I'd been looking forward to the novelization adaptation of The Summer Hikaru Died since I first heard about it and I wasn't disappointed! While the manga is good (and the upcoming anime looks like it's going to also be good), there's a whole different feeling about slipping into text-only (although this volume does have a few illustrations) descriptions, or rather, the feelings that can only really be slid into via text and the imagination in a way that illustrated comics can't as easily convey. (There's a note from the original author at the end too about how some scenes in the novel were things they couldn't include in the manga!)

The Summer Hikaru Died is a great queer horror, claustrophobic in a way only a small town horror can be. Hikaru and Yoshiki have known each other forever, and as such they're basically the only boys their age in their dying mountain town. So when Hikaru disappears, and *Hikaru* comes back, only Yoshiki can tell that there's something very different about him. I've always liked that *Hikaru* is never cagey about not being the boy that Yoshiki knew and although the mystery of what he really is is seemingly slowly revealed (I'm behind on the manga, but also this is only volume 1 of the novelizations), it really feels like *Hikaru* wants to be known as his own thing even outside of the body he wears, and is desperate for Yoshiki to recognize that... and to return his feelings-slash-keep the same feelings that he had for the old Hikaru.

There's a dread that's as thick as the island humidity, and even knowing that *Hikaru* is wrong... we (or at least I) kinda want to root for him anyway?

Looking forward to volume 2 (and I gotta catch up on the manga in the meanwhile!)

Thank you to Yen Press/Yen On for the eARC in exchange for review!

The summer Hikaru Died is a very well done light novel adaptation, the illustrations that accompany the text perfectly convey the feeling of the characters. Perfect for those who already knew the work and those who did not.
Thanks to NetGalley and publisher for this advanced reader's copy.

This was a book I couldn't put down. I found the writing was fast pace and kept me engaged. I love the art in the book and thought it was a nice touch to the story. I this the volume not only helps introduce you to many story aspects but does so in a way that makes this story be fully rounded while also setting up the next volume.

this was my first time getting into The Summer Hikaru Died accross all of its adaptations... so i knew very little about this story. i was pleasantly suprise at both the emotional depth and the complicated, messy themes it captures.

six months ago hikaru went missing. six months ago he returned, relatively unharmed to the relief of his loved ones. all except yoshiki. this <i>hikaru</i> may look and sound and act the same as his hikaru, but yoshiki knows that this is NOT his best friend. there is something wrong with <i>hikaru</i> but, nevertheles, yoshiki finds himself unable to forsake the being that wears his friend's face.

i actually loved the quiet, dreadful horror of this book. the terror and body horror sandwiched seamlessly between scenes not unfamiliar in a slice of life. i loved the exploration of both yoshiki and hikaru's love. hikaru, who dying, wished for his best friend to not be alone. yoshiki, who is unable to let go of this hikaru who terrifies him, because his hikaru was all he ever had. and i also really loved the exploration of <i>hikaru</i>, who was so new to everything and so very attached, almost childishly so, to yoshiki.

the thing that kinda broke this adaptation for me was the dialogue. or rather, the translation of the dialogue. i don't speak japanese, so i don't know if the folk living in rural japan sound like they're from the american south, they may very well do. but it was difficult to read almost every line of dialogue and <i>thought</i> have that southern vernacular in it. the "naw's" and the "dang's" and the "ya's" (among many others) was just a bit too much all the time for me.

ok ok… so I know this one’s a pretty popular manga and anime (is the anime out yet?idk), but I somehow managed to avoid spoilers and OMG, this was better than I imagined!

The translation/localization was really goood! I mean some of the parts read a bit awkwardly—but I think mostly because certain things just don’t translate well into English. I can only imagine the stress the poor translator/editors were under, especially with lines about purposeful mispronunciations and accurately translating accents.

The Story:
Don’t look at anything but me

It’s kind of weird and gross, but the relationship dynamic between Yoshiki and Hikaru/Hikaru is soo good. Yoskiki can’t let go of Hikaru even though Hikaru is not really Hikaru anymore. This was way more angsty than I expected and for such a short book (I finished it in a day), I was surprised by how much I got into it. I will definitely be buying a copy next time I decide to bulk order English books.

Is it BL?
I would say so, I mean the whole reason Yoshiki can’t give up on Hikaru is because he had such strong feelings for Hikaru. I think the book was quite clear about Yoshiki’s feelings. This is mainly a horror light novel but the queer undertones are very much present and essential to the story.

random bits and bobs
pet peeves: “ill at ease.” Idk why, but this phrase is like moist to me—it just rubs me the wrong way hahaha

Also, if i read the afterword correctly, this light novel was adapted from the manga, which is cool! Usually they make the manga from the light novel (I think).

GOD this was good. I was told by a friend that I'd love The Summer Hikaru Died, and that friend was so, so correct. I feel like it was written just for me.

So there's this thing about stories where the story's content is also a metaphor for queerness (or another marginalization, but with horror and the monstrous there's often a particular queer bent, more on that in a second). There are two ways to do it. The first is that the metaphor is a direct 1:1, and in these cases it often doesn't work satisfactorily because the thing that is happening is also the thing that is being said and so it often, hm, accidentally undercuts its own message. X-Men is an example of this type. Don't get me wrong, I love the X-Men, but it is very blatantly "Being a mutant is the same as [other marginalization -- queerness, or civil rights, etc]. You're born to be this way and then everyone is cruel to you as you struggle to find a place." The reason it often doesn't work is that this is speaking to people outside the community in question, trying to convince them, and, as mentioned, the 1:1-ness of it undercuts its message: if a mutant is the same as a black person than the fact that person sucks your entire lifeforce out if she touches you is, uh, implying something. If a child is repeatedly exploding and killing people and is also an explicit 1:1 metaphor for being gay you are implying that queer children are inherently dangerous to those around them (this was a Northstar storyline btw, not making that one up).

The other way this is done is that the events that are happening in the story are the straightforward events, but the feelings they evoke and how people react to them is a metaphor for the marginalized person's <i>lived experience</i>. In this case, they're speaking to the people who share that experience, not trying to convince those outside it. So, like, for example, maybe your friend died and you found the body and didn't tell anyone and then later that friend came back and you know something else is puppetting your friend's body and you can't tell anyone else, obviously, but if you address it with him then it's a secret between the two of you and you're a little afraid as the two of you experiment in locked rooms with touching the monster inside your best friend's body, and you're also excited, and it feels terrifying but it also feels good, and nobody can know that your friend is different than he's supposed to be and nobody can know you're indulging in this difference and you miss how simple things used to be but you can't stop this and you want it so much. You're so afraid what would happen if anyone knew. Same as you saw how people talked when someone else in your village turned out to be gay.

You know, exactly what the Summer Hikaru Died is about.

Horror stories often appeal to queer folks like myself for this reason -- the things horror wants to talk about are usually about metaphors for marginalization. If you've been told over and over again in various places in your life, active or passive, casual or aggressive, that what you are and how you live is abhorrent, unnatural, some kind of abomination, then you either have to make it so you hear less of this (hiding, denial), or embrace it knowing you will hear more of it actively, and even reclaim it. (Think slogans you've probably seen around like "Not gay as in happy but queer as in fuck you"). Horror often speaks to this sense of reclamation of abhorrence. A lot of it is about sympathy for the monster. (Sadako, intersex woman, thrown down a well to die, furious and desperate for revenge) or recognition of how that horror icon reflects a societal situation (Pinhead, genderqueer leather bdsm icon, reflecting lust and pain and fear in the gay community of the 1980s, etc). There's some great reading folks can do on queer horror; do a quick search for queer horror and begin following the links. But it's a known thing. "It's not uncommon for a future queer, brown boy to feel like an outcast in rural Georgia, so naturally I was enveloped by the genre. In my later life, it came to be that I found a community with these like-minded individuals who also widely shared queer identities." - Kenneth Figueroa (<a href="https://www.wussymag.com/all/haunted-the-intersections-of-queer-culture-and-horror-movies">Haunted: The intersections of queer culture and horror movies</a>)

Anyway, the thing is, The Summer Hikaru Died gets this and embraces it fully, as you could probably have guessed from the above summary. The events are what are happening, but what it's about is the sticky-hot summer tension, the screaming cicadas, the sense of small-town scrutiny, secrets shared together that the protagonist Yoshiki is as scared of as anyone, but that he needs, not just because he was in love with his best friend who died and this is all that was left of him, but because the creature that's now wearing his skin returns his feelings in a way the real Hikaru never could and because that thing understands him in a way the real Hikaru never could.

The horror writing in this is top notch. It's scary. It's erotic -- not as in sex but as in the longing and tension and unresolved sense of that physical fear and want. It's tense and unblinking and at the same time a soft, slow, sticky summer. This is an adaptation of the manga, but it's so clear the author loved the book and I wasn't surprised that the afterwords showed a real mutual admiration between the adaptation's author and the original mangaka's reading of the adaptation.

This is probably the first book I've ever read that feels like it was written exactly for me, with exactly my fictional tastes in mind, full of the things that I want to both write and read. I feel like I could have written this (not in terms of like quality, but in terms of the content I want to tell stories about), and it makes me want to revive some of my older stories that I wrote that had similar content that I shelved because I wasn't sure they could find an audience.

Five stars. Thank you to Yen Press and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

this story was definitely better told as a manga (and hopefully anime whenever that finally comes out), because the art style was able to capture the silent horror and creeping sadness of it all but this definitely made the undertone of romance shine more and I'll take this story in any format I can get it

Thank you to NetGalley and Yen Press/Yen On for the e-book copy!

I got into this series through the manga and have been enjoying it with each new release. Once i saw it would get a novel adaptation, I knew I wanted to give it a read. I can say because this came after the manga it is very 1:1 adaptation. If the novel was the original adaptation, then i would feel more inclined to praise it. However, I left this feeling like you are better off going with the manga rather than this. You can read this if you are already a fan as this is not bad and the novel is pretty. However, if you are a just starting out read the manga first as it seems to be the better route.

It was strictly okay! If you know the manga, then you know this. I was hoping for more, like further insights that would be lacking in a more visual medium like a manga, but there really wasn't anything extra I could sink my teeth into. I also had trouble finding it creepy (starting where it did, for example, kinda ruins the record scratch moment at the very beginning which was done really well before and here, not so much) and the writing was so simple, it didn't really bring much to the imagination nor did it draw me in. But honestly, that's okay! I still have the manga. The novelization just isn't for me.

Let me start by thanking Yen Press for giving me an e-ARC of this book! I'm a big fan of the manga and have been following this series for a while now. This light novel reads in a simple way, by that, I mean the language is simple and easy-to-follow, almost as if this book is targeted towards middle-grade readers. It also doesn't really add anything new to the established story from the manga, apart from additional inner dialogue and geographical context. I like the full-color illustration when you open the book and the additional unseen illustrations were pretty sweet to see too. I'd recommend this book to people who've read the first two volumes of The Summer Hikaru Died manga and see how the visual language was adapted into the written language. I'd redirect new fans to the manga first before this light novel adaptation.

While this light novel doesn’t dive too deep into uncharted territory, it does offer a few fresh angles on the characters that long-time fans will appreciate. It’s a good pick for those already familiar with the manga or for readers who want to get a feel for the story before the anime drops.

The writing itself is on the simpler side—and at times felt a bit awkward—so if you're torn between this and the manga, I'd lean toward the manga for a smoother experience. That said, I still enjoyed the added layers in character interactions and relationship dynamics.

All in all, it's a nice bonus for fans of the series, and I’d still recommend it for what it brings to the table!

Yoshiki's best friend went missing in January five days later he reappeared from what felt like thin air. But the Hikaru that came back was nothing like the Hikaru that left, and when Yoshiki confronts him, he's not shocked to find out that something is wearing his best friend's body.

This is nothing like what I expected, and honestly, I'm okay with that. The mystery of just what Hikaru *is* and whether or not he is this evil thing is genuinely going to keep me reading, not just the light novel series but start the manga as well. And the thing that really gets me is the story is kind of eluding the fact that there was something not good on the mountain so for Hikaru to just willy nilly invite any old thing to take care of his bestie seems wrong. And yeah, I could be way off the mark there, but it's only volume 1.

Yoshiki's reliance on both Hikaru's is interesting as well, and it almost justifies Hikaru's asking *anything* to stay by his side. Yoshiki doesn't want to be alone but it's not just that he doesn't want to be alone he only wants one person and thats Hikaru so as long as it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck he's pretty much able to accept any version of a duck. That's unhealthy, to say the least. Although with all of the talk about his family being just a tad bit dysfunctional, it makes sense. But what I think Yoshiki really needs is a counselor.

Finally, what the heck is up with his sister? Even without the undead bestie and the unhealthy almost obsession Yoshiki has with him, all of the stuff with her not going to school would be enough to keep reading. Is she sick? Just spoiled like the villagers keep saying? Like wth?

Overall, this isn't necessarily even creepy, yup even with Hikaru's weird insides, or at least this volume wasn't it's more like a mystery that just happens to have an undead guy in it and I thoroughly enjoyed it!

As always, thanks to NetGalley and Yen Press for the eArc!

As a fan of the manga, I enjoyed this! Thank you to NetGalley and Yen Press for the ARC.

There are a few new insights into the characters, but nothing extreme, so recommending this to existing fans of the manga, or for anyone who would prefer a novel to read before the anime adaptation comes out. I will say that the language used in this light novel is fairly simple I found it a bit clunky, so if someone is choosing between the novel and manga, I think they should go with the latter. But I did enjoy the story and additions to the character dynamics/relationships, so overall recommending this!

I received an e-ARC and am giving my honest review!

I am a MASSIVE fan of The Summer Hikaru Died manga, first read the first volume back in 2023 and have honestly thought about it every day since. I just wrote my final in my last English class on it, as well.

To start off, the novel starts with a chapter from the real Hikaru’s perspective as he is dying. I can’t remember if there is one in the manga, but I know that wasn’t how it started and I really liked that refreshing beginning. Not only to it add some background to Hikaru and “Hikaru,” but it gives the reader more insight on how much Yoshiki and Hikaru’s relationship is reciprocated. We don’t see many scenes between the real Hikaru and Yoshiki, and none from Hikaru’s POV. This certainly adds to the part of the story that is around Yoshiki and Hikaru’s relationship, and made “Hikaru’s” existence a bit more sweet than bitter, in some ways.

I don’t know if I just don’t remember as much as I thought I did, but this novel definitely felt like it leaned into the romantic aspects of this story more than the manga does. Which isn’t a bad thing! It was definitely a side I’m interested in, my previously mentioned essay was about devotion shown through the selfishness Yoshiki feels in being unable to kill “Hikaru” because fake Hikaru is better than no Hikaru.

It was incredibly interesting to read with descriptions of surroundings and especially that of the scene in the storage room. I felt like that was really able to grow in regards to the reader understanding how both Yoshiki and “Hikaru” felt during it. The manga is obviously incredible, and the artwork is to die for, this was just a new and unique perspective we hadn’t gotten before!

This is incredible novel adaptation of Mokumokuren’s manga and am anxiously awaiting the next volume translated to novel form! Super excited for the anime coming out this summer on Netflix as well. This is one of those can’t miss one-in-a-million series I can never recommend enough, no matter what media it’s in.

When I first heard of this series, it was an announcement for the upcoming anime, which immediately had me interested. When I saw that there was a light novel version, I had to pick it up and boy, am I glad I did. This story had me feeling chills. Being in Yoshiki's head as he navigates his friendship with "Hikaru" is such a fascinating ride. I can't wait to read more.

Thank you NetGalley and Yen Press for letting me read this early!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for this ARC in exchange for my honest review!!

This series means everything to me and I’m so glad we are giving it more attention. I mean more and more please. Hikaru is my son and I will love this monster boy until my dying breath.

absolutely devoured this novel!
if you watched the anime and read the manga then I highly recommend the novel. the art style in this novel is stunning and the flow of the novel is amazing. this horror mystery is one of a kind!