Dare ga Yuusha wo Koroshita ka
Who Killed the Hero?

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This is certainly one of the better light novels out there on the market.

You can sense its quality within the first six pages. It’s written in an innovative style that sets it apart from typical novels. The author has clearly put a lot of thought into the story, weaving in his personal experiences and perspectives that may even resonate with your own life.
One more thing worth mentioning is the beautiful artwork by toi8, truly enhances and upholds the atmosphere of the story.

I wouldn’t hesitate to say that this light novel is on par with the Overlord LN. It’s a wholesome, must-read story that ... aims to leave a meaningful and lasting message.

I would recommend this book, but I think you'll know if you can reach the good parts by the first few pages/chapters.

The writing style is indeed very unique - it's mostly told through a pattern of interviews and memories. That said, it's a pretty slow start. At first, I thought the interviews were just a gimmick and that it would make me bounce off from the book as a whole. But the way they were written and the characters themselves kept me just invested enough to continue. Each interview left me wanting to know more about each character, and it delivered by presenting me with ... one of their memories. So I simply never had the chance to bounce off of it like I thought I would. And boy am I glad, because after a certain point, you start forming your own hypothesis about what happened, and by then, you're already firmly invested.

The story is far from generic or predictable. I would be surprised if someone could guess the outcome of the hero or the surrounding events. But it's not just random either. Nothing is hand-waved away into "it just works". Everything has a proper explanation for happening or for why something was explained a certain way. The author had a plan for everything he included.

This is a mystery book first, fantasy second, and the drama comes once all of the pieces of the mystery get presented.
I went into this book blind, and was not disappointed.

Who Killed the Hero? is your average fantasy story about a hero defeating the Demon King... except the Demon King has already been defeated, and the world is peaceful. At this point, you might be thinking, “There are plenty of stories like this.” For example, Frieren. But wait, there's a twist... the hero is dead. 🙀

So, the question is: who killed the hero? The entire novel revolves around that mystery. I'm pretty sure no one could have figured that out from the title 👀

Anyway, the story starts with an interviewer asking people—including the hero's former party members—about the hero. From there, the story unfolds through ... different POVs. We get the perspectives of the hero's party members and other important characters, learning how they met the hero and what their relationships with him were like. We also get the hero's POV of those same events, showing us his side of the story.

As someone who loves stories that explore events from different characters' perspectives, this was an instant hook for me.

That's about all I can say without getting into spoilers. Moving on, as you can probably tell, the novel is more character-driven than story-driven. That doesn't mean the story is bad, though—it's actually really good. Even if some parts of the plot are somewhat predictable, there are still some decent twists, and the way the story gradually unfolds is probably the best part of the novel.

If you liked Frieren, I think you'll probably like this too. It's not some mind-blowing, earth-shattering, revolutionary novel, but it's the kind of story where, after you finish reading, you just sit there, breathe a sigh of contentment, and think, “That was a good read... I want more.”