Kumo Desu Ga Nani Ka So Im a Spider So What? Dont judge a book by its cover Well I think everyone once looked to a book and said What a lame cover/premisse there is no way this book is good. And I confirm it I already did it once but regreted when I actually read the book it was a manga actually Oyasumi Punpun for the curious . So after learning the lesson I never judged a book by its cover and then when I came across Kumo Desu Ga Nani Ka I thought Hm an isekai when the girl reincarnates as a spider? Unusual Ill give a try. At the time I would never thought that this novel would completely obliterate my expectations and become one of my favourites. Kumo Desu Ga is a light novel written by Okina Baba and illustrated by Tsukasa Kiryuu. The synopsis is: When a explosion occurs on a Japanase classroom one of the high schoolers reincarnates as a spider on the most dangerous and bigger dungeon on the alternative world the Great Elroe Labyrinth. Thus begins a little spiders journey of clawing biting and plotting her way to the top. Forced to confront the powerful beings that reign over the Great Elroe Labyrinth and beyond she will gradually uncover the truth behind the mysterious fantasy world and the explosion that sent her there. So yeah this is the synopsis and albeit it does not look that compelling since the MC is a spider and all but I can say for sure that it is a lot better than you think. Ill split my review and sections and then Ill talk about each of them. I will maybe break and talk about a section in another section but Ill try to focus on the respective section. I read 10 volumes of the LN just to everybody know. This review is spoilerfree so rest assured to read. I just comment some things indirectly so dont worry that it wont ruin your experience. Plot storytelling and narration First things first I think everybody when wondering if it is worth to read a book thinks of the plot especially when the book in question is fantasy. And man Kumo Desu Ga has a huge and wonderful plot enhanced by the storytelling. What I mean by this? Plot is what happens while storytelling is the way the plot is told to us readers. Thats the reason that most novels are better than others. Some can have better plots but the storytelling plays a huge role on the quality of it. Ok Im not here to talk about this so lets focus on Kumo Desu Ga. The plot of Kumo Desu is wide huge unpredictable and much deeper that I though. I mean when I saw that the novel is an isekai with a spider I didnt expect to have a huge plot. I was expecting something akin to a surviving history and maybe somethins else but it sure blew my expectations. I am not gonna spoil anyone so rest assured but I can say that it is the closest to be a desconstruction of the isekai genre. I mean Re:Zero and Torture Princess are more different from most isekais but they focus more on the fantasy world than the classic isekai tropes. Kumo Desu does not only that but includes the fantasy genre to make something else. For the curious ones that dont mind spoilers you can check vol 7 and vol 9 to know what Im talking about albeit I recommend you to read all of the series before searching for spoilers. Especially in vol 9 when I gave 10 to the series. Maaaaaaaaaan this is not what apparently is Thats all I can tell for you without spoiling. Well I think for the plot this is what I can tell but for me the storytelling plays a major role in the novel. The first phase of the novel consists in Kumoko trying to survive in the dungeon and leveling up getting strong to fight tougher enemies. And this is really compelling The system of skills which is the basis of this world is one of the things that keep me hooked. Wanting to know what will happen when certains skill level up is really nice and addictive And the evolutions is another thing. When certains creature reaches a level they can evolve and this got me hooked too. The change of POVs is reallt good and enhances your understanding of the world. On one hand you have Kumoko and her jouney of surviving in the dungeon. On the other hand you have Schun living in the royal surroundings. These two POVs complements each other and enhances the novel for me. And it is not limited to these two. The POVs reaches almost all of the main and secondary characters. Ill talk more about it in the Characters section. And lastly the narration. Kumo Desu has a 1 person narration and albeit I usually dont like it too much here is it perfectly done What I mean? Well for starters it didnt focus on one characters. 1 person narration is usually done to close the space between the reader and the characters so you usually focus the book almost entirely on the main characters. But here in Kumo Desu there is no such a thing. The POVs changes every chapter and focus on different characters and this didnt affect Kumoko our protagonist. On the contrary we have different positions about her ant her actions. And we get to know the other characters a bit more. Ill save this for the Characters sections too. Kumokos narration is great Naaaai waaaaa. This is the classic phrase of her and we know because she talks this a lot of times Being close to her hearing her thoughts reading her actions make us readers survive with her fight with her cry with her be happy with her Man I cant convey my thoughts very well but you know when you get so close to a character that you start to fell what they fell? Yes Kumoko is one of this characters Characters Lets talk about characters. Characters are the most important part of a book. Albeit there are some plotdrive books even they have to have good characters because they are what make us want to read the book. And Kumo Desu has a wide arsenal of awesome characters The majority of them has a great development and growth and when I say majority I really mean this And the others that dont have any of this are lovely on their own way. Seriously all of the characters are good and nice Kumoko is a really good character and protagonist We are so entranced by her that we start to feel what she feels. There is a certain scene in vol 1 that she felt so lonely so sad so lost that I started to cheer for her. She made something bad? I dont care. Go Kumoko Go get what you deserve I thought things like this a lot of times in a single volume and I generally dont cheer characters like this. Like I feel sad for them be happy with them but actively cheer them is unusual. Her personality is one of the things that I like about her. Really cheerful passionate lovely cute determined focused twisted hehe and human. Yes she is a spider but she is actually a human and we can feel her sorrow her determination in survive the dungeon and I relly felt that. Also in vol 9 we get a revelation about her and maaaaaaaaaaaaan that was when I gave 10 to the series and fuck the world Truly amazing and welldone I focused on Kumoko but there are a lot of good characters. Sophia Ariel Potimas Dustin Ronandt 4 little spiders Merazophis Wrath GuliGuli Ms. Oka Fei Katia. All of them are good characters on their own way. If I can say which one is the better aside from Kumoko I would say Ariel. She is AMAZING Truly lovely and the best character for me You start hating her but then with the volumes going by you dont even know but you are loving her Worldbuilding Worldbuilding. I think this is a fairly topic when talking about high fantasy. Another world another creatures another social ethics another world. Kumo Desu Ga creates a wonderful world which has his own rules history culture geography and politics. The system which reigns the world is the best feature for me since it provides a leeway to the writer works on it. And the story behind it is one of the mysteries of the world. The history of the world is one of the biggest mysteries for me. I mean we got glimpses of it but it is not what is supposed to be. Vol 7 I think gave us hints on what the world is but we dont know yet. And it is promising to be amazing The secrets of the world are something that is gonna take a while to be reveled since it is such a bigger mysterie of the novel but I can say for sure that is going to be amazing. Vol 10 gave us hints about it too. Language The language os this light novel is easy. As a brazilian I can say for sure that this novel has a fairly easy language. The only things that I had to look on the dictionary was a few skills names and titles. Aside from that even the scenery description was easy albeit good. Style The author does not have a distinctive style of writing. But this is not something bad. On the contrary it is normal. Few author have a distinctive style that you came upon one paragraph and can tells oh this is x author. Just saying for the sake of the review. Overall: 10/10 After saying all of this I came to give the verdict. Should I read Kumo Desu Ga? YES. Totally. 100 YES. This novel is a fucking masterpiece a subversion of the isekai fantasy medieval genre or at least the closes to do this. The novel keeps you hooked on the story makes you want to read more and more and more and never stops and when you read the last thing you can you enter in a depression state because you cant read more My tip would be: read without expectations. I think it is for the best but yes read it it is totally amazing