Title: As the Villainess, I Reject These Happy-Bad Endings!
Author: Iota AIUE, Kuroyuki (illustrator), Molly Lee (translator)
Released: February 12, 2021 (Kindle)
Series: N/A
Rating: ★★★★★
Description: Iris has awoken as the villainess in the world of her favorite otome game. But not just ANY otome game — one with nothing but bittersweet “Happy-Bad” Endings! If the heroine hooks up with one of her problematic love interests, the rest of the world is doomed… but if she fails, it’s the villainess who will pay with her life.
Fortunately, Iris has time on her side. All she has to do is set things up so that the heroine won’t go down those routes! Be it curing a fatal disease or re-parenting her possessive twin brother, she’ll do whatever it takes to reject these Happy-Bad Endings!
Please keep in mind this review contains spoilers for the entire book. Read with caution. If you click the “Read More”, it is under the assumption you either don’t care or you’ve already read the book!
Ah yes, another villainess story, especially one I wasn’t expecting anything of, that turned out to be right up my alley. Granted, if you’re someone who’s read exclusively villainess stories, I imagine this will have quite a bit of familiar tropes to you.
But if you’re new to the villainess sub-genre of light novels, I think this is a fun one you can read. Mostly because, at least from my point of view, it feels like the author/character understands how otome games actually work and how it would be different from the player’s point of view. Strangely, there are an abundance of these types of novels though not all of them are created (and consumed) equally. I just think this one is neat, really.
I think what charmed me the most about this light novel is how surprisingly pro-vaccine this was. And god, that’s such a breath of fresh air. The vaccination stakes really made me curious on how it was going to come together in the world and how it’s going to prevent these happy-bad endings the protagonist was doing her best to avoid. That isn’t to say that I expected the opposite, I was just pleasantly surprised and thought it was a breath of fresh air considering how heavy-handed some of these villainess stories can be.
The first half, I thought, was paced fine especially since we, the reader, was learning the ins and outs of society based on what the protagonist knows and learns. The vaccination sub-plot was a lot more interesting than I expected, but I was more fascinated by how the author (and translation team) wove the friendship and romantic relationships of the characters and more especially, the prince.
However, the second half’s pacing gave me whiplash. I still very much enjoyed the second half very much, please don’t get me wrong! But the pacing issues are more noticeable here. Initially, I was okay with this being a one shot but I think shortly after the second half of the novel began, it felt more rushed to end. The most noticeable part is when the characters began to refer to their “childhoods” even though it would have been maybe a few years (if that).
I think a second volume would have allowed other characters and their relationships to expand more and to give the characters in smaller roles more important roles. At least that way, when the second volume would start, we would care more about the situations at hand when certain things happen (betrayals, the romantic motions, etc). I was hoping more to see Nigel, Camille, and even Megane come more into themselves if there was a chance to expand it. More than anything, I really wanted to explore certain themes with these characters (including possibly some LGBT themes too).
Very likely, there may have been mitigating reasons for a second volume not existing but I won’t hold it against what we do have. I get it, I respect it, and I hope there’s a way to explore this on my own and it makes me curious about more of the author’s works!
Astronomy Of My Dreams 