Otherworldly - A Dark Journey (BOOK 2 &3 STUBBING 1/31)

Otherworldly is an incredibly character-focused story with professional-level grammar. The prose reads well, which is important because a large amount of time is spent inside the main character’s head.

Otherworldly balances three or four main focuses: the mystery of the world that the main character, Nora has found herself in and the power she is rapidly gaining; Nora’s grief, anxiety, and character growth; heavy interpersonal conflict with both clearly-antagonistic and ambiguous actors; and less so at the start but picking up slowly, action and adventure. 

The best part, in my opinion, is that it does all this wrapped up in a comforting amount of incredible cuteness. 

The first arc is focused most on Nora’s growth as a character. She has just suffered a huge loss and has been dumped into a bad situation with no support, and must get her feet back under her and begin to look forward again. 

The second arc is when the mystery of the world, its gods, and Nora’s power is brought more into focus. We begin to see snippets of action here, as well. Nora remains the cutest ever.

By the beginning of the third arc, it looks like the the big conflicts Nora has with her family that were put on the backburner throughout arc 2 have made a big comeback, and things seem to be gearing up for more action, too. Nora continues her incredible cuteness, but now with developing determination and badassery.  

If you have tolerance for the sort of introspective story that spends a large amount of time in one character’s head, I highly recommend reading Otherworldly. 

Great isekai type story. Protagonist’s original world has magic and technology, and in decline. She’s older, strong, competent, well loved and happy with her life but is forced into a new world for the gods‘ shits and giggles. They mix her soul with a neglected child. The MC has lost much of her memories and loses more of her old self if she talks about it, forcing her identity to change. Moreover, the soul and identity of the 8 year old remains a voice and presence in the MC’s identity.  The world is fascinating with a cool but simple system. Her class mixes well with her (their) characters, one of shadows and concealment. She has potential to be strong, but it’s a dangerous world with powerful classers and gods who want to stack the deck for or against her for whatever fickle reason. Isekai makes you question a person’s identity and how fluid it is. Lots of great side characters, especially the knights and the MC’s mother (who we don’t see enough of) and characters they meet on their journey. It’s great stuff. Love reading it. 

Great setting and world-building. This story does a good job using the right words to build a scene in every aspect of it and do so in a way that allows you to visualize it in your mind. The mythical and historical side of the world is also very interesting. And our protagonist's "unique" character is pretty cool.

The problem is the tone of the story and the protagonist. The tone lacks balance, as it becomes too depressing in a way that only exhausts the reader. And the protagonist is, and I'm being generous here, a disturbed creature filled with nothing but boundless hatred for everything around her, good or bad. The worst part is that she is extremely ungrateful to, well, everything; the list is so long it would never fit in this review.

I'm not saying this story isn't for anyone, but honestly, I don't think a majority would enjoy this kind of reading.

This is a very good story. It calls to your depression as well as your hatred. Anybody that enjoys Horrible Family Manhwas will enjoy this. Especially since unlike many of those stories. This one very obviously doesn't involve forgiving said family. 
I read a lot. You pick up things in the first couple chapters if this will involve the MC forgiving there shitty family. DEFINITELY NOT FOR THIS FAMILY!!!🎉😎🎉

I really like this story. It's not a typical work, since a lot of the story revolves around the protaganist trying to hide and develop their abilities, but it creates an interesting tension.

The System is well implemented and receives a lot of focus in the story. The protaganist isn't yet at the power level to stand alone yet and is dependent on others.

I recommend reading it without expectation and just letting it go where it goes. I like the characters and the concept. It was a good binge read, but it is still mid flight!

I happen to enjoy the more slow paced content compared to the more rushed pace of many other series, but this is something which, well Your mileage may vary.

Stylistically and grammatically the writing is pretty well done, and I do not really have any complaints in this area. I am not a professional editor, but I do have a fairly discerning eye when it comes to prose, and nothing here struck me as clumsy or distracting. The flow of the sentences feels natural, and I was never pulled out of the narrative because of awkward wording.

I wish we could spend more time seeing the inner selves of the other characters. The interludes are nice, but I would love for them to go deeper so that I could better grasp what truly motivates everyone.  Moreover, oftentimes when in Nora's perspective, it often feels as if the characters are interchangeable.

The parts with the Gods feel weaker than the rest of the story. I do not clearly understand what is at stake for them, or why they behave in such a petty manner.

I really like Nora as a character. Her frustration about being forced from her home is compelling, in contrast to most isekai where they don't care.

Grammar is good, sometimes author doesn't run it through grammarly but she gives out rep and cookies for corrections!! She's quick to fix errors.

Style is very emily Dickinson which is to say SO MANY EM DASHES. It's very emotional and evocative, so it's easy to get attached to the point of view characters. Every six chapters there is am interlude that gives insight into the greater world and shows that Nora is not an objective narrator which is super cool. I fucking hella love the bunny noir, it's personally is so cute and funny. I myself have a bunny, he is the spawn of Satan. I wish I had a bunny that was as nice and fun as Noir. My bunny, whose name is Ruby, likes to eat my books on my bookshelves and also likes to eat my base boards. He sucks. But Noir does not suck. I also love how sassy Nora is, she is my favorite book character ever. I love this series so far!!!

Story is slow paced but filled with depth 

Where the book really shines is character. It's all about a grief stricken girl learning to function again. Sometimes it works sometimes it doesn't. But watching her struggle to get it together is very cathartic.

Plus her lil minions are so cute, especially Noir!! Bun bun for the winnn

Good plot with deep characters and an interesting system. The novel would be great if it was not abysmally slow. The pace moves at the speed of a turtle with chapter after chapter passing without anything actually happening. The author seems to want to go day by day Thoughout mc's life. At this speed the mc wont have her coming of age ceremony until past chapter 1000. That being said it is still a solid read.

The story could be really interesting. Someone taken from a world of magic to another world. I especially love the medieval setting stories. But 17 chapters in she just rages against the gods that took her from her home. The first few chapters could be tolerable but after that it's just like an old person nagging all the time. It gets boring and irritating. 

I am more than 80 chapters in, and it still feels like the prologue. Everything is slow, stunted, needlessly long-winded and absolutely glacial in terms of progress. It just feels like the entire thing could be easily condenced into 10 chapters and everything could be okay, just gonna take away the endless, unstoppable whinning of the same thing again and again and again, coming from a child (the MC is not an adult, I refuse to recognise them as an adult) that lives the most privileged life possible.

Some light spoilers

The author really doesn't need to go as deep into things as they go now. She arrives to her new place and is given a week before school starts, and we are somehow expected to read 10 chapters+ for it to amount to anything. She is slow with her training, slow with everything, and only ever continues progressing because apart from being the richest, most influencial and most privileged child this side of the great rift, she also gets to have a direct line to gods that massively increase her abilities, because being blessed with an incredibly special class obviously wasn't enough.