The Spring 2023 Light Novel Guide

Maiden of the Needle

What's It About? 

Yui Nuir was reincarnated into a noble family of tailors in another world, retaining her memories of her previous life in Japan. Her miserable childhood had just one source of comfort: the fairies she befriended by mending their clothes with her magic. Unfortunately, Yui's relative lack of skill in blessweaving—the art of enchanting fabric through needlework—ultimately results in her being disowned by her family. But when she is taken in by a nobleman named Rodin Calostira, the first person to recognize her innate talents, her luck begins to turn around...

Maiden of the Needle has a story by Zeroki, and art by Miho Takeoka. English translation by Kiki Piatkowska. Yen On, $15 print, $8.99. Available May 23rd.

Is It Worth Reading?

Rebecca Silverman

Rating:

Maiden of the Needle is one of those books that sounds better than it turns out to be. This is mostly due to the author's approach to describing their heroine, Yui, and her personal life. Yui, like many fantasy heroines, is mistreated by her birth family and starved to the point where malnutrition stunts her growth. She is treated by doctors once comfortably settled in the Calostira home, and experiences a growth spurt at the age of fifteen. Zenoki feels the need to have Yui describe her new breasts for a paragraph before going on to assure us that her delayed growth means that she will never have body hair. It smacks a little too much of a Lolita fantasy of a different sort, and the addition of a "perverted maid" (read: predatory lesbian) does not help things in any way.

What is most disheartening, however, is that none of this was necessary in an otherwise very interesting fantasy world where "bless weaving" - the ability to imbue fabric with protection - is an art form. The magic system and the way fairies are a part of it deserve much better treatment than the novel affords them. Because it's too easy to get distracted when Zenoki engages fifteen-year-old Yui with the former king, who must be at least twenty or twenty-five years her senior. The novel would have functioned better without this plot line, but it seems like the author didn't trust their story to stand on its own within the realm of fantasy. It's a shame because, although this book has several solid elements, others are so off-putting or awkward that they drag the whole thing down.