Joining the growing popularity of manhwa is Ink Pop’s first translated manhwa: My Life As An Internet Novel, written by Yu Han-Ryeo and illustrated by A Hyeon. The series was first released in English digitally through Tappytoon in 2019; now, through Ink Pop, it will be getting its physical release.
My Life As An Internet Novel, also known as Inso’s Law, has been my favorite manhwa ever since I first read it a long time ago. It follows an ordinary girl named Dani who suddenly wakes up in a new world and a life that isn’t her own. She wakes up not as the heroine, but as a side character who is childhood best friends with a beautiful girl, who is the main heroine. She is also in the same class as the four handsome love interests.
While My Life As An Internet Novel shares the same tropes as other manhwa within the same genre, the author took those tropes and twisted them in a way to make an interesting story that is different from others. The first volume is proof since it still immediately caught my attention after not reading this series for a long time.
My Life As An Internet Novel is About Dani’s New Life & Relationships
What I love about My Life As An Internet Novel is its story writing. The manhwa makes it clear that it will be about Dani’s new life in a world different from her own and how she navigates that new life and her interactions with the people around her. I was immediately hooked as I read the conflicts Dani encountered as soon as she found out that she wasn’t in her own world.
Unlike most manhwas, where the main character either dies and reincarnates with memories of their past life or is summoned from their world, Dani suddenly wakes up in the world with no memories of what happened. In the story, the author makes it seem as though she actually does have a life in the new world, but has no recollection of it at all. We don’t even know how she got to the new world, which is a mystery in itself, yet she has to navigate it as if she had lived in the world her entire life. What’s interesting is the way she interacts with the people around her. Dani’s reaction feels much more realistic than I expected. She doesn’t have any cheats that other main leads have, so her actions are based on what is sensible in a given situation, as she tries to make sense in the new life she is in.
Dani also made it her mission not to get close to any of the main characters. However, in the middle of the first volume, there is a sudden three-year time skip where we get a glimpse of Dani’s relationship with the main heroine and all the love interests, and she suddenly becomes good friends with them. The first volume does not go into detail about how she got close to them, but the next volume will start by telling us how Dani became friends with them.
One of those relationships that we saw in that time-skip is with Yeoryeong, her childhood best friend in that world. Dani has an extremely sweet relationship with Yeoryeong. It was really sweet that I could see people wanting to ship them. It brought a smile to my face reading how they interact with each other. Yeoryeong really loved Dani to the point of being comedic, as she is willing to do anything for her. I really look forward to seeing their growing relationship and how they interact with one another in the upcoming volumes, as well as her relationship with other characters in the story.
A Slow-Burning Webtoon
This is such a great series to read, but if you are looking for some action, drama, fantasy, or even some quick romance, this probably isn’t the one for you. Although I do really enjoy reading My Life As An Internet Novel, the story’s pacing is really slow. After reading the first volume, I was reminded of how slow this manhwa was. In fact, we only got to the introductory level for most of the characters. I remembered that I had dropped this manhwa a few times until enough episodes came out so I could read it all at once because of how slow it was. I knew there was angst and drama, and I was even prepared to cry, as someone who cries easily, but it didn’t happen in the first volume.
A Gentle Beginning Before the Real Story Unfolds
My Life As An Internet Novel is a slice-of-life romance about a young girl who is suddenly thrown into an internet novel world full of romance tropes. The first volume itself serves as the premise, or an introductory volume, before it truly dives into the story, which we will probably see in the second volume. So far, I have no complaints except for the story’s slowness, but I am willing to wait until the next volume. I don’t even have any complaints about the translation, since it hasn’t bothered me at all. I would recommend reading, or at least trying, the first two or three volumes since it does go that slow. If you are the type of person who wants to know what happens next fast, it might be better to wait until a few volumes are out before reading them all at once.
I would like to thank Ink Pop for the opportunity to read and review their first translated manhwa book. I look forward to all the future volumes of My Life As An Internet Novel from Ink Pop, where I can hopefully finish this manhwa this time.
The e-book version and physical copy of the first volume of Ink Pop’s My Life As An Internet Novel are now out. The series can also be read digitally on TappyToon.
