If you’re bored of isekai novels, I can’t blame you. Permutations of nearly every genre have graced our reading and viewing habits for quite some time, making it easy for even the staunchest fans to feel like they’ve been reincarnated. But Korean author Snow’s two-volume series Are you crazy? This type is not played directly. Yes, it’s quickly obvious that heroine Shay Grande is undoubtedly reincarnated from our world, and yes, there’s something special about her as such, but Snow does a good enough job with the basic formula , making the story still attractive. At times, this resulted in a story that was too conservative to read, but by the time we got to the series finale, Are you crazy? Already proven myself.
The story takes place in a fairly typical fantasy kingdom. There’s a cursed emperor, a complex power structure, and people known as the “Sons of God,” who are the world’s equivalent of what most other series would call “saints.” However, in Wincroft, the Sons of God are not just people with mysterious and divine powers, they are the true loves of Ru, the nation’s founding god. He gave each of them unique specific powers, from immortality to the ability to wield fire. Their purpose is to help protect Wincroft and keep him safe and healthy, and to this end, the kingdom is protected by a magic stone imbued with the children’s power. But everything comes at a price, and the ruler’s family was cursed to madness, resulting in them being killed for everyone’s safety. It’s clear that Rue and his boys are in for a bargain.
The current emperor is Eddard Lux Vencroft, who has not yet gone mad. However, he lives in fear, and he has some memory gaps related to the woman he loved, which may have been a way to protect him and any children he might have from a genetic curse. Everyone around him looked at him with keen eyes, especially his assistant Ace and his friend Edward. Their world is fairly closed off, meaning it has been that way since the death of his loved one, although there is some interpretive wiggle room there, especially in the first book. The catalyst that started the story, however, was news of a bakery in the capital that had rave reviews and an odd opening schedule. Apparently the owner only opens when she wants and closes whenever she wants and what she does is absolutely incredible. She spent a fortune, but everyone who tasted her baked goods said it was worth it.
As it turns out, this is none other than protagonist Shai Grande. Despite being an aristocratic woman, she seemed to prefer running her own bakery, with the only thing more important being her young son Elias. No one knows who his father is, and we soon learn that Elias is Shay’s adopted son, who was raised by her late friend. At this point, astute readers will already be logically tying the two storylines together before we even get to the romantic subplot – and romantic interest isn’t exactly what you’d expect in this type of novel . Instead of Raya, Edward fell deeply in love with Shay and seemed to fall for each other very quickly.
It’s hard to classify this story as a romance, though. The romance element is probably the most important part of the entire story in terms of its relationship to key plot points, especially in the second volume, but it’s still not pure romance or even romantic fantasy. Although there is a very romantic resolution, the plot is more focused on Shay herself and her role in all parts of the story. Her roles as mother, girlfriend, friend, reincarnation, and child of God all add up to a more complex plot than we usually see. She’s a more well-rounded character than she first seems, and the power of the story lies in how it slowly reveals her various personas and how they come together to form the person “Shea Grande” is.
This is not a balancing act that works consistently. The first novel felt very disjointed in the first fifty percent, whereas the second doesn’t really take off until about three-quarters of the way through. Both volumes are fine; they don’t really hit their stride until Snow starts to pull things together in a tangible way. It’s easy to see what they’re doing: Snow sets the stage for the major reveals in the second half of both books, which really makes them end more powerfully than they started. But it’s risky, because if a book doesn’t hook the reader at the beginning, it risks being left unfinished, and there are moments in both volumes where this feels like a danger.
I do think the ending makes up for that, though. Volume Two ends on a very strong note, bringing different plot points together to give us the picture Snow has been trying to paint. It’s an example of remembering a series through its ending, one that ends beautifully enough to make the problems that came before feel worth solving.
Are you crazy? Not the most polished series Editio has published (although the translation quality is still excellent), it is both one of the shorter series and well worth reading. It’s worth picking up if you want to add some variety to your isekai diet. There may be some stumbling blocks, but the ending makes it worth the effort to overcome them.
