By Hiyoko Sumeragi, Mika Pikazo and mocha. Released in Japan as “Waga Homura ni Hirefuse Sekai: Mao Jo, Moyashitemita” by Kadokawa Sneaker Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by James Balzer.

This advertises itself as a comedy, and that’s certainly true. If you’re the sort who loves to see teenage girls be horrible little gremlins, then this is right up your street. There’s funny situations, amusing banter, and a lot of hypocrisy. That said, I want to emphasize that this is a dark, cynical comedy, something that will be very obvious once you hit the end of the book. The world that our… “heroines” have been reincarnated into is absolutely terrible, and by the end of it we’ve seen a giant pile of death, some of it achieved by our main cast, because when I said that the girls would be horrible little gremlins, I meant along the lines of “committing atrocities”. Towards the end it turns serious for a bit, and I must admit I wavered. I’ll read the next one, but I hope it’s funny throughout – I don’t need each volume of this series ending with pure horror.

We start with the end of the series, with our five protagonists (as you’ll discover, heroines is absolutely the wrong word) having defeated the demon lord and burned his castle to the ground. Indeed, the fire is still burning as they bicker with each other. We then flash back to see them summoned before a goddess: POV character Homura, mad scientist Saiko… erm, Psycho, katana-wielding assassin Jin, alien robot girl Proto, and human experimentation victim Tsutsumi. They’ve been summoned to defeat the demon lord and save the world they’re now in. Unfortunately, the world they’re now in is kinda crappy, two of them look like monsters so have to hide their appearance, and the one normal girl in the cast may actually be the least normal one of all.

I’m not sure if each of the books will focus on a different girl, but this one is definitely Homura’s book. For the most part, she’s a somewhat shy, normal girl who suffered a life of bullying and abuse (and be warned, her suicide in the previous world is shown). Pretty soon we figure out that “normal” not the case, and it’s not really a spoiler, since it’s both the title AND the cover art. Actually, what is a bit of a spoiler is that Homura already had her powers before she was reincarnated – which means that, well, they’re a bit overpowered and over the top. And they also seem to influence her mind, something we see near the end of the book when she uncovers her inner bad girl. Everyone in the cast is a terrible person, and it just takes till the end of the book to figure out Homura is the worst of them. Sure, they’ll save the world, but not because they want to help people – they just like to kill bad guys.

This series is not for everyone – the most horrifying thing in the book is done by Psycho, the mad scientist – but it’s certainly striking, and I can see why it won an award. I’ll try another.