Here as a friend to the author. I may be biased coz I want to help him out, but I am trying my best to be critical. Coffee calls it "literary metafiction" all the time but I call it "magic mystery" for its attempt to bind fantasy with mystery together, specifically detective fiction. Each and every chapter, the plot thickens and more mysteries are waiting to be uncovered. Good book! I recommend it for mystery lovers who want a tinge of fantasy. Or the other way around, lol--- Writing Quality: 4 - Unique linguistic skills. You know the author has passed his grammar and has studied how to write fiction. Exceptionally good at transitions! A bit nerdy though for the tattered references. From Marvel to nonfiction about chaos theory to anime I can't tell them all!!!!!!!!!! - Coffee likes X-Men and Doctor Strange. Stability of Updates: 5 - Has plans to update daily and then some, I can assure that. Story Development: 3 - Downsides! I understand its literary fiction, as he says the pacing is more dragged than normal. But I'll be frank and say it has an unhealthy development after Memento Memori (catchy chapter name, I like it!) The direction its taking doesn't feel like it will go back to the problems of Mikoto Arakawa, the person who is introduced as the main heroine. I'll be waiting though Character Design: 4 - Characters are built throughout the novel. Some characters aren't given love though, like introducing one at the start of the chapter only to not appear in the following chapters. The Light Mage rival who's named "Kuroko" (black child), for example, where? - Has a memorable sense with names. Shirayuki, the protagonist, means Snow White. The twins Amaterasu and Tsukuyomi are based from the Japanese gods of sun and moon. The Seven Gods might be hard to figure out but when mentioned they are the shichifukujin (seven fortune gods). World Background: 4 - Magic school in modern Japan. Mages are a different race of people separated from Humans. Mages and Humans are enemies. Simple. It only becomes complex when you consider individuality but I think that's normal.

Second review, because why not? I've read pass 100 chapters already. First, the influence of the novel is immense for me may it be for better or for worse. I like it despite its discrepancies, so the review might not be helpful for the other readers. As I said in my last post, I'm a friend of the author and I'm a little bit biased about wanting him to succeed in his writing career. (I'm writing the review for other readers to know the charm, because Coffee has all my input already.) Writing Quality: 4 Stars He said it himself in the aux chapter, what he uploads are the first drafts and would only even edit the free chapters. I find his words skewed, but I understood when he said he'd probably edit his premium chapters as well when he's done with the four-month guaranteed payment. Straight four months, one chapter daily is tough for his laziness, so I'm cutting him the slack. So far, I enjoyed the chapters he sends each and every day. I haven't gotten used of the recurring monologues, but they're all compensated by the low-key talking-and-walking signature happening between characters (the scenes are mostly refreshing to read), and what I like best are the surreal mind reading shenanigans. I've never read a book before that's so out of the norm. Of course, it has to be done somewhere before, but the way they're being executed are cleaner than the action scenes. I like the vigor. Stability of Updates: 2 Stars Easy five stars if the updates are linear, but volume three being simulpublished is a mess. Especially when Volume 2 gets a chapter in a week when Volume 3 has six. Please, take it the other way around. I understand that Volume 3 is another story, but if I'm a regular reader, I won't open the next book unless I've finished what's before it. Story Development: 3 Stars Tbh, the structure is also a mess. But because the author was so insistent it's a "literary metafiction", I've been looking at it differently. It has a story, and the synopsis straightly jabs it to your head that the protagonist is also the antagonist. So everything that's happening in the novel, he does all himself. I won't spoil the fun, and I can see that in the latest chapters. But there are so many dropped events that likely lead to something big. To stitch them together is a nightmare, it doesn't fit in my mental map that I've shut my head off whenever I read and just indulge to what happens without trying to speculate. It's a hard process, but I'm coping because I know it leads to something fun. Character Design: 5 Stars I know what Hitoribotchi no Shirayukihime means enough to know that the author has all his attention to Shirayuki Otogibanashi. Everyone else is insignificant, and that's captured in them disappearing from the story with their efforts cut out from his point of view. Lazy writing, perhaps, but Coffee has talent in establishing supporting and background characters that I'm also coping because I know it leads to something fun! World Background: 3 Stars? I don't know if it's genius or not, but I have a hard time processing the world when little is said. I like how the narrator stands on hating worldbuilding, hence he drops information here and there regarding this and that at times where they seem to count. They're effective, most of the time, but I would prefer learning how their magic worked before they take an evaluation to measure strength and levels. Also, Mages can only use magic through their hands. I've observed it from explanation, but wasn't explicitly said until that one point in Volume 2 (note, it was still hidden) when Shirayuki projects an alternate reality where the "Gods" sever his hands and continuously burn them by the cut in order for him to not cast his strong magic nor regenerate/reconnect his cut limbs back. How the novel plays on its subtle hints, I personally like them but sometimes they're easy to miss. Well, if you want to relish the spectacle, then you could always be immersed or you'd be left out over a small detail unabsorbed.