Ascendance of a Book Report

Ascendance of a Bookworm was a really fun bingeread.

I've scoffed at Isekai stories since I became aware of them, but I thought that surely there has to be some traces of gold in that hill of trash. Look, found one!

I like it because it takes the premise and actually has a *real* story to tell within its genre with some meat on its bones. It's not some light poke-fun-at-tropes comedy and it's not some generic RPG-wish-fulfillment fantasy.

The beginning starts off intentionally generic and goofy: main character only cared about books, died getting crushed by books, new world has no books! Oh, but wait, instead of being born with All The Power, she's reborn as a terminally ill peasant child. And everything is dirty, and stinks, and wow it sucks to be here. And even that generic opening pays off in a *big* way later on. Ultimately though, it also doesn't dwell in the dourness, but it doesn't shy away from some (psuedo) realism. It strikes a great balance, like any good storytelling ought. It's a pretty positive journey overall though which, right now especially, is kind of refreshing.

It gets you asking all sorts of fun questions. What could you construct if you were sent back in time, using just your memories and available resources? Could you really fit into a more primitive society? And then over time these lead into some slightly more meaningful themes as the story blossoms. Touching a bit on how far society has come, and on the innate sense of humanity regardless of time or place. I'm not trying to make it to be some deep literary masterpiece, though, but I find it a lot easier to appreciate a writer with something they want to say.

The characters are where a lot of the magic happens. They're well fleshed out and their motives and drives and relationships are thought through. They're a joy to read, and the epilogues where you switch perspective are extra fun in that regard. Especially when it reveals a line of thinking you never would have initially expected, but in retrospect makes complete sense. I especially like that no one is "generically evil". Some people might be selfish, or have backwards beliefs about the lower classes, or even malicious and cruel...but they have their own way of thinking, even if it's completely wrongheaded. Doesn't mean everyone's an angel, but they *think* they're the hero of their own story, even if they're actually a terrible person.

Also, from the premise and stuff I can relate quite a bit to Myne in some...rather obvious ways. Though, let it be said that unlike her, I don't care about the physical medium of books in paper and ink! I'll content myself with words in any form!

If I had to point out some flaws, I'd say so far the situations tend to resolve themselves a little too cleanly. I think that's intentional, it doesn't want to wallow in misery porn, that's not really the point. But still, I expected some of the conflicts to escalate a little more than they have so far...although, as of the latest volume, maybe I'm going to regret criticizing this when we get more.

Really excited to read more of these as they come out and sad that I have no more volumes to read *right now*. The 6 volumes positively flew by, I think I started reading on...Friday or Saturday? There's apparently an anime currently airing, but I don't really see how it could be half as good without any internal monologues or your imagination to connect all the dots. Some series can have good adaptations, I'm not certain that this would be one of them.

ITS PERTY GUD