Revese Harem or Not a Reverse Harem? Part 2 of 3: As The Villainess, I Reject These Happy-Bad Endings! (light novel)

The main character gets reincarnated as Iris du Chevalier; the villainess of her favorite otome game. No matter which love interest the protagonist chooses the ending will turn into something dark hence happy-bad and even worse for the villainess. The love interests are the controlling prince Reseda; sadistic knight, Nigel, and dangerous mage, Cytisus. While trying to change the events, she head-on faces the soilpox disease and in the process, people seem to think she's the holy maiden.  Disclaimer: a review copy was provided by publisher.

In my history of reverse harem, this is by far the most confusing reverse harem. Ever. After I started reading the novel I realized I misunderstood a tweet thinking it was a reverse harem. Then suddenly it's turning into one! But as I read further it veered away from the reverse harem route. It was a rollercoaster of emotions of disappointment it wasn't, then hope that it will become one after all and even relief that it ended up as not a reverse harem. And it's mainly for the reason that one of the love interests is problematic if ever it did become one. It's only now I realized that it's not that I was overthinking, the author intentionally will let you think that it might be something more. Please do note this blog is dedicated to reviews from a reverse harem perspective. I'm not taking this against the author when it's my fault really. In the end, I had a dose of my own happy bad ending. I enjoyed the book even though it wasn't what I expected. 

One of the things that I liked is the length of the novel since it's standalone. This is not about making a case of which is better, standalone or series, but it's good to have variety. I also liked that it goes beyond the game that is already familiar to Iris. There's still a rich, different world waiting with new places and supporting characters. And the fairies are such cute, hilarious gremlins and I wanted more from them.

I love the chemistry of the main couple. Iris is cute even without even trying and I get it how the prince is so possessive of her. My only problem is that she's too knowledgeable about vaccines.  It came out of nowhere since the only background that was established is that she's a 28-year-old apathetic otaku. If not for the pandemic we are living in now, the term efficacy and how the vaccines work would mean nothing to me.  I also find her background lacking even though I really enjoyed how natural she is in her new element. The second time I felt this was with I Fell Into a Reverse Harem Game (review on Patreon). Both titles were stingy in sharing anything from their past life. I want something from their past to hold onto, maybe even just a little bit, to make their reincarnated persona complete. 

For isekai/reincarnation/transmigration/otome game/villainess tropes I've read so far (they are only a handful though), this tops the sweet yet tragic endings. It does live with its title. The taboo endings are so vivid and romanticized. But the downside of having over-the-top doomed endings is that when the main character successfully thwarts the bad endings it's not that satisfying. You kind of wish one of the endings will come to fruition. You know when there's a doomsday movie and they successfully stopped the comet or something and even though they were saved you're like hmm is that's it? 

Even though it's standalone there is still a question that is left unanswered which leaves some room for a possible future installment.  Click on the villainess , otome reincarnation and medical tags for similarly themed reviews. But for a hyperspecific topic of vaccine, I recommend another Cross World title, Mia and the Forbidden Medicine Report.