While Light Novels have been around since the 1970s, they’ve only really picked up in popularity in the last couple of decades. A lot of this is due to the innumerable anime and manga adaptations that have come out since then. Classic anime series like The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, A Certain Magical Index, and many others originated from Light Novels, and their success encouraged more anime adaptations, and many light novel series have received prominent anime adaptations since then.

Light Novels Without an Anime

21. Dear x

‘To X who doesn’t love me’ is a story of young people in their 20s who are struggling with their dreams and love, heralding the birth of a reality-sympathetic drama. ‘To X Who Doesn’t Love Me’ is an “expiry date” romance drama that tells the story of Seo Hee Su, a college student and aspiring lyricist with zero self-esteem and zero self-love, who discovers a mysterious lyric note that makes anyone fall in love with her for a month and gets intertwined with Jung Si Ho.

Seo Hee Soo is a university student and she wants to become a song lyricist. She has never had a boyfriend in her life and her self-esteem is almost zero. She happens to find a mysterious lyrics notebook that makes love come true for the writer. Her best friend Jung Shi Ho is the only one who knows about Seo Hee Soo’s lyrics notebook. Seo Hee Soo soon gets involved with different men.

20. Hanged doll

Suspense Manhwa. The full line-up of Hanging Doll took form after Dan, (a guitarist with a degree in orchestral composition) and Alex Cooper, who had been working together since 2002, invited Holliday, a professional photographer, to take pictures of an early version of the band in 2004 (Cooper, Leddy, Wilson and the original vocalist Emily Brownhill). After Brownhill quit shortly afterwards, Holliday was invited to audition and recruited to fill the position. Aryan Amoli was brought into the band on keyboards about a year later.
Hanging Doll’s debut album was Reason & Madness.

Hanging Doll were signed to Rocksector Records in early 2012 and announced they would release their next album The Sacred & Profane on 30 April 2012, with the first music video for the track “Carnival Of Sin” having already been released on 22 February of the same year. However the release of The Sacred & Profane was delayed and was released on 3 September.

19. My Deepest secret

Suspense Manhwa. At a cafe, Yohan gripes at his friend for tagging him in a social media post, warning that sharing locations online can be dangerous. As he leaves the cafe, Yohan receives a call from Yojoong, who informs him that the rumors surrounding Rupert Patrovsky’s lecherous ways are confirmed by past victims. Students came forward once Patrovsky died, confessing that he silenced them with threats. Yojoong explains that he must investigate these students, who hold possible motives and are now considered suspects for Patrovsky’s murder.

He then tells Yohan that Nura came and filed a report at the precinct, naming Emma as Patrovsky’s last victim the day before he died. As Yojoong explains that he must call Emma in for questioning, Yohan recalls how he jokingly accused her of being the killer and feels his stomach sink with regret.

18. Melo Holic

About a man with the power to read women’s thoughts when he touches them. His superpower makes it difficult for him to date someone. He comes across a woman who actually says what she thinks, but she turns out to have split personalities.

17. Moritrat

Suspense Manhwa. You are reading Moritat manga, one of the most popular manga covering Drama, Mystery, Psychological, Sci-fi, Shounen ai, Webtoons, Manhwa genres, written by Lee Seon-Ui, Seo Gyeong at MangaBuddy, a top manga site offering free manga online. Moritat has 53 translated chapters and translations of other chapters are in progress. Let’s enjoy.
If you want to get updates about the latest chapters, create an account and add Moritat to your bookmark.

“I woke up in the hospital with nothing but fragments of memories from my life up to now. There was a man standing by my bed, who introduced himself as my lover. But one of my few recollections is of being left for dead in a snowy field by this very same man… Still, he looks like the only one who can provide me with the answers I need. Who the hell is he? What was the real relationship between the two of us?”

16. My student can’t be a psychopath

Jung Intae may be the first to admit he’s a psychopath to the school nurse (his crush), but he certainly isn’t the last. Consequently, Miss Kim’s been dealing with a lot of high school psychopaths… Not that any of them really fit the bill. But dig a little deeper and it seems like everyone at the school, including the faculty, is harboring a secret… Like Intae’s obsession with Miss Kim, and the anxiety Miss Kim seems overwhelmed by at times.

15. Phase

Suspense Manhwa. Min is unique. Plagued by debts, misfortunes and a troubled past, her life has been anything but normal. When she has the opportunity to make a lot of money, $50 million to be exact, she’d be a fool to turn it down. Despite the strange conditions, she tries her luck with Shuu, the handsome and irritating billionaire who can change her life.

Kohei Morioka is a young Japanese photographer working for a magazine devoted to the occult. On a mission in Germany, he observes one day a mysterious young girl taking a moon bath on the roof of a castle reputed to be haunted. Listening only to his curiosity, he goes there… and in spite of himself frees the young girl, who turns out to be a temperamental young vampire who, after having bitten “big brother” Kohei, insists that he calls him “Master” and obeys his every whim.

14. i am the grim reaper

On earth there are bad people, and then there are REALLY BAD people. If you’re one of the latter, you don’t just get sent to Hell, you get sent to Hell and get assigned a job collecting the souls of some of the worst people on Earth. Such is the career path of a young woman named Scarlet, who dies and is delivered down to the fiery underworld only to find herself in an entry level position as… The Grim Reaper!

13. Love Murder Basketball

Suspense Manhwa. In spite of all the accolades that were bestowed upon him, Wilson’s personal life was growing complicated. During his junior year, he and his girlfriend Jetun Rush conceived a child. Rush gave birth to the child, a boy named Brandon, over the summer. Almost immediately thereafter, she became withdrawn from Wilson and largely focused on taking care of the baby.

Wilson did not fully understand why Rush had pushed him away and as time went on, it started to have an effect on him. As the school year started, Wilson was beginning to grow more and more frustrated by the situation and his interactions with Rush became significantly tense, to the point where they were having loud arguments in the school hallways between classes. Wilson’s temper eventually would get the best of him as he shoved a teacher to the floor when the teacher tried to break up another argument between the two.

As the Simeon student body began preparing for lunch period on November 20, Wilson elected to try and talk to Rush again instead of eating with his teammates as he usually did. Once again, Rush was not receptive to his attempts.

12. Sweet Home

Suspense Manhwa. Sweet Home is a South Korean apocalyptic horror streaming television series starring Song Kang, Lee Jin-wook, Lee Si-young, and Lee Do-hyun. Based on the Naver webtoon of the same name by Kim Carnby and Hwang Young-chan, which recorded over 2.1 billion net views, the series was released on Netflix on December 18, 2020.

After an unexpected family tragedy, Cha Hyun-soo leaves his home and moves into an apartment. Soon after, monsters begin appearing. People inside the apartment are trapped inside the building, realizing that monsters are lurking everywhere outside. Hyun-su and other residents shield themselves inside the building in the hope of surviving as long as they can.

11. Pigpen

Suspense Manhwa. A relaxing getaway in paradise, or a death trap? A young man wakes up on a breathtaking beach, but he has no idea who he is or how he got there. Try as he might to piece it all together, untangling this mind-bending mystery won’t be easy when every clue leads to more maddening questions… and the family that welcomes him into their home is not what they seem.

Our main character is Jinhyeok, and he ends up on this island after his boat accident where we meet a family. The father, mother, brother known as Minu, older sister known as Romi, and the younger sister known as Yumi. In addition, we see a glimpse of a sixth person who is a young boy named Jinu that was believed to be their youngest son in the beginning. However, that boy was never really seen interacting with the family and had a pig head.

10. Tower of God

Suspense Manhwa. Tower of God has been running weekly on Naver since 2010 and is currently comprised of three seasons, Part I, Part II and Part III. The ongoing webtoon is released every Sunday and the official English version is released roughly 14 hours later at Line Webtoons.

Twenty-Fifth Baam is a young man who has never experienced society and the presence of others except for Rachel – the only girl he ever cared for. He desired nothing more than to continue living with her. However, when Rachel wants to reach the top of the Tower, she embarks on her journey with Baam desperately following in her tracks.

9. The Horizon

Aloy (Ashly Burch) is cast out from the Nora tribe at birth and raised by a fellow outcast named Rost (JB Blanc). As a child (Ava Potter), Aloy obtains a Focus, an augmented reality device that gives her special perceptive abilities. Aloy becomes curious about her origins and is told by Rost that if she wins the Proving, a competition to earn the right to become a member of the Nora, the tribe’s Matriarchs might concede this information. Aloy spends some years training in combat and survival under Rost’s instruction.

After coming of age, Aloy takes part in the Proving; she wins the competition, but the Nora are attacked by masked cultists. Rost sacrifices himself to save Aloy from their leader, Helis (Crispin Freeman). When Aloy awakens, the Matriarchs explain that Aloy was found as an infant before a sealed door within the Nora’s sacred mountain, and that these suspicious origins were the reason for being outcast. The Matriarchs name Aloy a “Seeker”, allowing her to leave their lands in pursuit of the cultists.

Aloy meets Oseram member Olin (Chook Sibtain), who informs Aloy that the cultists are part of a splinter Carja faction called the Eclipse, and indicates that Aloy was targeted due to her resemblance to an Old World scientist named Elisabet Sobeck (also voiced by Burch). Aloy locates the ruined corporate campus of Faro Automated Solutions and discovers that the Old World was destroyed nearly a thousand years ago after Faro lost control of its automated peacekeeper military robots.

The robots, which could self-replicate and consumed biomass, overran the planet and consumed the biosphere, stripping Earth of life. Zero Dawn, a project spearheaded by Sobeck, was initiated to create an automated terraforming system to deactivate the robots and restore life to Earth.

8. The God of High School

The manhwa chronicles the adventures of protagonist Jin Mo-Ri, a 17-year-old martial artist in Seoul. At the beginning of the story, he is invited to a martial arts tournament called “The God Of High School”. The event, sponsored by a shady corporation, brings together participants from all over South Korea for the regional and then national phases to choose three representatives for the world tournament. As a reward, the winner sees the wish of his choice fulfilled.

This intrigues Mo-Ri, and as he progresses through the preliminaries, he will encounter many other contestants, each with their own unique style and motivations. Among them are two martial arts prodigies: Full-contact karate expert Han Dae-Wi and swordsman Yu Mi-Ra. These two fighters will befriend Mo-Ri after facing him, and all three characters will be selected together as South Korea’s representatives for the World Stages. As the preliminaries end and the teams are formed, the veil is lifted on the nature of the mysterious organization and the dark intentions of its members.

7. Solo Leveling

Strange portals have appeared all over the world, letting in abominable monsters. To resist the invaders, humanity developed supernatural powers. Thanks to this they were able to build an army of intrepid hunters passing through the portals to attack the enemy in the heart of their dungeons. Merciless fights take place there with, as a result, fabulous treasures. Sung Jin-Woo is the weakest of the Hunters. While taking part in a raid, he collapses and is left for dead. But when he wakes up in the hospital, he no longer feels the same and discovers, thanks to a virtual interface, that he is gradually becoming stronger and stronger.

6. Melvina’s Therapy

Anxiety, loneliness, depression… with regular therapy you can deal with these issues, but Melvina’s Therapy is about something deeper: creepy secrets remaining in the darkest space of your mind, waiting for you. Melvina’s Therapy was a Horror Webtoon Original created by A.Rasen; it concluded on April 10, 2019.

5. The Beginning After the End

Follows the life of the late King Grey after his untimely and mysterious death. Reborn as Arthur Leywin, he seeks to correct his past mistakes in the vibrant new continent of Dicathen, a world of magic and fantastical creatures. Equipped with the knowledge of a powerful king in his mid-thirties, Arthur navigates his new life as the magic-wielding child of two retired adventurers and gains purpose through each of his experiences—something he lacked in his previous life. When a kind dragon sacrifices her life to protect him, Arthur resolves to live a sincere, kind, and courageous life with those he loves. With the help of a lost elf princess and the Elven Kingdom of Elenoir, Arthur begins his long journey to find his true place in the world.

As the years pass, Arthur becomes more and more comfortable in this world, positioning himself as a young but respected figure. However, deja-vu strikes as a war brews between Dicathen and the Vritra, a clan of banished deities now ruling over a faraway continent. Arthur must rise as a leader, despite his fear of becoming the war-hardened monster he once was in his past life. As the war rages on, Arthur discovers that he was not reborn to this world by chance… nor was he the only one.

4. Escape Room

Suspense Manhwa. Six people from varied backgrounds are presented with a puzzle cube: Zoey, a physics student; Jason, a wealthy daytrader; Ben, a stockboy; Mike, a truck driver; Amanda, an Iraq War veteran; and Danny, an escape room enthusiast. When they solve the puzzle, they are invited to take part in an escape room with a $10,000 prize. The participants arrive at an office block with no greeting, and when Ben tries to leave, the door handle falls off, revealing that the challenge has begun. They escape the first two rooms, a giant heating oven and a winter cabin. After finding the key, however, the rooms become fatal. Danny falls through the ice in an icy room and drowns;

Amanda plummets to her death in an upside-down billiards bar where parts of the floor periodically fall into a deep shaft below; Jason shocks Mike to death to solve a puzzle in a hospital room filling up with poisonous gas; and in a room with optical illusions and strobe lights, Ben kills Jason over an antidote required to escape.

3. The Red Book

The more you think about it, the scarier it gets. This is about things that are everywhere and nowhere. There was no backstory or even a future story. As the author states in the epilogue, his intention was to literally just show that ghosts can be anywhere at any time and they don’t have to have a reason. So this comic is just normal people seeing ghosts and most of the time these ghosts don’t really have any malicious intentions (even if they look like they might) or intentions at all. Sometimes they’re just there.

2. Given

Given is roughly divided into two major story arcs. The first arc, which focuses primarily on the relationship between Ritsuka and Mafuyu, follows the formation of the band and the lead-up to their first live performance. The second arc, which focuses primarily on the relationship between Akihiko and Haruki, follows the band as they prepare for their first music festival. After these two arcs, the manga is now going on with a third arc, based on Hiiragi and Shizusumi’s relationship.

High schooler Ritsuka Uenoyama is the guitarist for a band composed of himself, bassist Haruki Nakayama, and drummer Akihiko Kaji. He becomes a reluctant guitar teacher to Mafuyu Satō, a shy classmate, after repairing the broken strings on Mafuyu’s Gibson ES-330. Ritsuka quickly realizes that Mafuyu is an exceptionally talented singer, and invites him to join the band.

Also Read:Light Novel Where the MC is Misunderstood : Our top 20+

1. Ghost Teller

Suspense Manhwa. Teito Klein is a former slave who now attends the Barsburg Empire’s military academy due to his ability to use a rare and highly prized type of supernatural force known as Zaiphon.

Teito is an amnesiac who frequently has frightening dreams. The night before the graduation exam, Teito and his only friend, Mikage, vow they will never abandon each other. The next day, Teito overhears people talking about him. Stopping to listen, he suddenly realizes that the speaker, Chief of Staff Ayanami, is the person who killed the familiar man in his dreams: His father, the king of the destroyed Raggs Kingdom. Teito is caught eavesdropping and tries to attack Ayanami but is quickly brought down by one of his subordinates and sent to prison.