My Name is Loto by ImberLapis

Genre: Dark Fantasy, Mystery

Chapters Reviewed: 22 Chapters, Complete

Update Schedule: N/A

Quote: "Because in a world like this, positivity, even a little, is the best thing any person can have."

Taking place from Cora-chan's world of Caelum, the story follows a boy named Loto who doesn't remember who he is. All he can remember is his name and that he needs to find someone with purple eyes. There's just one small problem. Other than his amnesia, he's also an ice magician, and magicians aren't the kind of people that are treated fairly in the world of Caelum.

Warning: The author has given me the clear and has requested to give a lot of spoilers to address certain points. I will be giving MAJOR spoilers due to this fact, so please, read at your own risk.

As you can tell from the genre, this book is something that's a bit different in terms of what I'd usually read. I'm not a fan of books that have a lot of death, bloodshed, or other dark themes (which, this book had quite a bit of), but what I enjoyed was that there was quite a bit of light shown in here that helped digest it better. This could've been through light-hearted characters, humor, and the hospitality that was sprinkled throughout the book. It's when darker books do this that makes it easier for all readers to read, rather than just the ones who absolutely love the darker side.

That's not to say that there are some graphic scenes that were a bit much (in terms of how bloody and crazy things got). Towards the climax of the story, Loto had already witnessed some pretty scaring and scary stuff. He has already been exposed to a lot of hardships, like death and life on the streets, which helped build up to the climax. I liked that the author did this as without it, the plot twist in the middle of the book would've been too sudden.

But while the book did get very dark at times, I was able to read it because the characters were very well written for the most part. The one that did the most growth in the entire book was Loto. He starts out as this naive, confused boy who doesn't remember much of anything. As time goes on, his personality starts to change a bit. It's gradual as he's slowly starting to let people into his life, becomes more aware of the people around him, and just grows up. I liked that a lot because he struggles to change, but he does because he has to learn how to survive in the world of Caelum. I really enjoyed reading his point of view.

This differs from another character in the story, Rangi. Huge spoiler alert to those who haven't read the story, but while he is Loto's big brother, he's also the antagonist in the story. Rangi betrays his brother because Loto's a magician. I was shocked to read that Rangi would betray his own brother the way he did, even with the light foreshadowing the writer sprinkled in beforehand. When writers do that, I'm honestly am impressed and am in love. It took me a second read to find myself questioning how I missed those hints the first time, and that takes skill on the author's part.

That's not to say I necessarily liked Rangi. The plot twist he brought to the book was really nice, but his character was quite confusing. He starts out as this character who wants to take Loto away from the family he's been staying with for two years because they're one of the last members in their family. His eagerness to get Loto home is understandable—after all, it's been years since they've seen each other—but something's not right. When I first read it (being I had to read this section twice to understand why Rangi would betray his brother) I just thought it was because of their grandmother back home, or the fact that the Noseks were Normal-Type magicians, something that clearly bothered Rangi a bit. When he turned on Loto, I was very disappointed in him.

Rangi's reasoning for betraying Loto the way he did seemed a bit rushed though, and it never truly made sense. I understand this was probably because the character, himself, was a confusing one to begin with (kind of like how Rumpelstiltskin from Once Upon a Time always seems to be switching sides) which makes sense, but I think his character "arc" (so to speak) could've been expanded on a bit. As soon as it was discovered at the end that Rangi was a Grass magician, yet hated magicians due to the normies calling them monsters, he died. I wanted to know more, rather than the quick chapter that wrapped up his life story. While this would've made sense for any villains' monologue, Rangi was also Loto's brother, so I felt like this particular part could've been dragged out a bit more.

The biggest "arc" that could be improved on is the last one. The arc that I'm talking about runs from chapter 18 to chapter 20, or when Loto finally returns home to where he decides to live with his grandmother, or Guella, who owns an inn. That's three chapters in which a handful of characters are thrown in there, with names, descriptions, and importance to what happens at the end. They're all introduced at one time, which made it difficult for me to really tell the difference between them all, or even fall in love with. It would've been nicer if there wasn't so many characters thrown in at once like that.

Because of this, I didn't really feel for Loto's grandma and the hard time she had to go through, or why Loto felt attached so quickly. I mean, she's family and does a lot for him, like keep Loto in hiding, feeds him, gives him a bed, and is just so happy that he's home. There just wasn't a time when reading that I felt that Loto got/could've gotten attached to her. It would've been different if this sort of thing happened with the Nosek's as Loto spent quite a few chapters (and years) with them. Even though at this part of the book he's a bit more caring, I just didn't get the emotional impact I think the author wanted for her readers.

That makes it sound like I disliked the ending, but there's an amazing line at the end of the book (actually the featured quote above) that wraps up the story nicely. I just wanted more time with these newer characters.

Other than that, there's not much much to improve on in the story because of how well-written and amazing it was. I loved the storyline that was going on, and the way the story was written. The descriptions that are portrayed in the story are spot on, and I felt as if I was in the scene myself. I didn't mind the long chapter length because of this. There weren't many mistakes in this book (when there were, I had to really search for them). This is the sort of thing that proves how much time an effort was put into writing the story, which is amazing to see.

These details of the story carries over to things as simple as to Loto eating a meal for the first time to something as dealing with life-changing moments. Kari was Loto's first friend in Tranquelum. While being a Grass Type magician (which is weaker than Ice Type that Loto is), Kari has this instant liking to Loto. They, along with Kari's Dedenne, Dew, help each other survive on the street, stargaze together, and keep each other sane in the dark world they live in.

Like all characters I fall in love with, Kari died.

Now, if I wouldn't have read The Isles of Gracidea before this, I probably wouldn't have seen it coming; however, in TIOG, Loto and Dew make an appearance. It is mentioned that Dew is Loto's Pokémon. Despite that knowledge, I still cried during Kari's death. His death was even subtle, something that you wouldn't have expected a death to be like in a book like this, and I liked it. No, I wasn't happy that this precious Smol Bean had to die, but the way that it happened, it was done nicely. If Loto wasn't sick, and unable to do anything, I could almost see him throwing himself into danger and getting himself killed. Being that he couldn't do anything about Kari's death and that he was Loto's best friend, the lasting effect that it had on Loto was very realistic. It wasn't like every chapter had some detail about how Kari died, but it was sprinkled around the story like that memory would pop up every once in a while. It was very nicely done.

Like Kari, Loto, and Dew, I absolutely loved Cyryl. I could be a bit biased as the character is the sweetest kid ever to be written, which are my favorite kinds of characters, but that's not what I'm impressed with. It's the fact that this character is someone else's OC and is portrayed perfectly. At least, that is what I think.

Overall, this book is just very well written, and is overall amazing. If you don't believe me, then here is what some of the readers have to say.

"I love that you (and Cora too, since she wrote TIoG) expanded so much into this world. It really makes the world of Caelum come alive." @JunieWeathers

"I like this so far! I can sense the mysterious vibe coming from the main character. I look forward to see how everything will unfold!" @CapricornSiren

"Great chapter! It started off really well and it just got better there. These people really feel alive" @Candydazzle

As you can tell, one of those comments is from me, but being an avid fan of this book, I guess that's to be expected. Because this is such a well-written book, with lovable characters, and a great storyline, I'm so thrilled to say that Imber has agreed to do an interview to talk about her book, My Name is Loto.

JunieWeathers: My Name is Loto is based off of the realm of Caelum, a realm that Cora created for her Pokéfic. Can you tell me a little bit on why you wanted to expand on that and how you got the opportunity in doing so?

ImberLapis: Well, it all started last year in 2018, when Cora said she needed a side character for the Verelum arc in The Isles of Gracidea. I jokingly asked if I could make that character, and she said she was going to ask me anyways, so that was when I came up with the basic idea for Loto: a sort of adopted brother of Cyryl who said he was in debt to Cyryl's family because they helped him a number of years ago. But the more I worked on Loto, the more attached to him I became. I really couldn't stand to let him go as a side character when he had so much to him. Eventually, I decided to write a short story about him, focusing on how he met Cyryl's family and how he ended up on Verelum while going a bit more into the dangerous lives magicians lead. Obviously, the story didn't end up being "short" in the slightest, but that was because I kept thinking about more and more things to add to his character, and he became who he is now in My Name is Loto.

JW: That's really interesting to hear. Would you say that Loto has become one of your favorite characters to write about in the story because of that, or is there another character you enjoyed writing about even more?

Imber: Oh, I can definitely say that he's my favorite. He's actually my favorite MC out of all of my stories. But I think it's because he's the first MC of mine to be an OC, where my other stories focused on canon characters with personalities altered for the stories they're apart of. Also, the fact that at the moment he's had the most development out of any of my MCs added to that as well. As cheesy as it sounds, I got to watch him change, even though I was the one writing that change. Loto's quite special to me in that regard

JW: That's amazing. I'm always impressed by how well you portray cannon characters in your other books as they can be very challenging to write. I can only imagine it would be harder to use characters from someone else work and use the same setting as TIOG would be quite tricky as well. What are some challenges you've came across and how did you deal with those challenges?

Imber: Funnily enough, it was just the world itself. It was difficult to not include more exposition dumps than the story already had, and I tried to get many things across through the narration, dialogue, or the environment. The classic, "show, don't tell." I felt I was able to effectively expand more on magician life, but I know what I included was only a drop of the rest of Caelum's lore. But it makes sense. Cora crafted the world for her story, while I'm only taking a piece of it and trying to shape it for my own. And Cyryl was a mess in their own right to write. I had more liberty with their parents since they don't make any appearances in tIoG, but I felt I was walking on eggshells with Cyryl. I couldn't do too much with them since Cora was the one developing them, so what I ended up doing was trying to further regress their character and develop it to its starting point in tIoG. Whether that development worked out is for my readers to decide though.

JW: I can imagine where that would all be tricky. Like Cyryl, there's a lot of interesting people in the world of Caelum. Rangi is one of those interesting characters I have every come across in a book. He's very different when it comes to his way of thinking, like what is good and what is bad. How did this character come to be the way that he is?

Imber: Rangi was created to give Loto more incentive to travel about Tranquelum and the general plot more of a drive. He was never not going to be antagonistic, and since the story dealt with the harsh life of magicians, it was obvious why he was antagonistic. But I wanted it to be more than just a generic hatred of magicians because his mother was killed by one. I wanted him to be a pure product of the worst of Caelum's ideals and standards. And how horrible would it be that you hate magicians because you think you're supposed to when you're actually one yourself, and the person you want to care for the most is also one? I wish I'd given him more time to better explain himself, maybe it would've made people hate him slightly less haha. Because he really is supposed to be sympathetic, not that he deserves to be fully redeemed, but that his actions and what drove them could be understood, and that would garner pity. He was definitely my most ambitious attempt at a villain at this time, and while he's a mess, he's my mess. And I'm overall pretty proud of how he turned out.

JW: That is really interesting to hear. Sounds like you spent a lot of time into this story. What was your favorite thing about writing this book?

Imber: The relationships between the characters, particularly the ones between Loto and Kari and Loto and Cyryl since I liked how their personalities complimented and clashed with each other, and the emotional scenes. One of the upsides of having a dark story is that you (unfortunately) can make things bleak. But with that comes the possibility of some great emotional moments, which I did try to create as much as possible. But when your story is purely character-driven, it's probably for the better that things get emotional.

JW: Is there anything else you would like to share about your book?

Imber: Well, in my opinion, I think that MNiL has the best character development and strongest emotional moments out of any of my stories at the moment, as well as my best MC. While I know the plot isn't very strong (especially near the end) and some things came off as heavy-handed, I'm still ultimately happy with how it came out. And of course, this wouldn't have been possible without Cora-chan. So I have to thank her yet again for giving me the opportunity to even create Loto and write what I think is my best story right now. I also need to thank you, Junie, for reading MNiL and doing this review for me!

JW: Awe. I'm just so happy you gave me the opportunity to review your book. As you can all tell, Imber did a really nice job on writing My Name is Loto, so if you haven't already, I highly recommend opening this book up and reading it.