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kacy_too 's review for:
At Night, I Become a Monster (Light Novel)
by Yoru Sumino
4 stars. I absolutely flew through this book. The premise was interesting and I was hooked from the beginning.
I really connected to the main character and the author did a fantastic job at showcasing this sense of anxiety and this need to fit in, even if it means erasing parts of yourself. Adachi is constantly thinking about other peoples reactions and how to get the right reaction out of them. On the complete opposite end of the spectrum there's Yano, a girl who lives as herself even though it causes her a great deal of trouble. She's weird and mature and brave and I absolutely adore her. I really enjoyed watching the two characters interact and watching their relationship develop.
The story didn't feel very original (though there is the argument that originality doesn't exist), it was almost like I'd seen countless versions of this story before. That is not to say it is a bad thing but it was a thought in the back of my mind nearly the whole time I was reading (I was very much reminded of A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness, which is also one of my favourite books and probably the reason why I liked this one so much).
The writing was very simple at times. It felt almost like it was just there to get the details out and that was that. I don't know what goes into translating a book and I don't know how stories are written in Japan so I can't say for sure whether it was through translating the book itself or whether it has something to do with how the author wrote the story to begin with.
Still I really enjoyed this book, the pacing was great and the characters were interesting. It seemed like it was the book that I needed to read right now.
I really connected to the main character and the author did a fantastic job at showcasing this sense of anxiety and this need to fit in, even if it means erasing parts of yourself. Adachi is constantly thinking about other peoples reactions and how to get the right reaction out of them. On the complete opposite end of the spectrum there's Yano, a girl who lives as herself even though it causes her a great deal of trouble. She's weird and mature and brave and I absolutely adore her. I really enjoyed watching the two characters interact and watching their relationship develop.
The story didn't feel very original (though there is the argument that originality doesn't exist), it was almost like I'd seen countless versions of this story before. That is not to say it is a bad thing but it was a thought in the back of my mind nearly the whole time I was reading (I was very much reminded of A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness, which is also one of my favourite books and probably the reason why I liked this one so much).
The writing was very simple at times. It felt almost like it was just there to get the details out and that was that. I don't know what goes into translating a book and I don't know how stories are written in Japan so I can't say for sure whether it was through translating the book itself or whether it has something to do with how the author wrote the story to begin with.
Still I really enjoyed this book, the pacing was great and the characters were interesting. It seemed like it was the book that I needed to read right now.