Oct 17, 2025
I guess you kept going since you missed the deadline. Kind of strange since I didn't really feel like there was any kind of volume end.
I think worldbuilding is what I think of when I look at this book overall. It's chock full of it, so much so that I feel like I need cliffnotes for all the terms you pull out. It both enrichens the stories, but also, it tethers the story with its weight. At times, there is simply too much.
Don't get me wrong. The characters and the lore are great. The in-the-moment scenes are vibrant because of them. But step back and look at the plot as a whole, and you become kind of lost. Korou seems to just exist in this vast amount of lore. The story lacks the buildup and peaks that one aould expect from a first volume, and as such, there feels like a lack of payoff, like I have yet to get to the end of a volume.
Things happen, but I'm missing a true sense of what to take from this book. Perhaps, you never got there in the contest timeframe. Particularly since the last 10k words, you're still throwing down more and more new things. It becomes easy to forget what they all mean in the end.
Anyways, that's the vibe I'm left with. I'll end it here for the overall review.