Category: Reviews

FANGS, Vol. 1

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Fangs, Vol. 1 by Billy Balibally
Series Name: Fangs
Genres: BL, Fantasy, Vampires
Intended Age Group: M 18+
Publisher: Tokyopop
Edition: Paperback 
ISBN: 9781427867933
Rating: 3/5
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Description from the Book

As the sole survivor of a vampire attack, En wakes up to find that his hair has gone white as snow – and worse, he’s developed a craving for blood!

Fortunately, the vampire health and welfare organization FANGS is there to help with the transition, and the handsome Ichii steps up as his guardian and mentor. Swept up into a confusing and lonely new world where everyone seems to be hankering for a taste of his “virgin” blood, En must navigate the FANGS pairing system, an arrangement that sets up compatible vampires as mutual feeding partners…and partners in all other ways as well. But what happens when En panics and declares that he’ll be paired with Ichii? And what does brooding rough-around-the-edges Ichii make of his spunky, outgoing new charge?

Personal & Info

This book kept showing up in my recommendations for BL, so I finally got around to trying it. I think there are only two books in the series. If there are more, they aren’t yet listed anywhere, so as far as I know it’s a duology.

CONTENT WARNINGS
-depression
-talk of suicide
-possible dubious consent

The art often uses that snaggletooth art style. You know, the one where it looks like a tooth or fang are part of the lip instead of actual teeth. The fangs are often shown that way throughout this book. It’s certainly not my favorite art style. I prefer seeing the lips and teeth separate because it looks more normal, but also because I think vampire mouths are sexier that way. The weird lip thing just looks a bit silly to me.

It does have censorship for the intimate scenes. They use the “light saber” method. That’s what I tend to call the kind where the dicks are just an undrawn bright white mass.

Characters

En is the main character. He’s a homeless nineteen year old who was lucky, or unlucky, enough to survive a vampire attack. En is the first new vampire in approximately fifty years.

Ichii is the love interest. He’s so old that other vampires occasionally refer to him as grandpa. His job is to oversee the criminals and troubled clientele of the community. He does things like wellness checks and supplies them with blood.

Utsugi is one of the first vampires En meets. He’s paired with Aogiri, but apparently has a history of cheating.

Umesaki is a character who only comes up once. Whether or not she plays a bigger role later, I don’t know.

Aogiri is paired with Utsugi. He’s a plastic surgeon. They say he specializes in fangs. I assume they mean the organization FANGS, not literal teeth.

Masaki is, I think, the last vampire before En. Don’t take my word on that. It’s my guess based on information given. He helps host support meetings for the vampire community.

Mariko is married to Masaki. I’ll let the book explain more, because this is a unique circumstance.

Sugi is a vampire dealing with grief, whom En befriends.

Story & Thoughts

This is probably the most depressing boys love story I’ve ever read. They’re usually pretty cheery and heartwarming. This book very much is not.

There isn’t much romance in the romantic sense. Most of it is physical, but there are tender moments. It’s like a slow burn between the characters with physical intimacy before they are in love. Their experiences are based more on a need than a want. It’s making use of the vampire trope that feeding is a sexually intimate experience.

The story seems to be as much about the vampire lore as it is the budding romance between En and Ichii. En follows Ichii to work every day, since he has nothing better to be doing. They meet other people in the vampire community, and En learns what kinds of relationships and problems people of their species have, as well as how they live. He is generally not fond of any of it. It’s a big adjustment for him. But he makes friends very easily, because he’s like a ray of sunshine, or an innocent puppy, in everyone’s lives.

The fact of the matter is, most of the people in the story are lonely and/or depressed. The vampire lifestyle is not portrayed as anything glamorous. They point out how hard it is to live so long while the world moves on around you. In so many words, people grow numb and have a harder time feeling emotions like happiness. Part of the point of the existence of the FANGS organization is to try to curb this problem by pairing compatible vampires.

I like the book, but I don’t know if I recommend it, yet. I want to read the second book before I decide if it’s something I would suggest. It definitely might not be for everyone due to the depressing themes. Everyone seems to have a sad or tragic backstory. There is a blatant plot hook cliff hanger at the end of the volume, so I definitely plan to read the second book. Not just for that, but also to see how the love story develops.

The Scum Villain’s Self-Saving System, Vol. 1

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The Scum Villain’s Self-Saving System, Vol. 1 by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu
Series Name: The Scum Villain’s Self-Saving System: Ren Zha Fanpai Zijiu Xitong
Genres: Danmei, Fantasy, Historical, Transmigration
Intended Age Group: 17+
Publisher: Seven Seas
Edition: Paperback 
ISBN: 978-1-64827-921-8
Rating: 4/5
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Description from the Book

Half-demon Luo Binghe rose from humble beginnings and a tortured past to become unrivaled in strength and beauty. With his dominion over both the Human and Demon Realms and his hundreds-strong harem, he is truly the most powerful protagonist…in a trashy web novel series!

At least, that’s what Shen Yuan believes as he finishes reading the final chapter in Proud Immortal Demon Way. But when a bout of rage leads to his sudden death, Shen Yuan is reborn into the world of the novel in the body of Shen Qingqiu – the beautiful but cruel teacher of a young Luo Binghe. While Shen Qingqiu may have the incredible power of a cultivator, he is destined to be horrifically punished for crimes against the protagonist.

The new Shen Qingqiu now has only one course of action: get into Luo Binghe’s good graces before the young man’s rise to power or suffer the awful fate of a true scum villain!

Personal & Info

For those unfamiliar, danmei is the Chinese equivalent to boys love, and transmigration is the Chinese equivalent to isekai.

Danmei has been exploding in popularity for a while. I’m a long time fan of BL, so I figured it’s about time I got around to trying some danmei. This book is my way of metaphorically dipping my toes in to find out if I like it.

The story focuses significantly around the discipline of cultivation, which involves the use of qi, and also monsters and demons.

The book is actually shorter than it looks. Chapter one starts on page nine, and the last page is 291. The last sixty-ish pages are actually extra content intended to help the reader. There are a character and name guide, a glossary, and a gallery. I highly recommend making use of the character and name guide and the glossary if you are not familiar with danmei or Chinese literature already. They were an immense help to me for understanding tropes, name pronunciations, and additional details.

Characters

There is a wide cast of characters, so I’m just going to list the ones I feel are the most important. Some important ones, I might choose not to list. I don’t want to spoil anything for the characters who might become important later on.

Luo Binghe is the protagonist of the web novel series Proud Immortal Demon Way. As the protagonist, he’s obviously powerful and good looking, but he’s also noble and kind. Since this is the first volume, he’s obviously not at his full power.

Shen Yuan and Shen Qingqiu are for all intents and purposes the same person. Shen Yuan hates the content of the web novel and is transmigrated into Shen Qingqiu. We never actually see the original. His original behavior comes up as a subject regularly, but as soon as the book starts, Shen Qingqiu is essentially possessed by Shen Yuan. He is supposed to be the villain, but in this case, he’s the main character. The main character and the protagonist are not the same thing in this series, because the protagonist is specifically the star of the web novel, not the perspective we’re following.

Yue Qingyuan is Shen Qingqiu’s superior who often gives guidance, advice, and quests. It’s not going too far to say Shen Qinguiu benefits from his favoritism.

Ming Fan is Shen Qingqiu’s right hand disciple. He acts as an assistant for many mundane tasks that need doing. He’s also very much a bully, and takes pleasure in abusing the protagonist, Luo Binghe.

Story & Thoughts

The book is a little difficult to start, but not because of anything to do with the story. I’m not used to reading any kind of Chinese literature, so the issue is mostly the names. I like to be sure I’m mentally pronouncing things correctly, or at least as close as feasibly possible. For the first several pages, I found myself referencing the back of the book frequently. Once the story gets going, it’s not much of an issue, anymore.

I don’t know what I was expecting, but I definitely like this book more than I thought I would. It’s not fast. The romance seems to be a slow burn. The characters don’t even realize it’s happening. They just occasionally wonder why they feel a certain way, and wonder if they have a right to feel that way. I don’t think the two characters ever realize what kinds of feelings they are developing for each other, at least not in this volume. This slow burn ignorant approach leads to some down right adorable moments, and I absolutely love that.

The story itself is intriguing. It’s generally pretty different than Japanese isekai. There’s an automated system that is there to help guide Shen, and make sure the core points of the novel still happen, despite his changes to the story. The system definitely does not operate fairly. The points it threatens to take away are ridiculously large amounts compared to those it rewards, and it often makes up new types of point values.

It’s actually difficult for me to find things to say for a review that don’t spoil any content in the book. I liked it a lot, but for some reason have a hard time explaining things from it. I can’t say it was amazing, but I do love this book. It’s good, and I definitely recommend it if it falls into the genre categories that interest you.

I do not recommend setting the book down at the end of chapter two. It’s too perfect of a, “story over,” spot. I put it down at that point and it took me a whole week to be able to pick it back up. It wouldn’t be a happy end to stop there, but it feels like it could be an end. Just don’t stop there if you have a hard time picking books back up from that kind of thing.

Dragon Head, Vol. 1

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Dragon Head, Vol. 1 by Minetaro Mochizuki
Series Name: Dragon Head
Genres: Drama, Horror
Intended Age Group: OT or Mature
Publisher: Kodansha
Edition: ebook
ISBN: 9781642121339
Rating: 1/5
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Description

A train of students is on its way back from the last field trip before exam season. Something goes terribly wrong, and the train crashes, killing nearly everyone on board. Teru Aoki, Takahashi Nobuo, and Seto Ako are the only survivors. But, the worst is yet to come, because the crash appears to have trapped them inside a tunnel with no hope of rescue from the outside. One of them starts to lose their sanity almost immediately. Will the others soon follow?

Personal & Info

This is a book I got for free from a BookWalker sale. It looks like this series was originally published by Tokyopop back in the day, before they shut down in America. That means the physical editions are out of print, so I don’t recommend trying to read those. The digital editions will be much easier to find, because they are more recent.

I see other people label this series as post-apocalyptic. I can’t verify that with only this one volume, so I won’t be marking it as such. It’s also commonly considered horror, but I’m not sure how accurate that is, either. I will indeed mark it as horror, because I feel like the actions of one of the characters is going to lead it down that road. If I ever read more of the series, I’ll update my tags with what I think fits.

This book/series has some gore because of the train crash. If you don’t like blood or demented behavior, do not read it. Consider this your content warning.

Characters

Aoki Teru is the main character. He’s the one who wakes to find the train is now a cemetery, and tries to do the morally right things in the terrible situation in which they now find themselves.

Takahashi Nobuo is a boy from a different class, who also happened to survive. He was apparently the kid in his class whom everyone else bullied. His character is rather unsettling.

Seto Ako is the only surviving girl. This volume doesn’t show much for her due to her lack of consciousness for the majority.

Story & Thoughts

I don’t think this series is for me. The first volume is bland, in my opinion, when read by itself. I don’t like it nearly enough to bother looking into getting the second in any format. If I already had the second one ready to go, I’d read that just to see if it gets better.

The story is slow. Not much of anything happens. The entire volume is the survivors realizing and coming to terms with the fact they are trapped with no rescue coming. The temperature of the tunnel is hot and uncomfortable. Their food supply is rotting fast, but they have a decent amount of water.

One of the characters is quickly going insane, which does not bode well for the other two. I’m curious to find out what happens, but not enough to look into it.

These things are practically the only information you get in volume one, so if you’re reading this review, you’ve practically read the book.

If I have to compliment something, I think it’s the premise. It sounds interesting, but I was definitely expecting something more.

Something I didn’t like, why did Seto Ako have to be on her period? That seems unnecessary to the story. Why is it included? Did the author just want to include an additional complication to the story to make things even more uncomfortable? This isn’t usually something people bother drawing attention to in stories. I’m not trying to period shame. I just think it’s unnecessary for this particular story.

Anyway, this book is not interesting enough to draw me into the series. It’s not my thing. It might be one of those things where you need to read more than one volume to get into it, but I’m not curious enough to pay money to find out.

The Apothecary Diaries, Vol. 9

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The Apothecary Diaries, Vol. 9 by Natsu Hyuuga, Nekokurage, Itsuki Nanao, Touco Shino
Series Name: The Apothecary Diaries (Manga)
Genres: Drama, Historical, Mystery, Romance
Intended Age Group: Teen
Publisher: Square Enix
Edition: Paperback 
ISBN: 978-1-64609-135-5
Rating: 3.5/5
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Description from the Book

A festive atmosphere descends upon the Inner Court with the arrival of a long-awaited merchant caravan and its myriad wares. Though the excitement is contagious and even Maomao looks forward to making purchases of her own, she soon cottons on to something potentially sinister about the innocuous goods for sale. Before Maomao can tease out any evidence, however, her attention turns to mushrooms when Jinshi asks her to root out any poisonous varieties on the grounds. But is this request just a bit of landscaping, or does it have anything to do with the rumors about a missing court lady?

Personal & Info

I’m glad this volume released rather quickly after eight. Six months was a long wait, so the short time between the two newest volumes was nice. Three months isn’t long to wait for the tenth book, either, but I’m still sad I have to wait.

Characters

Maomao, my favorite character in the series, continues to be eccentric in all the best ways.

Jinshi is ever present in this volume, assigning various tasks to Maomao as per usual.

Shisui is Xiaolan’s new gossip friend and fellow laundry maid.

Other character also appear, like the Lady of Verdigris, the physician, Gao Shun, the ladies of the Jade Palace, etc. but they play smaller roles.

Story & Thoughts

This volume is a little more chill than the others. Maomao goes back to handling unique tasks for Jinshi. As usual, doing her best to prevent potential disasters that nobody else would notice. But, don’t let my description fool you. There’s still plenty of intrigue.

Maomao returns to speculating with her own silent theories. She’s unable to determine if things are coincidences or another plot to unravel. It’s understandable to be at least a little paranoid after the culmination of events from volume six. All she can really do at this point is voice her concerns and hope for the best.

The way Maomao works, we must often settle for hypotheticals. She never wants to interject where she knows it’s not her business or station. She’s also adamant about not giving anyone an answer about anything without evidence. If possible, she’d rather people work out the answer themselves with the information she provides. These are things long taught about her character at this point. So, don’t be surprised if there isn’t confirmation on the results of some mysteries. Maomao is usually correct, though, so you can probably assume her speculations are accurate.

The last chapter, The Moon Fairy, is part one of a multi-part episode. Unfortunately, the next book does not release until November. Based on the implications of what is to come, I’m looking forward to it. It’s likely to be humorous.

Maomao is what keeps me reading. I love her character so much. She’s eccentric and often has her own goblin mode when it comes to poisons and medicines. Seeing her just be herself is always the highlight of reading this series. A laugh or two is guaranteed just by having her in the story, and her interactions with Jinshi tend to have their entertaining moments.

My Happy Marriage, Vol. 2

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My Happy Marriage, Vol. 2 by Akumi Agitogi, Rito Kohsaka, Tsukiho Tsukioka
Series Name: My Happy Marriage (Manga)
Genres: Fantasy, Historical, Romance 
Intended Age Group: Teen
Publisher: Square Enix
Edition: Paperback 
ISBN: 978-1-64609-147-8
Rating: 4/5
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Description from the Book

For failing to inherit the unusual power that should be hers by birthright and bringing shame to her noble lineage, Miyo Saimori is cast out to become another’s problem.

Sent to the preternaturally powerful Kudo clan as a potential bride for its heir, Kiyoka, Miyo is surprised to experience true kindness for the first time in her life.

Despite the rumors in town that warn of his cold, haughty demeanor, Kiyoka Kudo warms quickly to the eldest Saimori daughter after the secrets of her past pique his interest.

But though Miyo has begin to feel at home with Kiyoka, the fact remains that she lacks the supernatural power prized by both the Saimori and Kudo clans, rendering her unfit to be Kiyoka’s bride.

Will the small happiness Miyo has found with Kiyoka end as soon as it has begun?

Personal & Info

I like the first volume, but for some reason ended up waiting a whole year to get around to reading the second. Probably because the series is releasing rather slowly. There’s an anime out now, though, so I want to catch up with the manga before watching that.

My Happy Marriage isn’t exactly a peppy series, but it can be both heartwarming and tragic. Keep that in mind when deciding when to indulge.

Characters

Miyo Saimori is the main character. She experienced abuse from her own family, and was sent to court a man everyone considers cruel. She has no psychic ability

Kiyoka Kudo is the love interest of the story. Everyone thinks he is too cruel for anyone to marry, but he has high political standing and wealth. He appears to have a destructive ability focusing around fire.

Yurie is Kiyoka’s housekeeper. She has taken care of him since he was young, and he trusts her implicitly. She is a very kind older woman.

Kaya Saimori is Miyo’s younger half-sister. She received everything Miyo did not growing up, and she blatantly bullies her sister whenever she sees her.

Koji Tatsuishi is Miyo’s childhood friend. His hope was to marry her one day to save her from her terrible family.

Yoshito Godo is a young man who works as Kiyoka’s aide in the grotesquery military branch. He appears in volume one, but shows up more frequently in this one.

Lord Tatsuichi, I didn’t catch his first name, is the head of his household. He makes some morally questionable decisions.

Kazushi Tatsuichi is Koji’s brother. I’m not sure if he is older or younger. He plays a minor role, and appears maybe twice.

Story & Thoughts

This volume is a little more cheery than the first one. Miyo is starting to make a little personal growth, but her past still haunts her. Her scars run deep, and the people who inflicted them are still around to cause more damage.

The plot thickens, delving more into the schemes and reasonings of people who don’t want Miyo to marry Kiyoka. Opposing sides are made clear showing who would like to protect her instead of using her for their own selfish desires. Some plans of protection are more reasonable than others.

Kaya and Koji both get more coverage. We see how terrible Kaya is, and a glimpse into her childhood to understand a little about why she turned out that way. Koji’s family dynamic is revealed, and his silent inner thoughts are surprising when compared to his exterior personality.

Overall, there’s a lot to unload in this volume. It pulls at my heart, and it blatantly shows where most of the main characters stand. Kiyoka is proving to be a better person than his public opinion implies. The Saimori and the Tatsuichi on the other hand, both are proving to be extremely sketchy.

It’s difficult to talk about this series without spoiling anything. These books are best read fresh, not knowing what will happen. That raw emotion of the first time read just hits hard. Miyo’s tragic past and her struggle moving forward. The slow burn of romance bringing the first real happiness into her life under the constant threat of losing it. I’ll definitely be reading this series long term.

What Godo Saw

Like the first volume, this is a short story relevant to the events of the book. Combs and Memories is more of a continuation. What Godo saw is a change in perspective, instead. It covers Godo’s side of the events of the dinner at Kiyoka’s home. Apparently there was more going on than it appeared, because this story gets into his head and states his intentions, as well as a few small conversations the manga did not show.

The Hunger Pains: A Parody

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The Hunger Pains: A parody by The Harvard Lampoon
Genres: Adventure, Comedy, Dystopia, Parody, Sci-Fi
Intended Age Group: Young Adult
Publisher: Touchstone/Simon & Schuster
Edition: Paperback
ISBN: 978-1-4516-6820-9
Rating: 2/5
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Description from the Book

When Kantkiss Neverclean replaces her sister as a contestant on the Hunger Games – the second-highest rated reality TV show in Peaceland, behind Extreme Home Makeover – she has no idea what to expect.

Having Lived her entire life in the telemarketing district’s worst neighborhood, the Crack, Kantkiss feels unprepared to fight to the death while simultaneously winking and looking adorable for the cameras. But when her survival rests on choosing between dreamy hunk from home, Carol Handsomestein, or doughy klutz, Pita Malarkey, Kantkiss discovers that the toughest conflicts may not be on the battlefield but in her own heart…which is unfortunately on a battlefield.

Personal & Info

This book is a parody novel of The Hunger Games. It’s fairly short, at about 157 pages. I’ve seen several parody movies of things, but never read a parody novel. My curiosity won out and made me grab this book, since it was cheap.

Based on the appearance of the book alone, I’m impressed. The cover is essentially identical to the source material, except for the position of the bird. Not only that, but the chapter and page numbers are also decorated with the same touches as the Hunger Games novel. Effort was obviously made to make it visually recognizable as a parody and to give the pages the same feel.

Characters

As usual for a parody, the characters have silly and ridiculous names that sound close enough to the original to work out who is which original character. I’m only going to list a few of them as examples, because learning the names is part of the comedy.

Kantkiss Neverclean – Katniss Everdeen

Pita Malarkey – Peeta Mellark

Carol Handsomestein – Gale Hawthorne

Cinnabon – Cinna

Effu Poorpeople – Effie Trinket

I’m sure you get the idea.

Story & Thoughts

I wasn’t sure what to expect going into this. A novel parody can’t be the same as you would expect a movie parody to be, right? Wrong. This book is exactly what I expect movie parodies to be. In fact, this book should have been a movie instead of a novel.

The majority of the comedy is based on low intelligence and gags that would be way better as visuals. For example, there’s a scene where Kantkiss and Carol are harvesting a cow, and they pull out T-bone steaks and things that a butcher would obviously have to prepare. That scene would go over better with visual props.

Using the buffoon main character trope is taking the easy and boring way to write comedy. Kantkiss is so ridiculously unintelligent that she doesn’t know how to sit on a sofa. She misunderstands everyone else’s feelings and hopelessly sees the good in people to the point of misinterpreting everything they say. Her thoughts and behavior imply she’s so deranged that it’s amazing she could have even survived to become a teenager in the first place. It felt like the writers were either trying way too hard to make things funny, or weren’t trying hard enough.

There are some good gags in the book, though. Changing the specialties of the districts to stuff like telemarketing and theater was pretty funny. Haymitch’s parody character having a gambling problem instead of a drinking problem as an ongoing joke was pretty good, too. There just wasn’t a good balance of the good gags versus the blatantly silly stuff.

If I had to describe what the overall comedy is like, I think it’s a bit juvenile for the age group. People under fifteen might think it’s hilarious, but people over fifteen might think it’s meh. But obviously that also depends on your taste in comedy. I prefer things a bit more witty, but if you like things a bit more idiotic, this might be something you’d enjoy.

I think I would have liked this more if it were a movie. My expectations are a bit different for a book. I can’t exactly say I like it, but I can’t really say I don’t either. I’ll likely keep it as a novelty for my Hunger Games set.

Content Warnings

There’s obviously violence in this book because, duh, The Hunger Games, but there’s something specific that might bother some people. A baby dies in a rather violent manner.

Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End, Vol. 5

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Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End, Vol. 5 by Kanehito Yamada, Tsukasa Abe
Series Name: Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End
Genres: Adventure, Elves, Fantasy, Magic
Intended Age Group: Teen
Publisher: Viz/Shonen Sunday
Edition: Paperback 
ISBN: 978-1-9747-3007-0
Rating: 4.5/5
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Description from the Book

Elf mage Frieren and her courageous fellow adventurers have defeated the Demon King and brought peace to the land. But Frieren will long outlive the rest of her former party. How will she come to understand what life means to the people around her?

Frieren and Fern have ended up on different teams in the highly competitive first-class mage exam. Capturing a rare bird is required to pass, but personality clashes among teammates are making things difficult. Everyone soon realizes there is more at stake than mere success or failure – for some of them, the exam could be a matter of life and death.

Personal & Info

I’m slowly catching up on this series. I want to be up to current volumes before I watch the anime, which is supposed to come out sometime this fall. This is a great series, and I highly recommend it to fans of elves, magic, or Dungeons & Dragons.

Characters

Frieren is an elf mage famous for defeating the demon king with her companions around 80 years ago. She’s a bit of a slob and rather lazy. Her hobby is collecting any and all types of magic spells, no matter how useless they may seem. Her perspective on magic is that the pursuit of the art itself is the greatest joy.

Fern is Frieren’s mage companion and apprentice. She seems to take a motherly role in caring for both Frieren and Stark.

Stark is Eisen’s apprentice. He has great skill as a warrior. He doesn’t get much screen time in this volume, since it focuses on the Mage exam.

Kanne and Lawine are both third-class mages. They are Frieren’s teammates for the first part of the exam. Both of them attended the same academy of magic, and are good friends, despite how often they fight.

Übel and Land are third and second class mages. They are Fern’s teammates for the first part of the exam. Little is information is given for them. Übel is no stranger to murder, which was made clear in volume four.

There are plenty more characters in this volume, as there are several teams for the exam. I think Fern and Frieren’s teams are the most important, so those are the ones I’m choosing to list.

Story & Thoughts

I think this is the best volume in the series, so far. It has comedy, strategy, competition, and magic battles. All wonderful elements for a great volume.

The book starts off by jumping straight into the exam. The teams assigned at the end of book four are gathered at the location for the first-class certification exam’s first test. It is here where they are given a small cage, and the rules and conditions of the test are explained. To pass, teams must catch a special bird, a stille, and have it in the cage at the end of the time limit, with all three team members also present. Generally anything goes, as long as nobody leaves the testing area, which is basically impossible to leave anyway.

The entire volume focuses on this portion of the test. There are ten chapters, and only the last two take place outside of the test. Those final chapters are mostly relaxation and enjoying time with friends as everyone relaxes before the second part of the test.

There is a significant amount of magical combat compared to all of the previous volumes. The birds for the exam are hard to catch, so most opt for trying to steal from others. I actually love the combat, because we get to see more varieties of mage capabilities and spell preferences. Frieren and Fern like to keep things simple, so it’s nice to see how other casters do things.

We still see flashbacks from Frieren’s past, as usual, but I feel like this volume has so much more meat to it than others. I think a big part of that is the number of characters. Generally speaking, there are several fun new characters in this volume, and they all seem to have strong personalities or character quirks that make them engaging and entertaining.

The large number of people is handled well. The ones who are not important are seen in the background or only in a few panels, while the ones that matter get just the right amount of screen time.

I’m looking forward to reading the next volume to see how the second part of the test goes. The competing characters are interesting enough that I actually care to find out who all passes the tests, and hope certain ones don’t perish.

The Apothecary Diaries, Vol. 8

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The Apothecary Diaries, Vol. 8 by Natsu Hyuuga, Nekokurage, Itsuki Nanao, Touco Shino
Series Name: The Apothecary Diaries (Manga)
Genres: Drama, Historical, Mystery, Romance
Intended Age Group: Teen
Publisher: Square Enix
Edition: Paperback 
ISBN: 978-1-64609-134-8
Rating: 4/5
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Description from the Book

Sly tactician Lakan’s attempts at provocation lead to his own downfall when Maomao challenges him to elephant chess, only to outplay him in a game of wits! In a stupor from drinking “poison” as punishment for his loss, Lakan dreams of a long-lost past, his affair with a beautiful courtesan, and meeting her daughter for the very first time. Upon waking, he finds himself at Verdigris, where he is pressed to buy the freedom of a girl of his choosing and take her home as his wife! But will any of the flowers there catch his eye when his heart is in love with a memory?

Personal & Info

I keep a close eye on the release dates for this series. This volume was originally planned to release in May. Unfortunately, it was delayed until July, so it’s been a full six months since the last book. Things have been rather hectic for me lately, so I didn’t have time to re-read the previous volumes. Hopefully I remember enough to keep up with the story.

Characters

Maomao, my favorite character in the series, continues to be eccentric in all the best ways. We learn more about her origins in this volume.

Lakan is probably the most unlikeable character in the series. Despite previous hinting, he’s not as terrible as implied, but he’s still pretty bad.

Jinshi, always intrigued by Maomao, realizes he is a cat person.

Other characters also appear, but these three consume most of the screen time.

Story & Thoughts

The book starts off by diving into Lakan’s backstory. There is a preview of this at the end of volume seven, so I was expecting it. None of it justifies anything he does, but it gives some insight into understanding why he does things. It’s weird to see him more humanized after the series painted him to be an insensitive jerk of a tactician. I get the feeling the story is trying to emphasize that he’s not really a bad person, just different, and often misunderstood.

Out of the six chapters, four of them focus on backstory. Maomao and Lakan are the main focus of the volume, and their connection finally gets an in depth explanation. We even get to see Maomao’s mother. Most of the information has been hinted at throughout the story, so these chapters just solidify everything. The part that got me was the reveal of who Luomen, Maomao’s Pa, really is. That was something I never saw coming.

I’d been wondering about Maomao’s nightmare from an earlier volume. That’s one of the things that gets an explanation in this book, so I’m pretty happy about that. Maomao has certainly had an interesting childhood.

The last two chapters are more fun. There aren’t any blatant mysteries. It’s just life getting back to normal after the Garden Banquet.

Maomao and Jinshi seem to have what could be a moment in this volume. It lasts for maybe a second. They seem to have potential romantic moments scattered throughout the series, but they never last long, and quickly devolve into comedy. I can’t help wondering if one of these times one of those moments will be different.

I did notice an issue that confounded my brain. There was a sentence in the book where, I’m not sure if it’s a translation error or editing problem, but the text was confusing. The wording was strange enough that I didn’t exactly understand the intended meaning of what it was trying to say. I muddled through, but I had to re-read the sentence multiple times and guess at the intention.

Wait Until Midnight

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Wait Until Midnight by Amanda Quick
Genres: Historical, Mystery, Romance
Intended Age Group: Adult
Publisher: Jove/Berkly/Penguin Group (USA)
Edition: Paperback
ISBN: 0-515-13862-2
Rating: 3/5
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Description from the Book

Gentle Reader,

It could have been a scene from one of my novels. As a rule, respectable ladies do not accept calls from Mysterious Gentlemen on business of the most grave importance – but I confess that I was possessed of a lively curiosity. The past three years had been so determinedly dull, I hoped Mr. Adam Hardesty would offer a tiny respite from it. Indeed, upon first glance, Mr. Hardesty had such a formidable, thrilling presence, he quickly became the model for the villain in the sensation novel I was currently writing.

Imagine my shock and distress then, when Mr. Hardesty accused me of being party to a plot of murder, blackmail, and general villainy! I knew nothing of such occurrences, and proclaimed my innocence. Unfortunately, Mr. Hardesty left unconvinced, and I had an uneasy feeling over what his search would uncover. You see, Gentle Reader, though I live a most uneventful life now, my past contained a Great Scandal that would be ruinous if resurrected. To protect my secrets from Mr. Hardesty’s investigation, I concluded that I would need to conduct an inquiry of my own, and if that meant sharing my findings with Mr. Hardesty, so be it. And my course of action had nothing whatsoever to do with the illicit, passionate feelings that he aroused in me – feelings that propriety would definitely frown upon…

Yours most sincerely,
Caroline Fordyce

Personal & Info

While I only gave this three stars, it’s a good three stars. I consider books from this author to be comfort reads.

This stand alone book has psychical themes, but there are no real psychics in it. It simply takes place during a time when seances and psychic demonstrations were popular. They are all parlor tricks, so if you’re not into paranormal, it should still be fine for you to read this book.

The character list for this book is very long. I did my best to list all of the ones I feel are important, and the ones I recall making any kind of appearance that might be significant. There are more named characters than the ones I listed here. If I forgot to put them down, they likely were not important. Whether or not the murderer’s name is on the list, I will not say.

Characters

Caroline Fordyce is the leading lady. She’s a sensation novelist whose stories are published weekly in the Flying Intelligencer.

Adam Hardesty is the leading man. He comes from a poor background, which gives him a unique set of skills. Julia, Jessica, and Nathan are his adopted siblings.

Wilson Grendon is a wealthy, elderly widower. He took in Adam and his siblings and passes them off as his own distant relatives.

Emma is Caroline’s aunt and only living blood relative. She dresses plainly and presents a tall and severe appearance, with a matching personality.

Milly is Caroline’s aunt, but not a blood relative. She is short and wears brightly colored clothing, which matches her optimistic and cheerful personality.

Julia is Adam’s adoptive sister. She is married to Robert, the Earl of Sourthwood, with two children.

Robert is the Earl of Southwood. He is married to Julia, and they have two children. Robert is essentially a quiet and thoughtful man.

Mrs. Plummer is Caroline’s housekeeper.

Morton is Adam’s butler.

Elizebeth Delmont is the initial murder victim. She is spiritualist who hosts seances and spends time at the Society for Psychical Investigations.

Julian Elsworth is a fashionable practitioner of psychical powers. People consider him to be very attractive. He conducts his business in private homes in only the most exclusive circles.

Durward Reed is the President of the Society for Psychical Investigations and publisher of the newspaper New Dawn. He owns the mansion, Wintersett House, that the society uses as its headquarters.

Harold Filby is Adam’s fashionable and bespectacled man of business. He runs all kinds of errands and gathers information.

Ned is Adam’s coachmen. He’s worked for Adam for a long time.

Irene Toller is another spiritualist. She is Elizebeth Delmont’s rival in business.

Bess Whaley is Irene’s housekeeper and assistant.

Mr. Spraggett is Caroline’s publisher, described as a nervous, wiry, and balding man.

Gilbert Otford is a correspondent for the Flying Intelligencer. He wrote an article about Caroline claiming she has psychical powers.

Story & Thoughts

This book took way longer than I intended to read. No fault to the quality, I’ve just had a lot going on. As with most books by this author, this is a murder mystery. The murder is introduced at the beginning and the whole book is a romance based around the investigation.

It’s actually pretty interesting, because the majority of books I read by this author are about psychics. Psychics with actual talents, I mean. This book is only about frauds, psychics who use tricks and mechanisms to make people think they have powers. It’s an interesting flip from the usual content.

The book also follows the author’s standard storytelling formula. There’s both a murder and a backstory issue. Both get resolved by the end of the book. Some people don’t like writers who have a consistent formula for their stories. If that’s you, then consider this your warning so you know this author, and all her other pseudonyms, uses a consistent formula. I think that’s one of the things that makes them feel like comfort reads, but I understand not everyone relates to that.

The whole of the story is pretty straight forward, so I don’t have much to say about it. I do think it’s important to note that I had no idea who the villain of the story was until the story pointed them out. While it’s not always a bad thing to know who the villain is early, it’s nice to be surprised at the end. It really had me going, thinking I knew who the culprit was, then threw a curveball. Although, the more I think about it, the more I realize there were clues that pointed to them that I didn’t connect until after. So, there is the possibility to figure things out earlier than I did.

I think the most amusing thing in the story is how fixated Adam gets on the fact Caroline finds him inspirational for the villain of her novel. He doesn’t read her novel, but he can’t help thinking of the villain as literally himself whenever someone talks about it. It offends him to no end, and he can’t help interjecting possible hopes for the character or disgust for any unjust actions. The whole situation had me giggling whenever it came up, and during the first half of the book, it’s quite frequent.

My Best (♀) Butler, Vol. 1

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My Best (♀) Butler, Vol. 1 by Souko Masaki
Series Name: My Best (♀) Butler
Genres: Comedy, gender-bend
Intended Age Group: Older Teen
Publisher: Kodansha
Edition: ebook
ISBN: 9781646596515
Rating: 4/5
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Description

Rui Aoto’s family has fallen on hard times. It’s up to her to take care of her younger brother Kyo, and she refuses to be a burden on friends or family. When Rui cross-dresses to be able to work at a host club, things go awry. A rich boy, named Tohma, comes to her rescue, and her life changes drastically. To amuse Tohma, Rui agrees to a wager, and must now serve as Tohma’s “male” butler until next march. If she can do so, without exposing her true gender, Tohma will give her $10,000.

Personal & Info

I absolutely could not decide what to read for this week. Normally, I choose random numbers by rolling dice to decide which ebook on my list to read, but this time I was not satisfied with any of my choices. I ended up asking friends for random numbers instead, and then narrowing it down randomly from there. For some reason, I was more satisfied with that end result than my own. Anyway, this is the book that was chosen via coin flip after all others were eliminated.

This is one of the ebooks I got for free from a BookWalker sale. It does not appear to have any physical copies in English, yet.

Depending on your preference for consent, this book might irk you. There is crotch grabbing and peeking up skirts. That’s pretty much the only thing I recall seeing that is worth mentioning for any kind of warning.

Characters

Rui Aoto is the main character. She is Kyo’s older sister and considered flat chested.

Kyo Aoto is Rui’s younger brother. He dropped out of school after a confession to a male classmate went wrong.

Moka seems like Rui’s best friend. She is the daughter of the bakers who take Rui and Kyo in at the start of the book.

Benny is Moka and Rui’s friend.

Tohma is a bored and lonely rich kid. He has a bit of an attitude, and a severe allergy to women.

Saginuma is Tohma’s driver and butler, because they have yet to replace the previous butler. He’s been with Tohma’s family for a long time.

Yoinomiya and Ohgi are the two guys Tohma requested to watch over Rui at school.

Mr. T. Bear is a handmade teddybear from a series of children’s books. Mr. T. Bear is very important to Tohma. Kyo and Tohma are both fans of the Mr. T. Bear books.

Haruki is Tohma’s cousin, and the despot of the school. He has an anger problem.

Hatarai is Haruki’s butler.

Goryoba and Watatsumi are student council members. Goryoba is apparently very strong, and Watatsumi is “elitist.”

There are an abundance of characters with names throughout the book. I know I did not mention them all, and that is intentional. Several of them are insignificant, or only appear once or twice, so are not worth mentioning here.

Story & Thoughts

I went into this manga blind, and I’m pleasantly surprised that it’s a gender-bend. Those are some of my favorite kinds of manga. Yes, I know, the lady butler part should have made that obvious, but I wasn’t looking too closely at it.

Anyway, the setting is a little generic. The city they live in is divided into ten wards, which divide the people by wealth. Ward ten, where Rui and her friends live in the beginning of the story, is the poorest. Ward one, where Tohma lives, is the richest.

The host club job Rui’s friend Sera sets her up with is super creepy. The employees, who are teenaged boys (this is where the cross-dressing comes in), sit in a lobby where they can eat and drink from the club menu as much as they want. The facility has one way mirrors, where clients can see the employees to choose one to request for a private sitting. It’s supposed to be conversational entertainment, but the clients are all apparently older, and usually creepy, men.

Rui is warned before her shift starts that she should never leave the building with a client, because it’s unsafe, but that’s practically the first thing she does. It’s like she has no survival instinct. She definitely does not come off as an intelligent character early on.

The day to day life adventures Rui has as Tohma’s butler are amusing. She has much to learn, and must learn everything quickly. Reputation and perception are extremely important to do her job, as well as knowing how to use her resources to her advantage. The simple and ridiculous ordeals she has to deal with make good comedy. The people and places are definitely not entirely normal, either.

I have some suspicions about the Mr. T. Bear stories. I think they’re more than just a series of children’s books that Tohma likes.

There is a tiny bit of romance, but I don’t know if it’s enough to label the book as romance. Rui has a crush and gets flustered, but it doesn’t seem romantic to me. It could escalate to be more romantic later, but I won’t know for sure unless I read more.

I do intend to read more of this series eventually. It bugs me that it’s only available digitally. I’m going to have to figure out which source I would prefer to use, because I don’t usually commit to any digital manga.