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The “part 1, volume 1” bit may be a bit confusing. There is a big website in Japan for posting web novels (Shousetsuka ni Narou). Basically, a non-fanfic version of things like AO3. It is basically the testing ground for light novel publishing there. So, Miya Kazuki refused to have her story cut down to fit into the standard light novel format (which have a typical, short, page count), and this is just the first part of the first storyline. I think it’d be best to let stories like this one escape that straitjacket and just be published in a format that lets it be the length it needs to be. That goes for the English editions as well.

But, as it is, this comes to a decent resting place, but isn’t a real complete story. It is also isekai, a genre that is so much the backbone of Shousetsuka ni Narou publishing that it has been memeing itself for nearly a decade now.

Myne is a sickly little girl in a fantasy city. She has good parents, but they are lower class, and don’t have any means to do more than try to take care of a girl who has barely made it to five-years-old.

She dies. Just after the opening of the book, she dies.

But, just before that, a young woman in modern Japan dies in an earthquake, and her spirit ends up inhabiting Myne just has her spirit gives out. What is afflicting Myne is discussed right near the end of this book, and is more a spiritual problem, and Urano’s much stronger personality has fewer problems, though recurrent fevers are a theme of the book.

And, of course, our protagonist is now in a sickly five-year-old body, and deprived of the one thing she was obsessed with: books.

This is a typical European Middle Ages style fantasy world. There’s no printing, most people are illiterate, and writing, much less books, rare.

Much of this book is about (new) Myne getting her feet under her: Getting healthier, learning a little bit about the world she’s now in (vegetables, for instance, are completely different here, in form as well as name), and starting to see the outside world. There’s also a lot of failures to produce books.

It takes a bit, but Myne is coming into her own, as things she knows help out in her new life; such as the general method to make shampoo. From her parents’ perspective, she’s a special needs child that is suddenly showing flashes of genius. Already knowing her, this isn’t immediately obvious to her, but other people are noticing by the end of the book.

I came to this from the anime based on the novel series. The anime Ascendance of a Bookworm is very good and a recommended watch. From this, I can say the novels are also recommended. However, it does take a little to get going/interesting as we get through the initial struggle, and the world starts opening up, and I can say as it goes things get more developed, and more interesting. The writing is not the best, but that is more likely J-Novel Club’s translation (no translation house is paying for great translators these days).