By Mugi Mameta and Nagisa Hanazome. Released in Japan as “Aisanai to Iwaremashite mo – Moto Maou no Hakushaku Reijou wa Kimajime Gunjin ni Ezuke wo Sarete Shiawase ni naru” by M Novels f. Released in North America by Cross Infinite World. Translated by JC.

I spent most of this book trying to figure out its heroine, which puts me in the same company as everyone else in this book. I honestly think the artwork does it a bit of disservice. Don’t get me wrong, the artist is fine. But the text has Abigail, the title character, sounding most of the time like a hyperactive six-year-old child, and you imagine her in your head as being filled with massive smiles and big eyes. And then you get the occasional line when we switch to the POV of other people, which tells you that, in fact, Abigail rarely changes her expression from default neutral. Abigail sounds, and honestly is written as 75% of the time, like an adorable moppet. But she is a reincarnated monster, and she spent her first 16 years being starved and abused by her terrible family. The dissonance in this book, especially at the start, is almost comical.

We open with Gerald, the son of a marquis who is entering a political marriage, informing his wife Abigail that he will never love her. She innocently asks if this means she won’t get any food. As he and his servants listen to her talk about her life before arriving there with a creeping horror, any thought of treating her coldly flies out the window. Her old family made her do the laundry (which they threw in the mud), handle running the duchy (she can forge signatures!), and starving her to death by giving her next to no food. She can barely eat four mouthfuls before getting sick. That said, she has a bigger secret. In her past life, she was the Monster King, and she still has access to those powers (and just remembered her past life at her arrival). Which means she can predict disasters, use magic without incantation, and generally is a Top Secret in every single way you can imagine.

The thing that separates this from, say, Little Orphan Annie, or Oliver Twist, is that Abigail is sixteen years old, and is theoretically supposed to be his wife. This can be uncomfortable at times, particularly when Abigail is sounding like a hyperactive child. Fortunately, both the author and the male lead seem conscious of this. As Abigail manages to grow healthier and eat a normal amount, she begins to actually grow into her age physically, but mentally… it’s not that she’s mentally a child, as she can clearly do the work of an earl with minimal issues. No, it’s that her way of thinking at times is literally inhuman. It goes with her blank face. Her abusive life never registered for her except that it meant she didn’t get much food. Her new life is wonderful… because it means she gets more food. She simply is not going to understand the idea of marriage beyond “yum!” at this point. Future volumes will need to keep up the balance while she continues to grow into her new self.

There’s at least four more volumes, which makes this a huge success for the cancel-happy M Novels. Despite occasionally feeling that Abigail was manipulating me with her cuteness, I definitely want to read more. For fans of “Cinderella stories” who don’t mind a heroine whose head is harder to get into.