Shinigami wo Tabeta Shoujo

TL;Dr: I like the novel, but it has some hiccups at the beginning. Nice ending and some adult storytelling. NO SPOILER SECTION: Why should you read this novel? First and foremost (as a rarity among LNs/WNs) the story is complete and has a satisfying ending. The concepts in this world are very grounded in reality with a low fantasy aspect for it being a classical Medieval Fantasy world. Some plot twists are good, and the ending especially really got me thinking. What problems could you have with this novel? At the beginning the author starts right into the action, without the reader knowing whats going on, followed by ahuge info dump with names, Locations and the history of the whole land. While world building is good and appreciated, it happens too fast. I was pretty confused up until half of the novel which place is which, what army is fighting whom, and why i should care. In addition, the main character is very shallow, and gets often reduced to "i am a small girl that wants to eat and can fight good". You basically dont have any character development on her during the whole series. the side characters are more fleshed out. All in all a recommendation to read, if you can survive the beginning first chapters. I have enjoyed it alot. LIGHT SPOILER SECTION (WONT GO INTO PLOT TWISTS AND CENTRAL EVENTS, BUT DONT READ THIS IF YOU WANT TO GO BLIND) Some additional critic. The concept of "Demons" and "Monsters" is never really explained. In addition we have a "B-plot" with a heroine that gets revived? reincarnated? reawakend? who only appears for one chapter and is never mentioned again, she served purely as a plot device for our MC to learn that she can eat demons (which never appear again, except once). The concept of magic is not really explained, it is used sparingly (which can be good), but you have no rules. For example you have a Necromancer who can raise corpses and explodes them (but nothing more?) and only 2 at a time, but she can do this infinitely?

What I love about this novel: 1. It is beautifully written! The title is literally what the story is about, a girl who ate a grim reaper-like existence and is now immortal. The flow of the plot from battles to character development to inner thoughts is perfectly paced. 2. The complex characters have serious yet soft moments. Because the MC has a bit of a twisted character due to her childhood experiences, that doesn't stop her from cherishing her subordinates/friends. The relationship/loyalty between the MC and subordinates that develop over the courseof survival/battles is poignant yet tragic. The feels are real. 3. Because of how complex yetsimple the MC is, it is easy to sympathize and understand the MC's train of thoughts. Since the story revolves a life-or-death atmosphere, the atmosphere goes from light to tense back and The only issue I had with the novel is the ending. I found it a bit too open ended, so it felt unsatisfying. Overall, instead of going through a roller coaster, the story was more of a drop tower coaster type of feel. The build up moment was exciting and the drop down moment was just as exciting, but after everything is over, you're kind of left with a bittersweet feeling.

I enjoyed this story, it is by far a lot closer to being a regular book, which means its written better than most light novels. I didnt like that the main character didnt really seem to progress much during the story. She remained pretty much the exact same throughout and I think that is a big missed opportunity. The side characters do progress some. You can track the affect the MC had on others in the story but the villains werent really fleshed out, well none of the characters were too much. This mostly consists of running from basttle to battle with time skips, and there wasnt anytension since the book tells you how everything turns out like 2 chapters in.

Well, that was a disappointment. The concept isn’t bad. In fact, I’d say the concept is the best part of this novel. Unfortunately that means if you read the summary you’re already past the best part this novel has to offer. The story takes place during a war. However, the story fails to provide the reader to cheer or even care about any of the sides. Beyond a very generic setting of “kingdom vs. rebels”, the reasons of the conflict isn’t given much thought. The sides lack characterization and in fact I frequently lost track of which character belongs to which side because of this. Theaction scenes are not engaging. Don't expect any grand strategies being employed. More importantly, they lack stakes. Why is that so? Because no matter what is the strength or numbers of the enemy, the protagonist eventually emerges victorious. Quite effortlessly even. Yes, the protagonist, I’d say that is the main problem. She kind of… lacks character. She eats, she fights, she devours. The cycle repeats. There is zero character development of someone that has no real character in a first place, so that’s a bummer. In a way, she rarely even gets a prolonged screentime though, so no wonder. Most of side characters feel like they have more depth than Shera, the main character. The fun of reading about a psychopathic war criminal character protagonist is to observe their train of thoughts, but here the situation is closer to “no thoughts head empty”. Finally, the “morale” of the story, a.k. the last chapter attempting to give the story any meaning. “War bad”, “both sides of war bad”, “history is bound to repeat”, “history I written by winners”… not really the most original conclusion of all time. Sure, those themes can be written in an interesting way, but here they are too straightforwardly and unsubtly mentioned it really feels like more of an afterthought than something that permeates the whole story. Overall, just read Saga of Tanya the Evil instead.