I really enjoyed this book. I figured out half of the mystery just from the title/synopsis, but I didn't get the twists at all, but then again, I'm not one to try to figure things out, so they have to be VERY obvious for me to get them or it has to be a very well-placed trail of bread crumbs for me to follow.

And the bread crumbs were there and I felt SO SMART as I figured things out alongside of the characters, lol.

The story is very sad, but it is also hopeful and up-lifting as well. It's told from different POVs, with one reporter character interviewing the other characters to figure out the mystery of, well, the title.

The Hero is the most interesting of all of the characters. I would have loved to see some more from his POV. It is very humanizing to see how the others in the Hero's party viewed him at first and then how their thoughts and beliefs changed after getting to know him.

The ending, OOF! Now there is heartbreak and hope. I won't spoil it for you, but it was very moving, to me. I was going to give this four stars, but after writing this review, I talked it up enough to myself to give it the full five. I want this in my personal library and I'm curious to see what volume 2 will be like, as this story arc has been concluded definitely.

5, I am intrigued and want to read the next one and recommend this one for sure, stars.

My thanks to NetGalley and Yen Press/Yen On for a eARC of this book to read and review,

This book got archived before I downloaded it so I unfortunately cannot provide feedback. Thank you to Daken and Yen Press for the E-arc nonetheless.

Who Killed the Hero?, Vol. 1
Story by Daken | Illustration by toi8

I really enjoyed this story! It's told in an interviewer-style format, so most of the narrative unfolds through the perspectives of the people being interviewed. I liked how the mystery surrounding the Hero slowly unravels, with the truth being revealed bit by bit.

It’s a lighthearted, simple, and charming read with a unique structure that kept me intrigued from start to finish.

Thank you to NetGalley, Yen Press, and Yen On for the eARC!

DNF@ 60%

I originally picked this up thinking it was a comic, so it was kind of a weird experience opening it only to be met by pages of words. I still committed to give a review, so I let go of that original idea and dove in. What I was welcomed with was a bit disappointing.

I really believe this book had potential, but I don’t think it has reached it. It’s the kind of story that could have easily been a 4-5 stars to me, as I love figuring out a mystery, and it’s not a genre that is often mixed with fantasy—my favourite genre.

In my opinion, the writing leaves something to be desired. A lot of the descriptions was very matter-of-facts, and more often than not it felt like I was reading a bad Wattpad fanfiction. Contrarily to other reviews, I don’t hate the interview style at all, but every time I would get immersed, the author would hit me with a "Leon grinned. His smile was cocky yet endearing." and that would absolutely take me out of it. I haven’t looked into it, but I wouldn’t be surprise if this was a debut.

I wasn’t a fan of the choice of point of view, either. The entire book is in first person, but each chapter is from a different character, and from experience, it’s just not something that comes off great unless you’re very skilled at your craft. At some point, you do get used to it, but that doesn’t mean I really was enjoying it.. The worst of it is definitely at the start, where in the first 10% you get:
-a prologue with the pov of The Princess at 12 years old,
-the first chapter being an interviewer point of view (who end up being the grown up Princess),
-then you get the first fragment with the point of view of The Hero,
-AND THEN you’re about to start get another fragment with the point of view of Leon.

Basically every chapter is a different character, although certain characters come back as you go.

The problem with being in all of those different people’s head—other than just being.. a lot—is that there is A Lot of repetition. The interview portion end up resuming most of their time at school with the hero, which is why I think most people didn’t like it, because then you would go and read two chapters that are.. that character time at school with the hero… It felt like hearing the same information given to us three times, in a slightly different way. (Because yes, you also get The Hero pov everytime)

I found myself finally developing interest when they mentioned something new, but otherwise I was just going through the motions. I wish the interview portion would be a big resume of their time with The Hero, and then we could get more of a character study on each member of the party—which I think is what the author tried to do, but it was too concentrated on the big picture rather than a small individual moment that could be built and emotional. The Hero point of view, especially, do not give us anything at all. There is a single sentence that I felt was relevant for later, the entire rest of its existence did not prove itself to me. Anything we learned about him in those chapters, was doubled down on in the one following with the party member point of view. The whole book just felt so repetitive.

I actually genuinely think this could have been so good as a comic, since the format means most of the descriptions would have been showed through drawings—especially because it doesn’t seem to be the author strong suit, and it would have also cut the repetition at some level.

I also thought the pace itself was a bit strange, considering it was marketed as a mystery. The overwhelming question thought-out the whole book should have been WHO KILLED THE HERO? And yet, somehow, once you pass the 50% mark this is a question you have the answer to. From this point on, I found my interest dwindling fast, and was only still reading because I wanted to know if my theory was confirmed. I had assumed it was just one of those books that sell it a bit too early, and would still be reading until the end, so imagine my surprise, when I get my theory confirmed only a few pages later. I DNFed shortly after that, seeing no point in continuing now that the big question had been answered. This actually bring on my other main problem with this book, the characters.

If you want to make a story that plays on itself, and change it’s theme halfway through, you either need a really good switch-up hook, or you need to have built a deep relationship with the cast of characters, so that people just want to see them to their end goal. This book did none of those things, in my opinion. The character arcs in the first half were, quite frankly, disappointing.

Leon’s story was a try at subverting the character trope of a rich, skilled with a sword, and powerful son of aristocracy; it was a poor attempt. This is the type of story you have to put more than a single chapter into, simply trying to tell us that he’s ‘always been a strong believer that the nobles are there to defend the commoners’ and that is why he was mean to the commoner Hero is, quite frankly, almost rude to the reader. It just feels like an extremely stupid reasoning as you read it, and since the story doesn’t take the time to explore it, it falls flat. This, once again, could have been interesting if we weren’t in their head and the story was progressing at a mystery pace—where everyone is suspicious, where you get informations bit by bit that disprove that he’s like all the other noble, and would have had no reason to kill the hero.

Looks are another thing I've been praised for since I was young, which factored into people calling me the Holy Maiden. This had everything to do with my parents, however, and nothing to do with God.

Maria’s story is heartbreaking in lost potential, with the ever used ‘angel-looking Saintess who’s secretly a sadist’ trope, which honestly at this point is extremely boring and overused. There was, however, an interesting understory—that once again didn’t get explored to focus on her relationship with the Hero—with her relationship with God. She is the only person that can truly perceive his intend since being born, and because of this she knows he has no interest in humanity; that’s so interesting! I would have loved to truly explore this aspect of her character, where she tries to teach someone healing magic when God has no interest on him—without focussing on her fucked up personality where she just drag him around, it could have been interesting to make a parallel where he stand as humanity or something and she finally decide to force God to care or something. Frankly, I don’t know, but I just kept hopping we were going to go somewhere with her and then we never did. Even worse, when she was mentioned in another character chapters, they simply emptied up the sadistic aspect of her personality for no reason. She had my favorite line in the book, and it actually for a moment gave me hope for the writing style.

Solon’s story is actually the one I have the least opinion about, other than it actually as a different problem than the other two, and because of it the story was my favorite. The problem with it, is that we later learn that he was The Hero best-friend, yet we actually don’t see interaction between them all that much—other than him like absolutely insulting The Hero to oblivion, which doesn’t really help the idea. However, this make it that we get a lot more of a view into new informations that isn’t just stuff we saw twice already. Since he gets a lot of alone scenes, we get to learn more about the magic system, as well as who he is and what he believes in. (You could say the only person who didn’t get that all that much is actually Maria, but Leon part of that was so stupid to me that honestly I don’t know if it count) He seems to be relevant more to the rest of the story though, so I’m guessing that’s why?

He had one daughter, who was a year younger than me, and we learned swordplay together as if we were siblings. She really took after my uncle with her muscles; if she'd been a boy, she might have surpassed me as a swordsman. I had our rivalry to thank for sharpening my skills.

To finish off, there was just a general hint of misogyny woven throughout the text. Nothing big, but small comments here and there—obviously mixed with the treatment of Maria character—that ticked me off. Just… strange choices, here and there.

I truly appreciate the effort and vision behind this story, and I can see what the author was trying to achieve. However, I struggled to connect with it due to the structure, pacing, and rhythm. The writing felt a bit off, and the interview concept, while interesting, didn’t quite hit the mark for me—it needed more development to truly enhance the story.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to finish it, but I still want to thank the author and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book. Every read is a chance to learn and grow, and I look forward to seeing what this author does next!

I decided not to publish this review in my channels. Thank you!

this was better than i had expected. it was more poignant and sincere than i had initially thought it'd be. i'm not sure if i like the interview format of it though. the fragments were more interesting, but maybe the interview sections would have been better after the fragments? the plot of this volume is quite literally to answer who killed the hero, but i don't find that to be a very good........point for reading this. it could have had a better presentation of the question, or framed differently. it has the potential to be better.

thank you to netgalley and yen on for the eARC!

Who Killed the Hero?, Vol. 1 is a story that is presented in a very interesting way: through interviews to unravel the relationships that existed around the hero. A timeless exploration that delves into the details that define the relationships between characters.
Thanks to NetGalley and publisher for this advanced reader's copy.

Ares the Hero, was as plain as he could be. He wasn't the best at swordsmanship, that honor went to his friend Leon. His divine blessing for healing spells was miniscule at best, his other friend Maria though stood close to god so her healing skills were miraculous. And he could barely create a tiny flame with his magic, his very best friend Solon, though, was a magical prodigy. Together with his friends Ares sets out and defeats the Demon Lord, a victory that is bittersweet as Ares loses his life on the way back to the capital, leaving an entire kingdom to wonder Who Killed the Hero?

This was absolutely wonderful and if it doesn't get an anime there is no justice in this world!

Told from the perspectives of the people who knew Ares best an interviewer goes around the Kingdom to not only unravel the mystery of how the Hero died but who exactly was he? Every interview leads the reader a little bit closer to the truth by leaving just tiny pieces of information that if you don't pay attention when you finally find out who killed the hero you will be shocked! However, even if you do figure it out before the big reveal getting to know Ares and his friends is just a ton of fun.

There are a couple of things that put this over the top for me though. One is that Ares is and is not a reluctant Hero. Ares feels a deep obligation to many people to defeat the Demon Lord, even if it kills him, however, he never wanted to do this and because he spends a lot of time comparing himself to other people he genuinely doesn't believe he's the right guy for the role. Which in all honesty is almost aggravating, Ares is just a decent and kind person and the people around him want to be better because of who he is. He is quite simply a Hero.

The other thing is this is truly a story about never giving up and believing in other people. Ares doesn't defeat the demon lord because he's the strongest, the most skilled, or the one with some sort of innate talent; he does because he never stops trying no matter how difficult the task and because of this he is a natural-born leader able to see people's strengths and utilizing them effectively without being a jerk about it. But mostly he simply trusts and believes in his friends.

Highly recommend this for literally everyone, whether you watch anime or read light novels or not it was just simply a bright light.

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

This one didn’t really feel like anything special. At least it wasn’t creepy, but I feel like that’s a low bar to set.

The characters didn’t really stand out (the female characters especially, were pretty archetypal and I think were done dirty by the story overall. Alexia is supposedly super competent in her own right and she spends all that effort chasing after some guy? Pass) and the structure made it so you didn’t really get to see the main cast interact as a group (only one-on-one with the Hero). And also because of the story structure, we didn’t get much action or movement. Almost all of the fighting and traveling took place off-page

I would have liked to see a bit more thrashing against the very strict cyclical nature of the world rather than just accepting that they’ll be doing the whole thing over again in a few decades