It’s not often that we see a long-running light novel series come to an end and even less often one as popular as Ascendance of a Bookworm.
So let’s talk about the series as a whole. How did you like the story? What were your favorite and least favorite parts? Was the ending satisfying? Who is your favorite character? Who is your least favorite? General thoughts?
It’s no secret that Bookworm is my favorite series and that I have opinions. No wonder that I have some about Bookworm as well. So here are some unsorted points:
- I like how the last volume cleverly turned into a reprise of Myne’s entire journey so far. With the possibility of a sequel series, I’m even okay with the card cut in the story and the unresolved sub-plots (Philine x Damuel for example). It’s the end of her life in Ehrenfest and we might get to see how the characters fare in a new series in Alexandria. We know that Miya Kazuki isn’t the type that writes as the fancy takes her and instead meticulously plans ahead, so I have faith in the sequel teaser at the end of the book. I might be huffing copium but that’s what I roll with.
- One of my least favorite points in the entire story was when the whole Rozemyne x Ferdinand thing started to crystalize. The thought alone made me feel icky. Myne was mentally always an adult and with her induced growth her body mirrored her mental age, but to Ferdinand, she is the little girl he was the guardian of. In the end, I thought it was an “okay for now” solution to simply not have them have romantic love for each other for the moment. That being said, if there is a sequel it will be an uphill battle to bring me around on a romantic relationship.
- Lutz x Tuuli is another pairing I wish I knew more of. It feels like there is an untold story there and I would absolutely love to see a spinoff novel to see their point of view. More so than Hannelore’s but ultimately doing a pov from someone of a completely different dutchy might be more interesting.
- I found it strange how Georgine got built up over several years as the big bad antagonist and then got killed off more or less off-screen (off-page?) by a side character. Sure Myne got her fight against Grausam at the same time, but I would have expected the main character to not just fight a minion.
- My favorite smaller moment was during part 4 with Ferdinand being tricked into playing a concert and Myne making a killing by selling collectible idol cards of him. And when Myne reunites with her commoner family right at the end. Might be recency bias but it was such a sweet moment that made me tear up and Kamil’s bewilderment made me laugh at the same time.
- Lessy is love, Lessy is life. Down with all the Lessy haters. But Myne is my favorite human character. My second favorite is Justus. My least favorite is unsurprisingly Detlinde.
- I am impressed with how every volume seems better than the last one. There was up to the penultimate volume only a linear ramp-up in both the plot and my enjoyment instead of the usual up and downs other series have. I read a lot and I can’t think of any other series that manages to only get better.
- I’m happy that the series managed to snatch such a great illustrator who stuck with it over the entire run. It’s also interesting to go back to the first volume and compare how much You Shiina has improved over the past decade.
- I think it’s unfortunate that the friendship between Myne and Frieda (granddaughter of Merchant’s Guild guildmaster) didn’t pan out. I wonder what happened to her.
That’s everything that comes to mind right now.
I think it’s unfortunate that the friendship between Myne and Frieda (granddaughter of Merchant’s Guild guildmaster) didn’t pan out. I wonder what happened to her.
I suspect it was cut for the squick factor of her being, effectively, a child consort. The deeper Frieda’s involvement in the story, the more it would need to bring her benefactor to the front and center. Even after the timeskip, let’s be honest, none of the readers are going to like this guy because of how their relationship began.
Kazuki-san’s writing style tends to acknowledge the darker aspects of her world without fetishizing them the way her industry peers do, and I suspect she wrote herself into a bit of a corner with Frieda. She was intended to educate us about Devouring and how the commoner and middle classes are trapped between powerlessness and exploitation in matters adjacent to magic. Could something have been done to “save” her? Certainly, though she was not written as someone who was particularly looking to be saved. Was it narratively worth the chapter focus considering where the story was going and who Myne would be associating with? Probably not.
This makes a good segue into…
One of my least favorite points in the entire story was when the whole Rozemyne x Ferdinand thing started to crystalize. The thought alone made me feel icky. Myne was mentally always an adult and with her induced growth her body mirrored her mental age, but to Ferdinand, she is the little girl he was the guardian of.
This was one that many people were going to be uncomfortable with no matter what, and bringing Frieda’s circumstances back to the forefront would have risked entrenching the perception of unaddressed child exploitation even further. The only thing I can really offer in Ferdinand’s “defense” is that he was exposed to her older identity and appearance when he explored her memories, which could have anchored him into not seeing her as a child at all. (between that and her never acting like a “normal” person at all, let alone a normal child)
Myself, I’m kind of indifferent to it. He’s a compelling character and deserved a good ending, but the relationship needed a little more time on the cooker to smooth out the edges. A PoV flashback regarding how he saw and felt about her from the moment he explored her memories onward would have been beneficial, and I strongly feel that his reunion with her in the mana replenishment chamber was written with the intention of being revisited in a sidestory PoV that never manifested.
Good point about Frieda and her benefactor. I don’t remember, was he ever named?
Regarding Ferdinand, I agree that he is a compelling character and he certainly didn’t deserve to end up with Detilinde, but I’m still not convinced that Myne is the best solution here either. I am internally fighting with me because on the one hand there is a guardian marrying his ward, but on the other side there are so many unconventional circumstances around this that it turns into a “yeah … but …” argument in my mind. Did he ever saw her a a child after learning of her previous life? Did Myne for that matter? I feel like her Urano memories are more like knowledge without the accompanying emotions behind it. Did she ever miss her Motosu family the same way she missed her Ehrenfest one? Would Ferdinand reading young Myne’s memory come away with the impression that she is an “adult in a child’s body” or that she is a “child with knowledge of an adult”.
Good point about Frieda and her benefactor. I don’t remember, was he ever named?
I had the same thought after I wrote that and looked him up on the wiki: Lord Henrik. What’s even easier to forget? He is Damuel’s older brother. I remembered that Freida had a cameo when characters received blessings at the end of Part 2, but completely forgot Damuel was in the same building for it! asdfasdfgdfsg
It just goes to show you just how far Freida’s circumstances get swept under the rug. She’s the consort of Damuel’s brother, and we’re rarely ever given opportunities for it to register.
(Edit: Going by the wiki Henrik was born 12-13 years before Myne, and Freida was born 1 year before Myne. Freida was 6 when she met Myne and already promised to be the concubine of a low ranking laynoble who was 17-18. Yurgenschmidt eugenics continue to provide for the creepiest things that happen in the series.)
I am internally fighting with me because […]
You’ve pretty much encapsulated the dilemma. Most of us want the characters to be individually happy, but it feels off. We can visualize perspectives for Ferdinand and Myne that would help rationalize it, but we don’t have them. It needed more time.
