I received this book from Netgalley/the publisher in exchange of an honest review.

I was delighted when I heard that Yen Press children/MG’s imprint would be adding light novels to the mix! So I just had to have this one + one about a mystery-solving boy and his ex-police dog (review to come in a few hours). And I can tell you, I need more of these books. They are so much fun!

And yes, this was definitely the one I was the most hyped about, Shiba Inu’s are cute and mysteries are fun, but mysteries with urban legends and horror? Sign me up!

In this one we travel through six towns and read about various urban legends! From someone who appears in your photographs (a creature named Little Nanoka) and good luck because she is coming for you. To a town with love spells and what happens when you use more than one (nothing good, yikes). To a red crayon and something strange happening at a house (and that one had me scared good especially when the revelations happened). The only one that I found less fun was the one about the the cat. I guess given the whole Fushigi thing it does fit with the story, but I would have rather had something scary instead of something bizarre. But the other stories? Love them. They weren’t overly scary (yes, I know it is a kid’s book, but I have read many a MG horror novel and know that you can still be terrifyingly scary) but all very fun and some had me look over my shoulder. I really loved meeting all these various characters in the towns and see what happens to them, will they live? Die? Something else?

The stories are all fast-paced and I found myself flying through the book. Which is quite rare for me for light novels. I don’t always read them because the translation can be stiff/unnatural, but while the translation felt a bit bumpy at times, for most it had a good flow, good pacing, and the sentences clicked together and didn’t feel too unnatural.

I am definitely curious about Fushigi Senno and the Faceless Kid (I don’t want to spoil but we get a pretty good hint at the end that had me go OMG). I loved how Fushigi tied all these stories together, how every time we got a new urban legend he was there in town. Sometimes he was too late to help, sometimes he helped out reluctantly, sometimes people didn’t listen, but he was always around. It definitely added a fun element to it. Not just urban legends and scary situations, oh no, there is someone here investigating and searching for someone/something. It just ties it up all together.

The manga art inside was a treat! They were so fun and sometimes made the stories more scary. I really liked the style!

All in all, I will be adding this book to my collection because I need it, plus, I would highly recommend this book to all if you are into scary (but not too scary) stories + urban legends!