Muse reviewed The Apothecary Diaries: Volume 1 (Light Novel) by Natsu Hyuuga (The Apothecary Diaries (Light Novel), #1)
Review of 'The Apothecary Diaries 1' on 'Storygraph'
4 stars
I loved the anime, so I had to get into the books! It's really fascinating to see how the original story has more of a classic mystery novel feel, kind of brushing past the setup of the rear palace and Maomao's place in it to get into Jinishi asking for her help to solve these seemingly unconnected problems. The slow buildup into showing how everything is connected is a strength of the volume, but it also puts it in contrast to the anime adaptation. The show does an excellent job in presenting the source material, don't get me wrong, but it also benefits from the hindsight of knowing what actually ends up as important to the story. As a result, there's a lot more detail and foreshadowing put into some areas that just does not exist in this book. While I love how everything came together, most of the volume …