Harem romance is a genre so saturated with sub-par products and poorly written self-insert fantasies that it can be like an oasis in a desert when one comes around that's genuinely worth reading.

Hanging by a Thread is that oasis.

A blend of very strong character writing, good emotional stakes and surprisingly good integration of mythology makes for a romance story that dodges the pitfalls of it's generic and uninspired contemporaries for something a lot more interesting and fresh. There's also a lot of good use of symbolism that's just obvious enough that you don't have to go searching while not being so in-your-face that you feel talked down to, which is a balance that a lot of writers fail to strike.

The real reason you should read Hanging by a Thread, however, is it's love interests.

Instead of a loose collections of vaguely desirable features and cliches, the three girls that act as Aikami's love interests all feel dynamic and multi-faceted in a way that's a total breath of fresh air for the genre. Their personalities feel unique and realistic while also perfectly reflecting their mythological inspirations.

My personal favourite example is Alice. As the goddess of fate related to death, she has a dark and borderline cruel sense of humour, making light of sensitive topics as if they mean nothing. Yet she's also fun and intelligent and oftentimes compassionate, even when her role would indicate against that.

For harem romance enjoyers, this is probably among the best on this site and well worth the read. I only hesitate to give it 5 stars because it's not anything groundbreaking or anything, even though it is far more original than most of it's competition. It also has some pacing issues towards the middle but I would expect those to be ironed out on redraft.

In short, great story. Takes an overdone genre and makes it interesting to read again.