To keep it brief, light novels are short prose novels that are closely associated with manga. They feature many of the same themes, tropes, and character archetypes often found in your favorite manga. They’re quick, pulpy reads meant to entertain and provide a welcome escape from reality. For a deeper look into light novels, here’s a primer to the format.
Where Do I Start With Light Novels?
If you’d ask this question even five years ago, it would have been easier to offer good light novel recommendations. The selection was more limited, which meant far fewer options for starter light novels. It seems counterintuitive. More options are a good thing, right? Absolutely! But if you think diving into manga for the first time can be overwhelming, exploring the world of light novels can be even more so. Some of the premises seem similar. Some of the titles are super long. Do all of them really involve people transmigrating to another world? That’s where this reading pathway comes in.
Light Novel Recommendations for New Readers
If you’re new to the format, hopefully you found this list of light novel recommendations helpful. Even if you’re not new, maybe you found something interesting to try. If you’re looking for more recommendations, here’s another list of light novels to check out. Or perhaps you’d like to see the best light novels (and manga) to pick up in 2021. But even ignoring its place in light novel history, Boogiepop is a great place to start. It combines mystery, the supernatural, and urban legends. Its prose is also characteristic of classic light novel–style storytelling: quick, simple, and fast. But don’t equate the simple prose with a simple structure. Boogiepop isn’t told in chronological order, and part of the allure is figuring out how all the scenes, plot lines, and characters intersect. Ascendance of a Bookworm follows a college student who dies in an unfortunate accident. Thankfully, she’s reborn in another world. Not so thankfully, the world she’s born into has put a premium on books. In fact, only the rich have access to literature. In her previous life, our heroine aspired to become a librarian, so limiting access to books is the worst thing ever. In this new life, she makes her life’s goal to create books so that they’re available to everyone. (But most of all to her.) I’m in Love with the Villainess follows Rei, who transmigrates into her favorite dating sim. As with most dating sims, Rei has the option to pursue a romantic relationship with any of the original game’s available bachelors. But she wants no part of that. It’s her favorite game, but Rei’s a lesbian, and if she’s going to pursue someone, it’s going to be her favorite character: Claire, the antagonist. Solo Leveling falls into a popular category of Korean webnovels: gaming fantasies. They’re not quite isekai, because many times the protagonist doesn’t wake up to find themselves in another world. What they do typically involve is a “system” — that is, an external force that helps them navigate through the world. Gamers will probably recognize the information doled out by these systems. Solo Leveling introduces this concept in a way that’s accessible to non-gamers unfamiliar with the idea of character stats and level grinding. Thankfully, The Apothecary Diaries exists. It features a clever and no-nonsense heroine navigating the intrigue-filled Rear Palace of the Emperor. Sound interesting? What if I told you that she solves mysteries at the behest of the head eunuch who may not be a eunuch at all? And what if I said that she’s an apothecary and pharmacist? 86 is not an isekai. It’s a science fiction series about two nations at war. Everyone thinks the war is being waged by automatons. That isn’t true. One side uses humans, and worse, these humans are the socially oppressed. The series begins when a battalion of these socially oppressed peoples — known as 86 — is given over to a new handler. Monogatari is his most famous work. It features a protagonist who survived a vampire attack — and in fact, was a vampire for a short period of time. (It’s okay! He’s cured now. Mostly.) Surviving a vampire attack with his humanity mostly intact would normally be a cause for celebration, but now he seems to be a magnet for girls with supernatural problems.
