The Holy Terror
A possible retreat from goodreads ... though I'm tempted to yell "get off my lawn" at this site's tumblresque-ness. Yes, that's totally a word.
Awful story with clunky prose and horrible characters.Hideous and inconsistent artwork.Best part: when it was over.Borrowed the whole series from the library and I'm thankful I can return it back to them.
Kin (Good Neighbors Series #1)
This story is somewhat interesting though unoriginal, and it jumps around and tries to pack in WAY too much for a graphic novel. Artwork was ugly and inconsistent to the point where the main character remarks "that's the boy from the coffee shop" and I thought, "really?" and flipped back and they sort of look the same. The main character's face changes so often and gives such ugly expressions that it pulled me out of the story. I'm sorry, but I want nice artwork when I'm reading a graphic novel otherwise I'd just, you know, read a novel.Will continue since I've got the next two out from the library, but so far not all that impressed. I think this would've made a better novella.
3.75 starsI think I would have liked this more if I'd already seen the anime. Some of the fight scenes are really messy and I can't make out what's going on. I can't even really tell what the witches look like.The story is your typical magical girl fare, but also ... not. It's way more mature than any other I've read, and I like that there's death and blood and not just transformations and monsters of the week. There's also a really interesting mystery underlying everything that I can't wait to see play out.Unfortunately, there hasn't been much character development yet, and I think by volume two there should be a lot more than what's been given. Each volume has been really short and hasn't really delved deeply into anything other than the magical girl parts. I'd like to see more of Madoka's and Sayaka's and the other girls' everyday lives.Other than that, the story is definitely interesting enough for me to want to continue on, and quite possibly check out the anime as well, which I think is probably better than the manga.And I kind of want a stuffed Kyubey now too, he's just so adorably evil.／人◕ ‿‿ ◕人＼
Read along with Zahara. I pretty much love this family and all of their adventures. I'm sad that there's only one more book left. I hope it's not a trilogy and she's still writing. Review to come.ETA: Just found this on her site:Are you writing more books about the Penderwicks?There are now three published Penderwick books, and I’m working on the fourth, which will come out in 2014. The fifth Penderwick book will be the last.Well, I'm glad there will be two more but will still be sad to see them go after the fifth is over. Here's hoping she continues to write after she's done with the Penderwicks.
Ink (Paper Gods, #1)
Completely LOVED this book. If you've ever watched a Japanese drama, you know exactly what to expect. Cute bad boys, a gutsy girl, silly friends, and DRAMA. Throw in a paranormal twist and you've got a blockbuster. It was so authentic too, this author obviously lived and breathed in Japan and it shows. Everything was meticulously researched down to the food, kendo, the customs, the language, how real Japanese teens talk ... everything. It made me miss my Japanese classes so much to read about how these things looked through a gaijin's eyes, just like I had for so long. And I've been to Tokyo and it's one of the most welcoming, bizarre, lovely, crazy busy, and wonderful places I've ever been. (I'm sure Shizuoka is just as beautiful.)
The absolute worst thing about this whole book though? Giving me one chapter of the next book at the end.
ARGH.
Forgot to add, the arc was given to me by NetGalley. ありがとうございました。
Reading the negative reviews, I understand now why they're so up-and-down. Japanese (and Korean) dramas are definitely an acquired taste. They're formulaic. They're basically soap operas, but I ate them up for years while I was studying Japanese and fell in unabashed love.
And this book pulled up those memories and made me long to visit Japan all over again.
Here's a link to Toro Iseki, so you can see where Tomo and Katie spent so much time together. And jeez,no wonder people saw the dragon!
Can't wait for the next book.
すき。。。
じゃ。次回までは、またね。
Argh. Would've been 4 stars if I had known this wasn't a stand alone. I don't hate cliffhangers but this book really has no ending. I know the info IS on here this time that it's the first of a series, but it's nowhere on the actual book so I thought I was getting a complete story when I grabbed it at the library. The drawing is very simplistic but honestly, not all that great. At times the colors of the main character's jacket changes colors from one panel to the next (and I'm not referencing the flashback scenes, this was in the forest when she first meets Jellaby.) What's even more ridiculous about this happening is the whole book is in shades of purple! Or maybe that's how the screw-up happened more easily than it would've in a book with multiple colors? Who knows.Jellaby is adorable though and really sells this book. If it wasn't for him/her/it then this would be a complete flop. The little girl is a jerk and I hope that this is going in a direction to where she learns to stop feeling sorry for herself and being mean to the one person who's nice to her. I'm just hoping I can get the second volume so I can see how things end. (Just checked, and I can. You're lucky, Soo!)Actual rating about a 3.5 then.
This is actually getting better, more intense, and not as predictable as I thought it was going to be. Last two volumes have added a lot of layers with new characters and consequences.Still have no idea what's really going on, or how Mariya's laptop continues to work ...I'm really glad I picked this series up, which I did completely randomly. Sometimes that does work out!
So this is like Battle Royale + Lost + Jurassic Park + boobs and panty shots. Some parts are silly and don't make sense (I'm still waiting for them to explain how Mariya's laptop keeps working - funny, if you google "cage of eden mariya ... one of the auto-completes after that is "laptop battery," heh.) I'm definitely caught up in the story now and want to know what's really going on though. Stopping at the library later today to pick up the rest of what they've got.
I didn't like this : (And I realize I'm not the intended audience for this book, but I've read picture books as an adult that have made me laugh and even cry, this just wasn't one that touched me in any way.I wasn't afraid of the dark when I was a kid; my room was in the basement. The illustrations weren't anything special, there wasn't much story beyond "there's no reason to be afraid of the dark," and the writing wasn't particularly clever.One thing though, if you have a kid struggling with being afraid of the dark, this might be a great book to check out to try to explain that there's nothing to be afraid of. I don't know if it'll work, but hey, it's worth a try!I think this is just one of those instances where this wasn't meant for me, but others might enjoy it.
Completely missed that this was a volume 1 and not a stand alone, and it ends on a cliffhanger right when the story gets interesting. Figures! (You guys can thank me, I just added the series info and "Book 1" to the title so you're not duped like I was.)Not bad but kind of annoying that this is going to be one of those "boy finds out girl's true feelings through reading something he was told not to" which of course is going to piss her off when she finds out and then there will be that conflict to work through.I like that this is science fiction though, that was a nice surprise. (I just grabbed this at the library and didn't read the synopsis.) Not the best formatting though, lots and lots and lots of black space instead of, you know ... drawings and story. The drawings are cute and I was enjoying the story, but I wanted more of it. This was more like a couple of issues of comics than a full graphic novel. Kind of a cheap move and I'm glad I didn't buy it. I want to read the rest though so I'll check out the next one when it's out in ... 6 months. Sigh.I just wish I could keep going and finish. (That's what she said, heh.)Oh well. Just have to wait.
Also received this through NetGalley today. You guys know how I feel about self published and indie books ... but I just couldn't resist.Set in Korea, written by a Korean author, and there are ghosts and sex. Seriously couldn't resist.I am worried that there are three 5 star reviews up, only on Amazon, and those people have not written reviews for anything else.Trying to remain positive here, and optimistic, and not think the worst. But you guys know how it goes.But come ON, this book sounds like it was written just for me.(Please don't be a shitty book, please don't be a crazy thin-skinned author, please don't make me regret trying a self-published book again ...)
Hate to sound snarky, but I can see why the Minx imprint was canceled. And it's not fair, because an imprint like Minx deserves a chance, it's just whomever was picking the titles didn't pick anything exciting. They're like Lifetime movies, almost, but not even THAT much fun.Boring characters, boring story, nothing new or interesting, nothing really happened, nothing really resolved, just blah all around.The art was nice though, I'll try to keep an eye out for whatever the artist comes out with next. ETA: Ooh, it looks like the artist has been drawing for some of the Fables books, like [b:Fables, Vol. 15: Rose Red|8601702|Fables, Vol. 15 Rose Red|Bill Willingham|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1333579907s/8601702.jpg|13471639] and [b:Fairest: Hidden Kingdom|17137611|Fairest Hidden Kingdom (Fairest, #2)|Lauren Beukes|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1356127046s/17137611.jpg|23539651]. That's exciting to see and really interesting since those two covers seriously catch my eye every time they pop up. The Fairest book reminds me of something from the Renaissance era; it's really strikingly beautiful. Glad he continues to work and I'll be happy to see how his art has progressed.
Woah! Intense! Kind of reminds me of a [b:Battle Royale|57893|Battle Royale, Vol. 1 (Battle Royale, #1)|Koushun Takami|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1347888311s/57893.jpg|56398]- or [b:Gantz|2824337|Gantz, Vol. 1 (Gantz, #1)|Hiroya Oku|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1349028971s/2824337.jpg|2850440]-type setting mixed with the TV show Lost. And now I'm kicking myself for not at least grabbing the second volume because it ends on a doozy of a cliffhanger.Lots of panty shots and boobs, but it's an ecchi manga so that's to be expected and it doesn't bother me. The story already has me intrigued and there are so many questions I want answered. Hopefully this mangaka can pull this story off to where it makes sense because there are so many ways it could go wrong and just end up being silly or stupid. I'm looking forward to finding out just which way this one goes.
Another good start for a shounen manga! I had seen the first episode of the anime already so I knew what to expect; although I was kind of surprised the beginning in the manga wasn't as developed as it was in the anime, you get a much better understanding of why Rin fights with the boys and starts the whole mess in the anime than in here.Definitely a lot crammed into this first volume, but thanks to reading Bakuman I'm wondering if that's because this was originally a one-shot that got turned into a series and they just used a bunch of the same material for this volume. That's complete speculation on my part though.There's an interesting dynamic between the two brothers, but I felt that Yukio was a lot colder towards Rin than was warranted, especially since Rin always protected his younger brother. Well, there are always reasons for these things, and a few of them popped up in the end, but still, keeping Yukio in the dark for so long about so much wasn't right. I'm also really interested to hear more about their mother. THAT should be an interesting story.Fun fact: I have the same birthday as the two twin main characters ^_^I've got the next few books on hold and I can't wait to continue. Finally got some good manga, and a lot of volumes too, to spend some time marathoning. Now I just need the laundry and dishes to magically do themselves ...
I've read manga and enjoyed anime for a really large part of my life, probably close to 25 years now. The last few series I've tried though, have made me start to think that I might be growing out of it all, which I suppose happens and can be sad but our tastes change as we age so I assume it's not all that uncommon to suddenly enjoy different things instead.With that being said though, I think I was just picking the wrong stuff. Bakuman has reminded me of why I've always enjoyed this medium. I love art, I love Japan, and I love a great story with characters I can relate to. I've read the entirety of the Death Note series, which was also written/drawn by both [a:Tsugumi Ohba|1978|Tsugumi Ohba|http://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1368036864p2/1978.jpg] and [a:Takeshi Obata|8480|Takeshi Obata|http://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1253906903p2/8480.jpg], so I was definitely curious to see if they could come up with another smash hit together, especially since Bakuman is entirely fantasy-free. Well, I loved this first volume, a lot. If you've ever been interested in the manga industry at all, you'll get a kick out of all of the insider info that these two mangaka provide. And they don't make up a fake publisher either, which is doubly interesting, so I'm assuming we're getting to see what really goes on behind the scenes at Shueisha, which I find fascinating. Weekly Shounen Jump, the Tezuka Award, various real manga series are all name-dropped, and while this might seem like it's just that—name-dropping—I think it really adds to the authenticity of the story: which is two young men wanting to become manga writers.With Death Note, Ohba and Obata were known for creating multifaceted characters with deep back stories and super intense story-lines with many twists and turns, and you wouldn't think they'd be able to recreate that sort of atmosphere in a slice-of-life type manga, but somehow they've done it. I'm so excited that these two mangaka have brought me back to feeling something towards new manga, when at the most I've just felt apathy. And while parts of the story are a bit over-the-top (I mean, really, what manga doesn't have those parts?) I still really enjoyed this first volume in its entirety. Can't wait to continue on and see how these two young men fulfill their dreams.
