The Maiden Called Hero or Monster

Considerable improvement over the author’s previous work. This time we get an interesting world setting and, most importantly, characters that feel like actual people. It’s exactly the characters that carry this novel. Not just the protagonist but also the people around her. Each of these has a multi-layered personality with more to it than just one quirk. Indeed, they are believably crafted humans and behave as people would. This is most visible on how the novel deals with grief. Grief is one of the major themes, but it’s not ever present. It’s not brooded over, it’s not dwelled on and unnecessarily dragged for content – moreoften it gets waved off by the characters. Coping with the grief as actual people and not soap opera characters would is what this novel gets right, and it’s thanks to this the story mixes drama and fun adventure so well. The main character group chemistry is simply amazing, with the opposing personalities teasing each other while also banding together with real friendship. These characters develop through interactions with other, get influenced by them and influence them in return. Another thing this novel does so well is how it writes its overpowered protagonist. This is because despite the enormous and absurd physical abilities miles above any other character, it’s the mental state that is important for the story. If anything, it explores how taxing it can be to have the responsibility of heroism. And not in the cringy “I must hide my true strength from everyone” cliché kind of way, thankfully. That said, even through the psychological state plays a big role, we still get plenty of cool action scenes. The actions scenes are also of interest as they are written and described so well you can really see the scene unfolding. Lot of light novels can get confusing when reading longer action scenes, but this is not one of those. I also really appreciate the pacing. Every moment moves the story. There is no time wasted, but it also doesn’t feel rushed – the pacing is beautifully in balance. This could have been a 10+ volume series without much effort if you throw in a bunch of useless filler arcs just to sell more books, but the author kept the script on point and I respect them for that. Please, give this one a try, it really deserves to be experienced by more readers. Also, if you're wondering about the connection to Shinigami wo Tabeta Shoujo, you're fine reading this without that one. Those two are not directly connected, they just take place in the same world and have some connecting cameo appearances that are not important to understand story of one without reading the other.