I'm about a fourth of the way through the novel, to where Rei is more or less forced into commitment despite her fear and quiet despair over the prospect of loving without reciprocation. The novel is actually a very powerful literary achievement. It's literature. It's not only yuri as entertainment, it is about yuri and the courage it takes to love in a hostile world. All the fun stuff is just icing.
Be warned, if you're reading the official release, apparently certain paragraphs which delved deeper into Rei's thoughts and explored her behavior in more detail, adding important depth to her character, were removed during the editing phase for Heaven only knows what reason.
I wonder about those paragraphs. I get why they were cut (a Japanese cultural phenomenon that seems hella offensive or confusing to western readers was cut and so was a paragraph that went along with it which happened to show that Rei's behavior is a coping mechanism), but I wouldn't be surprised if this crucial detail isn't in the manga adaptation either. And while I adore this series to bits, from the Xenogears to the romance to the intrigue, literature it ain't. Your canonical works of "high fiction" or "literary fiction," which is what people consider literature over your churned out fiction, use imagery, heavy symbolism, figurative language, patterns, and metaphors at least. In the manga world, this would be Our Dreams at Dusk. Your average novel has exposition, clearly distinguished narrators, intentional staging, descriptions of actions and events, and frequent character introspection. Light novels are more like scripts for a play with all of that cut out in favor of dialogue and light exposition (though this varies a bit depending on the author).
That the whole reasoning for how Rei approaches Claire being a nihilistic response to her own experiences as a lesbian in the 21st century is off-handedly mentioned once and can be totally removed from the story with an accidental omission underscores that. Which does not diminish how awesome this work is as a light novel that is openly queer. When contextualized, you can see where it breaks away from other light novels
Edit: Nyashi! Do you mind if I contact you on discord? I have something that can help with naming conventions regarding WN vs LN
last edited at Mar 25, 2021 9:52PM