Review of “My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom! Volume 1” by Satoru Yamaguchi
Buy it here: Amazon
Check here for a Braille version: https://ko-fi.com/braille
My friend https://www.minds.com/ti_tacos/ recommended this book to me.
Katarina Claes hits her head one day when she’s eight years old, and that bump on the head suddenly comes with a rush of memories of her previous life. She was a normal Japanese girl who died at 17. But, most importantly, she was an otaku who was playing through an otome game, and she realizes that she was reincarnated inside of the game as the rival love interest.
Then she realizes that no matter what route is taken in the game, the villainess is either killed or exiled after they meet and fall for the protagonist at 15. Afraid of what will happen to her in the future, she decides to take matters into her own hands and avoid all the bad routes in the game. From the time she’s 8 she starts working out her plan on how to survive.
The story follows a pattern with each chapter. The game was a harem-style game with many romantic interests to choose from. Each chapter introduces Katarina to one of the love interests. She remembers back to what happened with them in the game, and she tries to fix things so that she won’t get killed. The second half of the chapter will then be told from the love interest’s point of view.
Katarina now has the memories of a commoner, so as much as she tries she continuously commits faux pas and doesn’t act like a royal lady. However, one chapter at a time she unintentionally attracts the love interests and changes their original stories in the game.
In the original game she has a scar from bumping her head, and she uses that to demand that Prince Jeord be her fiancée in order to make it up to her. He agrees to this because it’s useful for stopping others from parading girls in front of him constantly, which he finds annoying, but he doesn’t love Katarina. But, in this revised backstory, Katarina says it’s fine and it’s instead Jeord who comes up with the plan.
This happens again with her adopted brother, Keith. In the original game he was bullied and became a playboy. Katarina realizes she’ll have a bad end if she lets that happen, so she’s really nice to him instead. Slowly Katarina meets Prince Jeord, his brother Prince Alan, Prince Alan’s fiancé Mary Hunt, her adopted brother Keith, and the beautiful siblings Sophia and Nicole Ascart and wins them over. Katarina, however, is completely oblivious to the fact that everyone wants to date her now.
This book is along the lines of a “fun romp”. It’s not necessarily deep, but it is charming, and Katarina is an entertaining character. In particular I enjoyed her first meeting with herself when she realizes she needs to form a strategy to survive, and a moment later on with Keith when she briefly entertains the idea that she might have to murder him before he murders her.
Katarina also works on alternative solutions: she tries to increase her magical ability so that she can fight back if she has to. She does poorly at this. She also works on her swordsmanship so that she can fight off Jeord if he attacks her. She does a bit better at this. She takes up working the field – originally to get in touch with her magic, but then as a possible source of income. If she gets exiled she can become a farmer! On top of this she also works on improving her ability to take advantage of Jeord’s one weakness in case she needs to make a run for it.
The weakness may be two-fold: sometimes it sounds awkward. This may be due to it being a translation, and there’s not always something that can be done about that. What sounds good in the original Japanese might sound awkward in English. That’s just something that comes with the territory when reading light novels.
The second is repetition. Sometimes almost the same line will be repeated shortly after it was already said. Also, because each chapter tells the story of what happened from two points of view, often conversations will be repeated. If I were an editor for the author, that is something I would carefully chop down on to avoid going over the same beats two or three times.
However, that didn’t stop me from enjoying the book. It’s written well enough and at a slightly higher level than some of the recent ones I’ve run into (nothing wrong with that, they were just a lower grade level than I prefer). As simple as it was, it was a good time and the characters were likable. Katarina tends to be a fun protagonist, and she has some good quips.
Notably, the book ends when they’re finally turning fifteen and going to be joining the magical academy that’s in the game, so they haven’t even gotten to the main story yet and haven’t met the game’s protagonist. This entire book is what Katarina has been doing before that.
If you’re a fan of light novels and want some carefree fun I would recommend it.
Next time I'll read “Infinite Stratos Volume 1” by Izuru Yumizuru.
Buy it here: Amazon
Other reviews:
"The Second Jungle Book" https://www.minds.com/eisah/blog/the-second-jungle-book-by-rudyard-kipling-1390007675730792452
"We" https://www.minds.com/eisah/blog/we-by-evgenii-zamiatin-1390784329147224071
"Anthem" https://www.minds.com/eisah/blog/review-of-anthem-by-ayn-rand-1395054370269171723
"Spice & Wolf Vol.2" https://www.minds.com/eisah/blog/review-of-spice-wolf-volume-2-by-isuna-hasekura-1397584117876396040
"Spice & Wolf Vol.3" - https://www.minds.com/eisah/blog/review-of-spice-wolf-volume-3-by-isuna-hasekura-1400209025269764103
"The Elements of Style" - https://www.minds.com/eisah/blog/review-of-the-elements-of-style-by-william-strunk-jr-1400925092455649291
"The Great Gatsby" - https://www.minds.com/eisah/blog/review-of-the-great-gatsby-by-f-scott-fitzgerald-1402686087800819722
"Heidi" - https://www.minds.com/eisah/blog/review-of-heidi-by-johanna-spyri-1405629505891995656
"Glow Worm" - https://www.minds.com/eisah/blog/review-of-glow-worm-by-harlan-ellison-1406700959396007949
"A Modest Proposal" and "The Lady, or the Tiger" - https://www.minds.com/eisah/blog/a-modest-proposal-and-the-lady-or-the-tiger-1409272420245704713
"Final Fantasy VII: On the Way to a Smile" - https://www.minds.com/eisah/blog/review-of-final-fantasy-vii-on-the-way-to-a-smile-by-kazushi-1411416995030634511