a good manga.
It’s about Yoshiki, who one day finds that his friend Hikaru is not actually “Hikaru”, but rather a monster that took over his corpse.
(when I tried looking for a manga trailer I found more then a couple but they all contain spoilers for some reason so not adding here)
The third one is interesting!!! it’s one of my favorites!
it’s about a bullied gay teenager who one day finds that his head turned into a monster head. He kind of has to navigate his own feelings and peoples reaction to it around him and etc.
It kinda explores on feelings of LGBTQA+ alienation and being afraid and different reactions of people around you etc in a fantasy-like situation kind of stuck in the middle of what is supposed to be his “normal daily life”.
Does anyone have recommendations for books about WW2 from the Japanese perspective? Both fiction (as long as it’s historically accurate) and non fiction is fine. Also I would prefer if it focused on the military rather than civilians. I haven’t been able to find anything like this in English probably because nobody wants to write about it since they were the enemies. But I assume there must be something in Japanese. Thanks.
永遠の0 | L35 is pretty classic in the sense that it was wildly popular for a time before the author decided to start getting in twitter 炎上s. Has a well produced audiobook as well.
It’s fiction but seems reasonably well researched from my non-historian perspective, and it focuses mostly on kamikaze forces and how soldiers viewed being put in that group.
I actually don’t like war novels typically but I enjoyed it.
Just adding some recommendations as reply to my request. I have read those already, but maybe it will help someone?
蜘蛛ですが、なにか? (series) | L33Some fan service, but it’s bearable. Line goes up hard, nearly no romance. In terms of the overall series, I’d give it 7/10 (starts strong, finishes weak)
悪役令嬢レベル99 (series) | L30 No fan service. Line goes up somehow, but leveling/grinding is all done off screen, with the focus being on comedy (and romance in the first volume). I really liked the first volume (which was aimed to be a complete story) but the rest was a bit weaker (the author is obviously trying hard to come up with new ideas to keep the ball rolling). I still like it, though. 9/10 for the first volume, 7.5/10 for the rest.
転移先は薬師が少ない世界でした (series) | L29 A lot of nice buff dudes (so, fan service in the direction I was asking about). Line does go up too. Sadly no real plot so far, which makes the story a bit boring.
草魔法師クロエの二度目の人生 (series) | L29 That was generally okay, I think? I read it like one year ago and can’t really remember the details. It’s interesting in the sense that the character is reincarnated in her younger body rather than being reincarnated into another world. So, she doesn’t have overtech knowledge from our world, she just has some idea of what the future in universe will be. (Also, she was treated like garbage during her first life because she has one of the weakest types of magic, but the second time around she just level up like crazy + creative usage making it strong anyway)
It was nothing special, though. I vaguely remember some romance? Her (adoptive) brother has a thing for her too. Let’s say 7/10
I read some more stuff that fits the description, but I would not recommend them, so… I won’t.
Just curious, but are there any isekai that you loved other than 本好き? You seem to read a lot from that genre, but I usually see your comments saying they range from okay to bad.
It depends where you put the line on what an isekai is.
I love 悪食令嬢と狂血公爵 ~その魔物、私が美味しくいただきます!~ (series) | L32 but it’s technically just fantasy (the main character isn’t reincarnated).
Not to the point of 本好き, but I also enjoy サイレント・ウィッチ (series) | L29 (new volume came out today, too!) but that’s also “just” fantasy, despite having the isekai aesthetic.
聖女の魔力は万能です (series) | L29 has some great moments, but it’s diluted by too much random fluff (so… I guess it’s just “okay” overall, but I do enjoy it a lot at times).
There’s the first volume of the level 99 令嬢 I was talking about in my previous post, too.
Edit: that being said, that is a very poor interesting to trash ratio… I do like the concept of isekai, though, which is why I keep trying, but I guess I could use some help at this point.
This one might be a bit broad, but I would like some more high-paced, tense science fiction and fantasy novels of any description. Stories with high stakes (that are believable - if I don’t think the author will actually follow through it doesn’t matter how much danger the characters think they’re in…), where conflict drives the story, and where there are no big infodumps, pointless cooking scenes, etc. Preferably short and to the point - I just don’t have much patience when reading in Japanese.
Closest recommendation I have is 魔法少女育成計画 | L36. Not sure if it hits enough of your criteria to work. It’s been years since I read this first volume in the series, but it definitely matches in some ways. Conflict certainly drives the story and the stakes are real. I don’t remember if there are infodumps. I’d guess it only becomes high paced about halfway through, but again I don’t really remember.
in fact, just feel free to recommend me any BL, manga or not.
Adding another BL recc that I just started reading because it’s really cute and wholesome so far!
it’s called おじさんがなぜか可愛い。and it’s completely free to read! (by chapter)
@Biblio since you didn’t enjoy ババンババンバンバンパイア I hope this recc will make up for it
Thank you. 
