The Fall 2024 Light Novel Guide

In a World of Lies, I Fell into an Unforgettable Love

What's It About? 

In his second year of high school, Makoto Tsukishima learns he has only twelve months left to live. Just as he decides to give up on confessing his feelings to the girl he likes, however, she invites him to join the film club. Soon, the two grow closer and begin to feel a connection, but time is running out for Makoto. Conflicted, yet determined to spare her the truth, it's time for him to put a certain plan into action... A story of hope connecting past and future from the author of Even If This Love Disappears Tonight.

In a World of Lies, I Fell into an Unforgettable Love has a story by Misaki Ichijo, with English translation by Yui Kajita. Published by Yen On (November 19, 2024).

Is It Worth Reading?

If you're reading this, you're going to die someday. You can shove down that thought and ignore it… right up until you're reminded of this simple, universal truth of life. In a World of Lies, I Fell Into an Unforgettable Love is one such memento mori, the story of a high school boy with a rare disease and the way he chooses to spend the year he has left. Known for their previous bittersweet love story, Even If This Love Disappears Tonight, author Ichijo Misaki has a knack for hitting you with sharp observations and tender moments until you're moved despite yourself. Set against the backdrop of a high school film club, this emotional novel explores the divide between reality and cinema, and what happens when the ending comes long before we expect the credits to roll.

After reading the first chapter, I was prepared to dislike this book. If there were a Make A Wish Foundation for horny otaku, this is the kind of wish it would fulfill, I thought. Makoto, a high school boy with one year left to live, is suddenly noticed by his crush, Tsubasa, and asked to star in her movie—it's an all-girl film club, you see, and they need a boy who looks just like him. Makoto has been keeping to himself to avoid hurting anyone with his impending death, but suddenly finds himself making precious memories with the girls. And at all the right, most romantic moments, Makoto and Tsubasa conveniently find themselves alone. Why did my opinion change? As soon as the narrator shifted from Makoto to Tsubasa and later to their mutual friend Aoi, the film club president, the narrative acquired the kind of depth that can only come from a story told from all these disparate perspectives. Makoto is far from a blank slate Potato-kun; he's refreshingly furious about his impending death as any teenager would be, keeping a diary of his darkest thoughts. At the same time, he shields his new friends from the reality of his illness, saying it's merely narcolepsy that causes him to sometimes pass out. And the film club members, in turn, script a screen-ready alternative to Makoto's tragedy—occasionally, creatively utilizing screenplay notation. I initially thought the POV of this novel's title was from Makoto's perspective. Instead, it's from Tsubasa's, and the point at which she takes over the narrative makes all the difference.

Though it's a very different sort of story, this novel put me in mind of Twilight Out of Focus, which is also about a high school film club. In both stories, cinema, and daily life convene and contrast to show what we wish we could change through the magic of film. This story concludes ten years after Makoto's second year of high school but doesn't pull any punches. Though I mistakenly assumed it was an escapist fantasy at first, it ended up as a sobering look at my own mortality, and a reminder to make the most of the time I'm here.