Hello everyone, I have been reading Solo Leveling Volume 1, I won't lie, it was too good that I ended up recommending it to my friends. The story never made me feel exhausted, it was easy to understand, like nothing confusing at all. I couldn't stop myself from reading more and more. Well, the fantasy genres are my favorites. The involvement of monsters and dungeons makes it even better. I found it easy to understand because the author explains the world in a simple way.
My favourite character from the book is the main character, Sung Jinwoo. Basically, in the story he is described as a weak hunter, his mother is sick, he also has a sister and he is the only breadwinner in the family. Just because he is an e-rank hunter, people look down on him. In the beginning of the story Jinwoo isn't shown as a strong character, instead he starts from zero and struggles to become strong. He faces many difficulties in his journey. So this part of the story made it seem more realistic, relatable and I could connect more with the character.
I wanted to see his grindings and success because I see the qualities in him as a protagonist. I liked his determination as he worked hard to improve, I have noticed some character developments. I also admire that he never gave up, even when things seemed impossible.
I must say that they have added some good amount of suspense. I stayed up late night because I wanted to read the chapters without any break, I was curious about would happen next. Well, story does start off slowly, but as I read more chapters I could tell the danger increases within time, it becomes much more interesting and fun to read. By the end of the volume, I was curious enough to want to continue reading. There are lots of actions, I don't think anyone would ever feel bored reading it.
There are some negative points which are that I did not like how the side characters were not very memorable. Because the only attention is paid on Jinwoo, I wanted to see developments of other characters. For this reason, I did not feel connected to them. Also, in the beginning the story was moving a little slow. I know they were trying to explain the whole thing about the world where dungeons appeared and how Hunters work. This information is indeed important but some readers might find the first few chapters less exciting than the later parts of the book.
Another thing I did not find it a good thing that most of the events could be predicted. Like anyone could easily guess Jinwoo would become stronger because the story mainly focuses on his growth only and not other things. Even so, I still enjoyed seeing how his journey started.
Still I think Solo Leveling Volume 1 is really good. The character of Jinwoo is my favourite out of all characters, I definitely love fantasy world where monsters are included, and it has enough mystery to keep readers interested. Even though it's kind of slow burn but still I liked it. I wish they had developed the side characters more and maybe in further volumes they have improved I'm sure other readers have felt the same thing as I did. Anyway, the book does a great job of making readers care about Jinwoo and his future.
Overall, I would definitely recommend people to read it if they are into the genre of fantasy. I know this book may not be perfect, but I personally enjoyed reading it and makes me want to read the next volume to see what happens next. My ratings are 4 out of 5 stars.
