Welcome to Monstrous Miss Sophie’s Enchanted Salon of Healing - LN 1

Welcome to Monstrous Miss Sophie’s Enchanted Salon of Healing Volume 1 by Sachi Konzome, Illustration by Harenochihareta. Translated by Dawson Chen. Published by Cross Infinite World.

I don't know if I was particularly in a tearful mood when I read this book (it's very possible) but this book made me very emotional. 

The main character is a single mother in Japan who manages to raise her daughter with a skin condition (it's implied to be some sort of autoimmune psoriasis or eczema). Although they struggle due to poverty and social exclusion, eventually her daughter manages to study, becomes a doctor, and meets someone that she wants to marry. 

However, when her daughter leaves for her honeymoon, Mariko suffers a devastating stroke. Instead of calling for help, Mariko chooses not to call for help, and perishes in the process.

Unlike other isekai series that don't spend much time on the character's "past" life, this one spends extra time to characterize Mariko, and it pays off quite well. You truly understand why she makes the choices she makes in the beginning, such as choosing to die rather than force her daughter to care for her during her rehabilitation. Unlike other series, Mariko isn't young, and brings a different perspective.

Mariko reincarnates into Sophie Olzon, a girl who is distraught by her own skin condition. She eventually finds out that she has a weak healing magic that has the ability to heal other's skin. After hitting rock bottom, Sophie decides that she wants to help others and opens a "salon" where she offers her services for free for the 1st year. 

Salon in this sense is a noble salon, a room in an upper-class family's house where people meet to discuss, have tea, and socialize. For Sophie's purposes, her healing abilities are too weak to be of use to the government, so she is left to her own devices, for the most part. 

The series focuses on a "patient of the week" style, where you learn the stories of everyone who comes to seek treatment. Her patient's stories are emotional as well, and many of them deal with how their scars are a painful reminder of their past mistakes or obstacles to their future happiness. 

Through it all, Sophie heals others while struggling with her own condition, unable to find a solution. Although this series showcases something as "shallow" as skin, skin is the first thing that people see, and form their opinion of a person on. For young women, appearing youthful and beautiful is an expectation, and anything that impedes that might even reduce their job opportunities. Even for men, scars or tattoos can have negative connotations or become reminders of a previous life that no longer represents you.

If you want to see similar real-life examples of how physically and emotionally painful skin conditions can be, I suggest watching "Save My Skin" which features cases treated by dermatologist Dr. Emma Craythorne. 

It's hurtful to feel like you're ugly, a monster that shouldn't be viewed or loved by anyone. I appreciate that this series exists, and provides a view into how debilitating such conditions can be. I shed real tears at some of the stories, it was that emotionally moving. 

In this first volume, it mostly focused on Sophie's patients. I'm hopeful that the next (and last) volume will also focus on Sophie healing herself, whether emotionally or physically. There's a hint at a romance here, and I'm looking forward to seeing how that develops.