Although her handling of it is still imperfect, I feel like Miri Mikawa is really trying to write about slavery in a way that's better than many other light novelists. It's still very close to antebellum American literature, but the bar is in hell, so I'll take what I can get on that front.
This vol was a rollercoaster of angst, danger, pining, and adventure. The themes are way deeper, complex, and more angsty than in the anime. And some things change, which always happen with adaptations, but it's interesting to contrast the changes and the parallels. I still have some problems with the narrator, little dialogue tags, underdescription, very concise style, and more telling than showing, but I guess that's the japanese LN style. I just wish that we had more dialogues and action than narration at times. In the LN they even mention more obstacles and angst that Challe and Anne need to face and overcome before they can be together. Like the fact that and that separate them, and Anne realizes this and feels anguished plus the angst of what Lafalla said. So the LN hints you a lot of things that will happen in the future, that aren't in the anime. For some reason the conversation of Challe x Anne felt more angsty to me in the anime than in the LN. Lafalle is also a great villain and more creepy, cunning, and seductive than in the anime, one of the best written villains I've encountered. There was some pining and romantic scenes, even though they aren't a couple.
Plot: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 Romance: ❤️/5 Cute moments: 🥰🥰🥰 Angst:😱😣😣😢😢/5 Action: 💥💥💥/5 World Building: 🌎🌎🌎🌎🌎/5 Character depth: ✨✨✨✨✨/5 Enjoyment: 😍😍😍😍😍/5 Connection to characters: 💗💗💗💗💗/5 Writing: 🖊️🖊️/5 Hea: HFN.
I find it slightly bizarre that I enjoyed this book more than book 4
Challe is captured again, this time by a murderous psychopath, and yet I'm not as upset at this book as I was with book four when Challe was taken by the mere brat
How? By all logic I should hate the selfish murderous psychopath more than the selfish shut in brat.
...You know what? I bet it's the anime's fault. They traumatized me by ending the first season (half?) with Challe getting taken away and made me wait an excruciatingly long time imagining what awful things could be happening. I doubt it would have been better if I'd just read the books either because book 3 ended that way and I would have had to wait until book 4 to get the resolution to that. That has to be what stirred my hatred of Bridget to a fever pitch. (well.. that and she's just REALLY annoying to watch. The narrative doesn't smack her around enough to give me catharsis)
The people who read/watch these things after they are all out and can get to the conclusions as fast as they can read are so freaking lucky, I tell you what...