The characters are all multifaceted and interesting in their own right. Each one feels fleshed out, compelling, and easy to care about. The author does a fantastic job of breathing life into them, making it easy to get drawn into their world and invested in the small, everyday details that shape their lives.

The worldbuilding is another standout. The setting feels rich, complicated, and lived in—full of little touches and complications that make it feel real. I often found myself wishing I could replicate that level of depth in my own writing. It's immersive in the best way.

That said, I do have one major gripe, and it centres around the "transgender" tag the story uses. I'll spoiler this next part for those who want to go in blind.

Spoiler

Early on, there are a couple of vague hints: the MC mentions preferring the company of girls and liking to be clean-shaven. Aside from that, there are a few moments where other characters—lesbians, specifically—refer to her as trans. That's it for the first ~60 chapters. There's no significant indication that the MC is dealing with anything related to the trans experience. It mostly feels like that label is being externally applied rather than something the story itself is exploring. Then, deep into Book 3, we finally see the first real crack in the egg. A few chapters later, she hatches—and it's a beautiful, emotional moment.

After that, there are some genuinely good references and reflections, and when the story leans into her transness, it does so well. But it takes so long to get there that the tag almost feels misleading. If she had been established as trans from the start, it wouldn't have been an issue. But if the story is meant to follow her journey as an egg, then that subplot needed more attention and development throughout. As it stands, I honestly kept forgetting she was supposed to be trans until the narrative suddenly remembered and pulled the trigger.

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Still, that's my main complaint—and even with that, this is a great story. The writing, characters, and world are all worth experiencing. I'd absolutely recommend giving it a read.

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New seenbystarlight

Status: book 4, chapter 8

May 6, 2025

SolidWhat Little Remains[...] has good writing, good world-building, and good characters. That said there are two things I think worth notingTransness (in spoilers for minor plot reasons)

Spoiler

I'm of two minds. Part of me feels underwhelmed that "cracking Catherine's egg" took all of one chapter. Another part of me is relieved that there's no dwelling on dysphoria and angst, which is usually pretty exhausting. Also, Cat being masc leaning, and not seeming to have bottom dysphoria makes me feel very seen, so that's a plus.

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All in all, I'm feel neutral about it. Secondly, pacing: Scenes are tight, and there's basically no padding, which is good, because the story never drags. On the other hand, characters and settings feel underdeveloped as a result. Downtime is split between exposition and planning, with little time spent on character growth, or building familiarity. With all that said, the story's fun and fairly lighthearted.

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SecretJoy

Status: book 3, chapter 8

Feb 11, 2025

The most fun I have had reading a fic since the first time I read Stray Cat Strut!

There's enough world building, system building without LitRPG trappings (though a character who comes in later has exactly such a LitRPG System (tm) and it's not a plot breaker) to satisfy the most jaded web serial reader without getting bogged down in Total Non-stop Action, and I'm not talking about a mid-tier wrestling promotion.

Horizon isn't afraid to slow play certain elements of their plot, so readers expecting certain transitions to happen within 20 chapters a la a QuietValerie fic (not trying to take anything away from her, she's amazing) will have to temper their expectations a bit.

Still, million billion stars for this one, and SecretJoy says check it out!

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HorizonTheTransient

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