Roll Over and Die: I Will Fight for an Ordinary Life with My Love and Cursed Sword!, Vol. 1

Light Novel

By: kiki

Narrated by: Emily Bauer

Bloodied, but Unbroken...

Flum Apricot was never meant to be a hero. Despite zero stats across the board and a power she can't even use, she somehow finds herself included in a party of heroes. But Flum's life hits rock bottom when the party's renowned sage, Jean Inteige, decides that the useless girl is dead weight, and arranges to have her sold into slavery.

Tossed to monsters to be feasted upon for her master's entertainment, Flum makes the desperate choice to reach for a cursed weapon...and something new awakens within her.

A grimdark tale about one woman's blood-soaked quest to reclaim her life!

©2018 kiki (P)2018 kiki

Really Good with Slight Flaws

I have to say that I really enjoyed this a lot. I hope the author continues to publish more of the series on Audible. It did, however, have some flaws - many of which are frequently found in other light novels - such as flawed or inadequate descriptions of the action and scenes, antagonists that are so overtly terrible and evil that they just become cardboard cutout villains, the main character doing something completely and utterly stupid (and out of character) to allow her to be put into danger to introduce more action, and, of course, lesbian overtones.

You would think those flaws would turn this into generic trash, but really the author still does a great job of creating a story that is both charming and gritty. The main character is introduced as a complete pushover with little self worth and her party sounds more cardboard cutout villains than heroes but this very quickly changes. Once she leaves the party, you see the true faces of the members of the hero party and see that they do have some depth. You also see the main character quickly pulls herself together and, once she has some power, she becomes a pretty kick-ass character. I really enjoyed her character, actually. Unlike many wishy-washy MCs, she doesn't hesitate to hurt or kill people when it is evidently called for, yet I wouldn't call her a murder hobo either. You won't have that disappointing feeling in this book where an obviously evil person goes unpunished or is shown mercy because killing them "would be wrong." At the same time, she isn't a psycho that solves everything with violence. Like I said, I like her.

As for the relationship with her companion - I actually found it pretty sweet. There are clear reasons for it too, which some may label as codependency. The main character wants to protect her fragile companion in a way that she wished someone would have protected her when she was weak, and her companion is meek and slowly gains hope that someone exists that actually wants to protect her and thinks she is worth something. Like I said, codependent... but still very sweet.

Lastly, I enjoyed that the LitRPG elements of the story were kept to a bare minimum so we don't get drowned in stat screen readouts or long-winded explanations of the magic system. We simply learn enough to appreciate the main character's unique magical affinity and its implications on her life, past and present. It's actually a pretty interesting trait that she has and one I haven't seen before, so that helped make this an interesting read for sure.

Overall, I was very happy to listen to this and the narrator was great. I definitely recommend giving it a try.

What All Fantasy WLW Novels Aspire to Be

I love how Flum comes to have agency over her life, and how she slowly discovers her love for Milkit. You can tell that they truly do love each other, without them saying it directly. I look forward to volume 2, and I hope they keep producing audiobooks for this series!

Great story!

The story does not mind getting very gritty with its characters and revenge. I also enjoy that Flum kinda takes a darker outlook on life after what she has been through. still overall a good person but with an edge to her decision making.

story is really, but, its ghey

While the lowkey romance between the main characters may come across as somewhat uncomfortable at times, the overall narrative captivates the reader's attention and immerses them in the journey. The development of their relationship, adds depth to the story and makes you genuinely invested in their happiness. As the plot unfolds, you find yourself cheering for them, hoping that they can overcome the challenges they face and find their way to each other. The engaging storytelling by the VA truly pulls you into their world, leaving you eager to listen and discover what happens next.

Typical Wannabe Anime Schlock

This has two of the most annoying anime tropes in literary form: 1) everyone is an over the top scumbag who is completely irredeemable not to mention stupidly evil. As in what they do isn't just wrong it's dumb and counterproductive. Selling the mc into slavery is the worst example of this (and it's part of the premise so it's not a spoiler) as it makes no sense, the character responsible has no believable motivation to do so beyond generic anime antagonist angst that stems from literally nowhere, it doesn't benefit him at all any more than her simply leaving the party particularly since he's rich, he overcharges for her despite her being "uselss" which could have needlessly sewn bad blood between him and the black market and the way he goes about it is illegal. Slavery is legal but it's tied to guilt. He doesn't frame the mc for a crime or anything. He breaks the law to get rid of her for literally no reason. Particularly when just asking her to leave would have done it since she didn't even want to be with them in the first place. But it's not just this. Everyone the mc runs into for the longest time is absolute scum. As if the very concept of empathy or just not making unnecessary enemies doesn't exist in this world. Even a couple of monsters are bit rapey. Like sure sure don't eat your prey, rip their clothes off first even though you're a mindless beast. Even the receptionist at the adventurer's guild is a scumbag. Like lady do your d*mn job nobody asked for your opinion and it literally costs you nothing to just issue a d*mn quest to get them registered upon completion. But even that's too much to ask because the author is clearly jaded and wants absolutely EVERYTHING and EVERYONE to suck. Even the portrayal of religious dogma and corruption is painfully ham fisted. I'm a fairly militant atheist. But at one point it's just dropped as a piece of exposition that healing magic is all that's allowed in the kingdom. Using medicine and the understanding of human anatomy to treat injuries and illnesses has been banned. Religious people can be pretty stupid don't get me wrong, but in a world of demons and monsters I just don't buy that medicine would be declared blasphemy, especially when there are conditions that magic can't heal. You're telling me if the royal family were to contract an illness that can't be treated with magic but could be treated by crushing a plant they keep in their garden or something to use as medicine that doing so would be illegal? What about lesser nobles and wealthy merchants? Sure sure corruption and all that but for medicine to be prohibited, even on paper, is stupid. But as with everything else, stupidity serves as the author's justification to make everything terrible. Even evil people and unjust systems endeavor to make a modicum of sense.

2) The mc doesn't have believable reactions to the way she's treated. She bites her lip when she should speak up. She speaks up when she should stay quiet. She goes to assault an employee of what has to be a pretty important establishment full of powerful people because she was getting sassed instead of just sassing back which would both be cathartic and would probably have solved her problem since the person in question had absolutely no leg to stand on.

The final issue I have with this is just how long winded this writing is. The book is short. But the author feels the need to explain the same situation like 5 times before moving on. Chapters 1 and 2 could probably be cut in half with absolutely nothing of substance lost, for example. This isn't the worst book I've read by a long shot but it is irritating to say the least.

ps: also for the love of God STOP CLOSING YOUR FCKIN EYES DURING FIGHTS! Literary nobody does this on purpose. it's not a good way to center yourself it's a complete surrender of your defenses. She's lucky that basically mindless monsters have enough decency to give her the time to focus.