Review for The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya

While you could make a case for this being the most important light novel in English ever (before its publication, light novels were a niche within an even smaller niche in the Western world), this isn’t fantastic right out of the gate. It takes its time to build its mysteries, but the beauty of the plotting and the writing is that by the end of the book you’re invested in these characters, they already feel like people you want to spend time with. Even Suzumiya shows just enough humanity that you sort of see why Kyon doesn’t just run away screaming.
And it’s funny! Kyon’s turn of phrase often raises a smile or a chuckle - and sometimes you find yourself putting the book down as you’re laughing so much. The first person narrative really WORKS here, and Kyon is enough of an Everyman for all of us to think “yes! That’s how I would have reacted.”
So, there was way more substance to come later, but this does everything an opening book of a series should do.