So I'm a Spider, So What? – Okina Baba

A charming, lightweight, book.

A causes everyone in a [Japanese] classroom to be killed - and reincarnated on a world on which online-game tropes are the laws of nature. (Killing monsters gives you experience points, and when you have enough, you hear a voice telling you that you’ve leveled, and now how new and/or better skills.) The protagonist - a mostly-friendless geek who spends most of her free time gaming - has been reincarnated in a Dungeon. As a baby [giant] spider. It’s eat-or-be-eaten.

The book is charming. The protagonist appears not to have been an admirable sort on Earth, but she makes for a spunky and intelligent spider, and her monologue carries the book well.

This book came out in two formats. The “light novel” (a novel format targeted at younger readers) and the manga. The manga is shorter - it is missing the last third of the novel and an interleaving background story - but is a better visual experience. (It’s not just that it has pictures. The novel’s layout is awkward.)

A sequel comes out next month, and I look forward to getting it.