Well, I think everyone once looked to a book and said “What a lame cover/premisse, there is no way this book is good.” And I confirm it, I already did it once, but regreted when I actually read the book ( it was a manga actually, Oyasumi Punpun for the curious ). So, after learning the lesson, I never judged a book by its cover, and then, when I came across Kumo Desu Ga, Nani Ka, I thought “Hm, an isekai when the girl reincarnates as a spider? Unusual, I’ll give a try.” At the time, I would never thought that this novel would completely obliterate my expectations and become one of my favourites.

Kumo Desu Ga is a light novel written by Okina Baba and illustrated by Tsukasa Kiryuu. The synopsis is: “When a explosion occurs on a Japanase classroom, one of the high schoolers reincarnates as a spider on the most dangerous and bigger dungeon on the alternative world, the Great Elroe Labyrinth. Thus begins a little spider's journey of clawing, biting, and plotting her way to the top. Forced to confront the powerful beings that reign over the Great Elroe Labyrinth and beyond, she will gradually uncover the truth behind the mysterious fantasy world and the explosion that sent her there.

So yeah, this is the synopsis and, albeit it does not look that compelling, since the MC is a spider and all, but I can say for sure that it is a lot better than you think.

I’ll split my review and sections, and then I’ll talk about each of them. I will maybe break and talk about a section in another section, but I’ll try to focus on the respective section. I read 10 volumes of the LN, just to everybody know. This review is spoiler-free, so rest assured to read. I just comment some things indirectly, so don't worry that it won't ruin your experience.

• Plot , storytelling and narration

First things first, I think everybody, when wondering if it is worth to read a book, thinks of the plot, especially when the book in question is fantasy. And, man, Kumo Desu Ga has a huge and wonderful plot, enhanced by the storytelling. What I mean by this? Plot is what happens, while storytelling is the way the plot is told to us, readers. That’s the reason that most novels are better than others. Some can have better plots, but the storytelling plays a huge role on the quality of it. Ok, I’m not here to talk about this, so let’s focus on Kumo Desu Ga.

The plot of Kumo Desu is wide, huge, unpredictable and much deeper that I though. I mean, when I saw that the novel is an isekai with a spider, I didn’t expect to have a huge plot. I was expecting something akin to a surviving history and maybe somethins else, but it sure blew my expectations. I am not gonna spoil anyone, so rest assured, but I can say that it is the closest to be a desconstruction of the isekai genre. I mean, Re:Zero and Torture Princess are more different from most isekais, but they focus more on the fantasy world than the classic isekai tropes. Kumo Desu does not only that, but includes the fantasy genre to make something else. For the curious ones that don’t mind spoilers, you can check vol 7 and vol 9 to know what I’m talking about, albeit I recommend you to read all of the series before searching for spoilers. Especially in vol 9, when I gave 10 to the series. Maaaaaaaaaan, this is not what apparently is! That’s all I can tell for you without spoiling.

Well, I think for the plot this is what I can tell, but, for me, the storytelling plays a major role in the novel. The first phase of the novel consists in Kumoko trying to survive in the dungeon and leveling up, getting strong to fight tougher enemies. And this is really compelling! The system of skills, which is the basis of this world,, is one of the things that keep me hooked. Wanting to know what will happen when certains skill level up is really nice and addictive! And the evolutions is another thing. When certains creature reaches a level, they can evolve, and this got me hooked too.

The change of POVs is reallt good and enhances your understanding of the world. On one hand, you have Kumoko and her jouney of surviving in the dungeon. On the other hand, you have Schun living in the royal surroundings. These two POVs complements each other and enhances the novel, for me. And it is not limited to these two. The POVs reaches almost all of the main and secondary characters. I’ll talk more about it in the Characters section.

And, lastly, the narration. Kumo Desu has a 1 person narration and, albeit I usually don’t like it too much, here is it perfectly done! What I mean? Well, for starters, it didn’t focus on one characters. 1 person narration is usually done to close the space between the reader and the characters, so you usually focus the book almost entirely on the main characters. But here in Kumo Desu there is no such a thing. The POVs changes every chapter and focus on different characters, and this didn’t affect Kumoko, our protagonist. On the contrary, we have different positions about her ant her actions. And we get to know the other characters a bit more. I’ll save this for the Characters sections too.

Kumoko’s narration is great!! “Naaaai waaaaa.” This is the classic phrase of her, and we know because she talks this a lot of times! Being close to her, hearing her thoughts, reading her actions, make us, readers, survive with her, fight with her, cry with her, be happy with her! Man, I can’t convey my thoughts very well, but you know when you get so close to a character that you start to fell what they fell? Yes, Kumoko is one of this characters!

• Characters

Let’s talk about characters. Characters are the most important part of a book. Albeit there are some plot-drive books, even they have to have good characters, because they are what make us want to read the book. And Kumo Desu has a wide arsenal of awesome characters! The majority of them has a great development and growth, and when I say majority, I really mean this! And the others that don’t have any of this, are lovely on their own way. Seriously, all of the characters are good and nice!

Kumoko is a really good character and protagonist! We are so entranced by her that we start to feel what she feels. There is a certain scene in vol 1, that she felt so lonely, so sad, so lost that I started to cheer for her. “She made something bad? I don’t care. Go, Kumoko! Go get what you deserve!” I thought things like this a lot of times in a single volume, and I generally don’t cheer characters like this. Like, I feel sad for them, be happy with them, but actively cheer them is unusual. Her personality is one of the things that I like about her. Really cheerful, passionate, lovely, cute, determined, focused, twisted ( hehe ) and human. Yes, she is a spider, but she is actually a human, and we can feel her sorrow, her determination in survive the dungeon, and I relly felt that.

Also, in vol 9, we get a revelation about her, and maaaaaaaaaaaaan, that was when I gave 10 to the series and fuck the world! Truly amazing and well-done!

I focused on Kumoko, but there are a lot of good characters. Sophia, Ariel, Potimas, Dustin, Ronandt, 4 little spiders, Merazophis, Wrath, Guli-Guli, Ms. Oka, Fei, Katia. All of them are good characters on their own way. If I can say which one is the better, aside from Kumoko, I would say Ariel. She is AMAZING! Truly lovely and the best character, for me! You start hating her, but then, with the volumes going by, you don’t even know but you are loving her!

• Worldbuilding

Worldbuilding. I think this is a fairly topic when talking about high fantasy. Another world, another creatures, another social ethics, another world. Kumo Desu Ga creates a wonderful world, which has his own rules, history, culture, geography and politics.

The system, which reigns the world, is the best feature for me, since it provides a leeway to the writer works on it. And the story behind it is one of the mysteries of the world.

The history of the world is one of the biggest mysteries for me. I mean, we got glimpses of it, but it is not what is supposed to be. Vol 7, I think, gave us hints on what the world is, but we don’t know yet. And it is promising to be amazing!

The secrets of the world are something that is gonna take a while to be reveled, since it is such a bigger mysterie of the novel, but I can say for sure that is going to be amazing. Vol 10 gave us hints about it too.

• Language

The language os this light novel is easy. As a brazilian, I can say for sure that this novel has a fairly easy language. The only things that I had to look on the dictionary was a few skill’s names and titles. Aside from that, even the scenery description was easy, albeit good.

• Style

The author does not have a distinctive style of writing. But this is not something bad. On the contrary, it is normal. Few author have a distinctive style that you came upon one paragraph and can tells “oh, this is x author.” Just saying for the sake of the review.

• Overall: 10/10

After saying all of this, I came to give the verdict. Should I read Kumo Desu Ga? YES. Totally. 100% YES. This novel is a fucking masterpiece, a subversion of the isekai fantasy medieval genre, or at least the closes to do this. The novel keeps you hooked on the story, makes you want to read more and more and more and never stops, and when you read the last thing you can, you enter in a depression state because you can’t read more!

My tip would be: read without expectations. I think it is for the best, but yes, read it, it is totally amazing!