The Fall 2023 Light Novel Guide

If the Villainess and Villain Met and Fell in Love

What's It About? 

The awkward yet heartwarming love story of a scorned, incompetent villainess and an unapproachable, genius villain. Despite her noble status, Brigitte contracts with the weakest type of spirit—and on that very same day, the prince publicly breaks off their engagement. No one shows much sympathy toward the once haughty young lady—except for the duke's son, Yuri, who attends the same magic academy. Yuri is feared for his incredible abilities and icy personality, but with him on her side, her fortunes might change...

If the Villainess and Villain Met and Fell in Love has a story by Harunadon and art by Yomi Sarachi. English translation by Judy Jordan. Published by Yen On (October 17, 2023).

Is It Worth Reading?

Rebecca Silverman

Rating:

It starts, as they always do, with a denunciation. Brigitte, the already-tortured heroine, is ceremoniously dumped by her fiancé, Prince Joseph, at a party he and his “friend” Lisa have organized for the purpose of humiliating her, and it frankly looks like the garbage icing on the steaming pile that has been her life. Brigitte has more in common with Violette (of I Swear I Won't Bother You Again!) than most other purported villainesses in light novels: where Violette was sexually abused by her mother and neglected by her father, Brigitte was maimed by her father at age five and then neglected by both parents and made to feel that it was her fault. Now in the equivalent of high school, Brigitte is forced to live in a cottage in the yard, and she's not supposed to ever let her parents, or the son they adopted after she “failed” them, see her. The only reason they haven't fully tossed her out is because she was engaged to Prince Joseph, so losing that truly puts her in a tenuous position. Even worse, he for some reason made a practice of telling her to do awful things while they were engaged, making her the most reviled girl at school. If you want to talk about someone who can't catch a break, it's Brigitte.

Author Harunadon (who abbreviates the title to VillVill, which is much less of a mouthful) describes the story as being about two Cinderella characters. The Ashlad in this equation is Yuri, the most hated boy at school. We don't know much about his background yet, but he's generally perceived as frighteningly icy and unfriendly, although it feels much more like he might be on the spectrum and people don't understand him. He and Brigitte strike up an awkward friendship, which doesn't fix her – but it allows her to start to understand that she's not the horrible person people have been assuring her she is for a decade. By the end of the book there's a distinct reverse harem possibility being raised, although it feels like a foregone conclusion that if Brigitte ends up with anyone, it'll be Yuri. And since I have a terrible feeling that Joseph was pulling some “Patient Griselda” nonsense with her (the worst fairy tale of all time), I'm absolutely fine with that.

Although this isn't the best written light novel out there, it's clearly one that its author thought a lot about. Spirits are drawn from world mythology, Brigitte's past is well handled, and if it leans into tropes of both the villainess and reverse harem genres, it does it well enough to make it not matter.