saramdeuri's Reviews (310)

A great sci-fi, and an adequate BL.

Little Mushroom brings quite a refreshing take on the apocalypse sci-fi genre, imagining what might happen if the magnetic fields were to somehow disappear (although its cancer-like heterogenous creatures are perhaps more outlandish, you're inclined to let it slide because it's just such an interesting concept!). 

The BL side of it, though, leaves maybe a little to be desired. While, yeah, he's literally a mushroom so what kind of social skills would he have straight out of the man-womb, An Zhe's a little too blank at times and doesn't feel too fun to get to know. I wish we had more bits where he talked about how much he wanted his spore back, because it felt like they were a little sporadic. We also don't really get many reasons to believe he'd be in actual love with Lu Feng, except the bits where he says he's handsome. And why would An Zhe even want to love him after

he effectively murders his spore for all he knows??

But overall this was an enjoyable read, and I would recommend it to sci-fi loving fellow fujos. The side-characters are all pretty well developed too !! And he's literally a mushroom. What more could you want from a guy (except everything else I've mentioned here)

Beautiful, beautiful art, impeccable framing and storytelling. Genuinely rather moving in how it approaches self-deprecation and fear of aging in a post-capitalist society. I have a very distinct fear that I'll end up with nothing at all to prove myself, even now, so watching Nozue work his way through such thoughts and come to let himself want more, and then work to achieve that 'more' is always motivating to me. I re-read this whenever it feels like I'm falling into complacency.

Of course, one could ask "but wouldn't it be more effective of a story if Nozue didn't need Togawa to guide him through the 'andropause' and detached himself from Togawa later in the story to do fun things by himself?" and it wouldn't be entirely wrong to think so. But the point is that sometimes it's alright to depend on someone else. This is also reflected in how at the beginning, we see their coworkers laughing about how none of them have to do overtime because Nozue does it for them. Fundamentally, the idea that we don't need to depend on other people is individualistic, and I think ultimately can prove rather harmful.

But then, saramdeuri, how is this at all motivating for you? Doesn't this just de-motivate you, a story where a man can't reach joy or understand his worth until he gets into a loving relationship? No, actually, it doesn't. Apart from the fact that it's BL and that's just how things go around here, I understand already that I can do this by myself, because I'm not held back by the gender constraints that originally keep Nozue from seeking small daily joys by himself, and that he had achieved quite a bit career-wise by then, and was keeping himself back from promotions out of a lack of self-worth. Also, I know that I feel infinitely more joy when I'm with my friends. Anyways, the point is that the nuances here fit together rather well, actually. It's a great series!

I used to read this pretty often between the ages of 8 and 14, oddly enough, just because I'd read any old book with pictures in it at the time. Now that I'm older, and unfortunately, now that I'm exposed to news of the occupation and the war every day, I can fully understand it. At times Delisle tries to fit in a bit of humour of his own, but it falls flat for me - the setting simply isn't conducive to some of the jokes he attempts. Otherwise, this is a pretty informative memory-piece, and it's a great pity that things have only gone from bad to worse in the time since it was publsihed.

well. i've finally completed this (except the extras, sorry, i need a break) it might take me a while to write a proper review for this. before I do so, some points:

I'll probably end up writing an extended essay on this behemoth. there's a lot to say.

wow, a bl webnovel that isn't over 100 chapters long!! storygraph user saramdeuri, are you finally moving to normal-length books? the answer is no. i'm still finishing orv

all jokes aside, this is actually one of the best BL i've read hands down. there are quite a few excellent quality fan translations floating around, which are incredibly impressive works of passion and expertise. 

Faraway Wanderers itself is a great piece of storytelling. while the romance itself is rather more understated than i expected, it was still convincingly done, and there were so many points in Zhou Zishu and Wen Kexing's interactions where I couldn't stop myself from smiling. I even let out a few actual, real life, full-chested laughs. Priest knows how to write a good comedy scene!

Priest also unfortunately knows how to write a sympathetic character, and then very cruelly breaks your heart. Luckily they also try to mend it back together in the extras! I'm still gonna need a few business days to recover from all that though. Thoroughly recommended!

I feel like I've just lived a whole life

내 맘엔 한국 비엘 중 1위...

well it's certainly a webtoon about transmigrating into a game where you're a villainess. reveals quite a lot of information in just this one volume but not enough that's interesting to keep me hooked for another volume. 

I went into this with 0 expectations and came out of it a little bit disappointed. felt way way way too rushed, none of the characters were developed enough for a reader to feel some kind of understanding with them or to feel like the 5 girls all together were a good team or even liked each other at all, really. the final villain reveal was unexpected, yes, because we were given absolutely no indication of what would happen in the book at all, really.

points for effort and concept. really just should've been longer.

ok this is definitely getting more intriguing!! author knows very well how to build tension and mystery. getting both perspectives is definitely helping too.