All I wanted was a simple life

Information

Status

Completed

Year

2023

Author

mialbowy

• Ch. 5 Not according to the plan
  Apr 5, 2023
• Ch. 4 Building up
  Apr 4, 2023
• Ch. 3 First rain
  Apr 3, 2023
• Ch. 2 Expanding her diet
  Apr 2, 2023
• Ch. 1 Are you satisfied?
  Apr 1, 2023

Reviews

Community Reviews(7)

• MDWRoyal Road

  ★★★★★ 5.0

  No memes. No blue boxes. No cheat powers. No elf waifu (so far). No automated translation. No currency that can be conveniently converted to 100 yen.
  This review will feel like an essay. If it is too long for the reader, I apologize. Bu there's a reason for it being this long. If it falls into your TL;DR length, then perhaps...
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  What most portal fantasy stories lack (guilty as charged), this one has in spades. The feeling of actually being in another world, the estranged traveler struggling with the most basic things.
  This is not a "video game world" where everything is a specific Pantone color or over-saturated. Not even a grimdark world where the characters get screwed over just for the sake of it.
  This is not your average fast-food story either. I would even say it is not meant for the over-stimulated YA audience.
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  Style:
  I am a suspicious person to rate this story. I love Mialbowy's work. I first found it due to my interest in finding a good female-to-male gender gender story. I was not left wanting. Then I checked Mialbowy's profile and binged her other portal fantasy story instantly. I was in awe and love.
  Go read Vanquishing Evil for Love. It has my platinum stamp of approval. And it is finished.
  This is not a Young Adult story. The pace is slow, a tale to be savored like cognaq and not as a shot of Taurine-laced energetic to keep the clubbing going. It requires maturity and patience to be fully experienced.
  And yet, every interaction feels real and important. For the character and for our reflection (in both senses) upon them, they matter. Even the weaving of straws to make a flimsy wall.
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  Story:
  I always preach: "Don't fight the story's premise. See if they deliver what they promised." One should not try to bend the story to the readers' expectations. One should instead let the story take them to whatever wonderland lies beyond the next page.
  It's a slice of life. A simple (in the surface) character who wishes for a simple life. It starts at the ba
• BunchalettersplusbunchanumbersRoyal Road

  ★★★★★ 5.0

  This is one of the best web novels I have read. It's not perfect, nothing is, but the love and thought the author puts into their writing is truly inspiring.
  What I find most intriguing about this story is how it takes two genres that are frequently used for escapism on this site, isekai and girls love (especially isekai), and uses them to create a genuinely introspective and emotionally driven story. And unlike a lot of other great isekais, it's not great in spite of the isekai elements. No, the author uses the genres to further the story's themes and the development of the main character Louise.
  Speaking of Louise, she is incredibly well written. Her emotions feel real, her faults feel real, she herself feels real. Everything about her is almost tangible. And it is very important that she is written this way, as she is the vehicle for how we, the readers, experience this story. Everything from the themes, other characters, and even world building are filtered and dictated by Louise.
  The world building is especially interesting, again, some of the best I've seen on this site. And that might seem weird considering how many blind spots are in it. We don't even see what larger society even looks likes. But I think those blind spots are what makes it so great. We experience the world through Louise, so we only know what she knows, and she only knows what she cares to knows. As is indicated by the title, all she wanted was a simple life, so there is no need to explore larger society or dive deeper into the intricacies of magic.
  What is explored is done so with great detail. I can't imagine the amount of thought the author put into creating the little mannerisms, speech patterns, and cultural differences that people from this new world have. The dialogue in particular is great. In the beginning it feels choppy and unnatural, like reading a rough translation of a foreign language. But as Louise gets more accustomed to it, the dialogue starts to flow better, even if some q
• I_DunnoRoyal Road

  ★★★★★ 5.0

  A beautiful short story and I binged it in one go.
  I like the fact that the author didn't just give the mc the ability to speak every language (a theme common to most isekai stories) and even points out the contrast between earth gestures and this world's gestures
  Thanks for thelovely work, author!
• OnlyuriRoyal Road

  ★★★★★ 5.0

  Once i found this I binged it over the course of a few hours and I enjoyed every chapter. My only critique(not actual criticism)  would be that I feel like the goddess could have give her an extra blessing since what she asked for was so small compared to what the goddess offered.
• luda305Royal Road

  ★★★★ 4.0

  From the synopsis, we seem to be promised a story about a girl going to a new land, living reclusively in the wilderness in the survivalist type situation or for lack of better word homesteading.
  And that does seem to be what we get in the first arc, sprinkled with a bit of satisfaction at their new reclusiveness after an unpleasant time at the orphanage.
  But in the second (friendship) and third (travel) arcs, we instead get a young adult novel about a traumatized young adult struggling with herself and getting introduced to the people of the land she's stranded in. Imagine if you would a viking orphan with attachment issues getting shipwrecked and landing in the new world where she meets a Pocahontas like figure with a bunch of bad language leading and a little bit of magic. That's about what we get here.
  In short, the Isekai is set dressing that really had minimal impact on the story or well even the setting.
  I should also point out that the survivalist arc, however brief, has a lot of simplification and feels a bit like Animal Crossing.
  Now while I do think the emotional content of the interaction between the protagonist and the Pocahontas is very fraught and realistic, i disagree that it's a particularly mature interaction. Rather, it's strikingly immature: a pair of 18 year olds who don't have a good grip on who they are or what they should do (with the caveat that for narrative purposes we don't get s good glimpse at the other characters background ). I find this particularly striking with her choice of boon from the goddess (no periods) which assuming it's not just a narrative choice to simplify the story, rings as a juvenile, rash decision borne from a negative emotional reaction to a hard puberty.
• tikiiriaRoyal Road

  ★★★ 3.0

  Pacing was weird to me. For some reason a city girl orphan who claimed to struggle and memorize is able to pull survival tricks like foraging, starting a friction fire, making a camp from branches, and thread from reeds. It just doesn´t seem likely to learn from a podcast AND succeed first time. Learning a new language within weeks with hand-signs as a basis is a big nope unless the Goddess gave her a language perk.
  I really never got a so what or why or plot beyond wander around. The world felt holey. So many things were missing and I would have liked more of the world described.
  The grammar was good outside of the new language being annoying to read.
• BrGastlRoyal Road

  ★★★ 2.5

  Through blurb and the start of the novel you would expect a girl which gets isekaid, lives a little reclusive and does her own thing - surviving in the wilderness.
  What I like about the novel is that its a story in which the MC doesn't get isekaid and gets by by using "cheat skills". It takes pace and expectations out of the story. Though thats also a weakpoint since what could have made this novels strong - The struggles and contentment to overcome them on her own and enjoying a fancy night alone at the fireplace after a hard day of work - is not what we get here from the MC.
  We see a girl getting basically no hard setbacks. Even in a pure-blooded SOL you will have struggles of life featured though this is not as much of a theme in this one since the author wants you to believe that a girl sleeping outside in a different world with basically no previous survival equipment would feel pure contentment. Not to mention the MC is on multiple fronts gifted enough to make you wonder, if she has trained for that her whole life, but somehow is just a run of the mill orphanage victim who had most of her time taken caring for the smaller ones though that obviously doesn´t hinder her overcoming troubles in the present in a very fast manner - its feels like a fast paced SOL.
  What I mean by that? Having the need to learn a new language, but being able to do it in a very short time/few paragraphs. Or somehow being seemingly risen in a orphanage/city though having the ability to pull survival tricks out of your ass. It just doesn´t make sense and stresses the reader in a weird way. Like someone wanting to brainwash you that learning a new language within weeks with hand-signs as a basis is totally normal - why not try it yourself its totally chill! Those huge jumps don´t happen only within the abilities form the MC it seems one of the fundamental Mantras of the MC "Not pleasing people anymore" is thrown into uncertainty already early on without much of a slow progression or an "AH