The barrage of intense emotions and existential dread this book put me through... I was constantly swinging between stressed tf out and laughing my gd ass off. It held me softly and gently, before it threw me around the room.

Little Mushroom puts you through your own test of humanity and it's some of the toughest questions you have to ask yourself. When push comes to shove, how far are you willing to lose your humanity for the greater humankind? What does that sacrifice even look like? How do you advocate for yourself and your loved ones in the midst of an existential crisis? What weighs more, yourself and your community or humankind?

Many questions that I fear I can't even answer for myself until I'm faced with the situations directly. And I hope to god there will never come a day like that.

I don't know if I can do this book justice with any of my words. I Can Do It is an incredible experience where it took its tropes and turned it up to a hundred.

A trash-talking streamer? He's literally a short-tempered brat and his fans are all dad fans and this makes complete sense. He's also actually insanely good so his call-outs are backed by his confidence and legitimate sense of the game. He's scouted by multiple esports teams but he only wants the one (1) with his idol. Said god-like idol? Comes across him on stream. He's entertained and impressed by him, and recommends his ass to get on the team. He doesn't ever pressure him to change anything about himself or his potty mouth though and genuinely believes he is a well-behaved boy. The perfect recipe for found family? Someone's a literal orphan, there's hilarious sibling fights going on, and people are in constant threat of death. It's so good. It's so insanely good and funny and soft in all the right places. I can't possibly begin to explain just how incredible this whole experience was.

I also wanted to highlight that I've been so impressed by how the length of this story perfectly fitted what Jiang Zi Bei wanted to do with it. Starting ICDI with Jian Rong as a 17-year old was important in the narrative yeah, but also in how we understood his actions, choices, and temperament. This also meant that we know JR's a minor in the early story and he's going to be paired up with Lu Boyuan, who's 23 years old, eventually after his in-world birthday. With ICDI's length, JR's growth and maturity is clearly laid out for us to watch until we, us the readers, are also rooting for him as his in-world dad fans. She's a long book, but completely necessary in all the right places. It's wonderful to watch Jian Rong grow up and learn to be better, as soon as he was put in the position, and around people, to do so. I'm very proud of him.