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Review of “Ascendance of a Bookworm Part 1 Volume 2” by Miya Kazuki

EisahMar 23, 2023, 10:17:50 PM

Myne and Lutz have joined Benno as sort of ‘temporary apprentices’ until they come of age and become real apprentices. Now in Benno’s employ, they make massive strides in their paper production, and go through the steps with various types of wood to try and make the best washi paper. The best type of wood turns out to be a dangerous one that is also unpredictable, so they can’t depend on it and instead have to rely on a type of wood that serves their needs well enough to be their main type of paper.

At the same time Myne has sold the rights to her shampoo in exchange for more security over her and Lutz’s rights over paper.

As thanks for his help with the paper, Myne brings him her hairpins as another idea for something to make. As it turns out, the guildmaster’s daughter, Freida, wanted a hairpin and was desperately searching for them. However, since Myne only made one for Tuuli, they weren’t in the markets anywhere.

The guildmaster wants to take Myne for himself but they continuously decline his offers. Myne makes the hairpin for Freida and Freida tells her about the ‘Devouring’ that she’s sick with. As it turns out, it’s be horribly expensive to treat it.

Lutz’s family still want him to become a craftsman instead of a merchant, but Myne’s family is surprised as she starts bringing home simple tasks they can do to earn good money.

Meanwhile, the Devouring is slowly getting harder and harder for Myne to control as she will suddenly start burning up with heat from within. It’s starting to attack now even when she’s feeling good, and finally she collapses at the end.

While I still enjoyed the series and will continue on with it, and I appreciate that’s it’s following a more grounded story right now (the characters just want to do basic business), it does have its issues.

I think the biggest is when it gets repetitive or verbose.

For example:

“Ummm, she was a very cute little lady.”

“Don’t sugarcoat it. What’d you think of her?”

I tried making my report sound nice, but Benno shook his head and told me to tell the truth.

It’s not necessary to have a sentence at the end telling us what they just said. If you want to put in Myne’s internal reaction, she could respond with something like, “So much for being polite” or perhaps making commentary on how people expect to be treated in Japan VS this new world. The end sentence there doesn’t add information and just adds padding the way it is.

This tends to be a problem in a lot of light novels because they’re like Wattpad stories that get published.

There are also times where Myne should be more savvy than she is. She gets scolded for selling a hairpin at full price and the second at half price. However, she’s supposed to come from our world. She should have easily been able to spin that into how they can make more profits. Places use coupons, ‘buy one get one free’, ‘buy one/two/three and get one free/discounted’ and other such marketing tools constantly. They use them because they work. It would be very easy to push it as a marketing tactic to tell even more pins at an inflated price, and there’s no reason she wouldn’t know about this.

That’s not even taking into account customer service and getting a good reputation for treating customers right. Does a store want to be known for scamming customers?

At one point when the Devouring hits her she says she normally contains it by imaging throwing a net around it and sucking it inside, but what we were actually shown earlier was different. The other times the Devouring cropped up, she’d imagined it inside of a pot and placing a lid on top of the pot. So it felt kind of like the author forgot that or meant to put it in, but had something else. It’s not an important point or anything, but it did make me stop and think, “Wait, what? When did she imagine that?”

That said, while some parts may be a little slow, I still enjoyed the book quite a bit overall and think it was better than the first book. I think because my least favorite parts are when it goes over-the-top (like Myne sniffing paper/ink like a drug addict) and there’s less of that in here and more sensible responses. Myne is also more interested in staying alive now that she’s getting more attached to this world and the people within it, and it’s not only just for books anymore. I’m definitely going to be continuing the series and would recommend it for anyone interested in an isekai-style story that leans more into the fantasy world and people in it rather than the MC finding romantic partners (Myne is just a child, and while she may be getting closer to Lutz it’s still a more childish relationship than romantic).

Next time, "The Jungle Book: Manga Classics" by Rudyard Kipling, story adaptation by Crystal S Chan, art by Julien Choy.

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