Sasha
Phew! What a ride!
I loved it! A lot of things happened. And I understand why some people would dislike this book. The grumbling and hungering for food does drag on a lot. But for me the ending was made up for it.
The starting. It's not too bad. I also really like the way the side character's story is explored but doesn't feel rushed.
Fluffy and extremely sweet. A good bit of side stories in there too. A very relaxing read.
22nd june 2022:
As a fellow Asian I can say it's 100% true how taboo the topic of menstruation is in society's eyes. I related to a lot of comments and realised how much I didn't know about menstrual products and procedures as well. I'm glad I found this and read it. 5/5.
If it's one thing I hate in books, it's when authors drop in main characters in pre established groups with some tragic history so now the new comer gets shit treatment from one person in the group and the other people just ignore it.
I can't even being to say how much I hate this lazy af writing device. If there needs to be drama surely there's better way to introduce it. Second of all, the toxcity gets water under the bridge card and there's seldom any apologies offered leading me into my third and most important irritation.
The details of the so-called tragic back story are constantly hidden or not talked and the MC has to keep apologising for not approaching the topic properly when they don't even have any semblance of an idea what it is. Which is clearly the author just witholding information from the reader for a “better” and “exciting” reveal later in the story, which is again characters being hurt at having to reveal the tragedy and maybe throw in a horrible thing happening or two, again one person and one thing being the sole cause of it so now they gotta work together to solve the issue but yes we mustn't forget this was all one person's fault! How dare they not know! How dare they question?!
(I'm being petty. This is how much I hate this trope. And I have a headache from reading because it's just plain annoying)
TL; DR - I hate drama induced by bad communication that can be easily solved. And I hate the “you don't belong in our pre-established group” trope.
I don't want to read further cause I don't find it worth my time to read about impossible to enjoy characters. Maybe I'll come back to it for the lore someday and maybe when I'm able to ignore my annoyance with the character situation or maybe not.
The end. So quick yet so sweet.
Again, there's a sense that too many things are happening but because the character is Miyuu it made sense. She is scared, indecisive, not to mention her low self esteem.
But all of these volumes and especially the third one have showed a Miyuu Seno that has come to love herself and made the reader fall in love with her.
The ending could considered too idealistic where everything wraps up nicely but I loved it.
A great short read all in all.
July 28th 2022:
The best thing I liked about this was the character interactions. There was mystery but handled cleverly and with care. There's no complete stereotyping people say and do things but it's got reason behind it. I appreciated that a lot.
It's by no means a fast paced book but enough things are said for the world building and enough subtle hints are given to the reader to figure things out themselves.
Things don't actually get going until the last pages though so understandably that might not work with many people.
Final rating: 3.75/5
05 March 2022
A short and sweet holiday special with equal comedy and realism that's typical of Giant Days.
05 march 2022.
I got recommended this when I was looking for relaxing, slice of life comics and since I am still in college this series didn't really fit my bill of relaxing but nevertheless it was nice to read. The stressful stuff was shown in a good comedic way but things were still a lot realistic. What I didn't like how almost every character wanted to be in a relationship and it was too sexual for my taste.
I cried in every single chapter. And in some particularly touching ones I ugly cried.
There's positive family dynamics in this. That being selfish for self care is okay and that's very rarely talked about in Asian countries and Asian media speaking as an Asian myself.
I would love to just adopt all the characters in this manga myself if that was possible. 😂
August 2 2022:
We start with dealing with the aftermath of the last book. Some characters are pissed and some take up a stand regardless of the prejudice.
My thing about books were characters have to deal with people discriminating against them is that often there's more focus on groups who hate them and just a line or two about people who are supporting them. It's feels too unbalanced and for me it is lazy writing. Because It's so much easier to show hate page after page than depict a delicately crafted conflict that has plenty subtle hints, showing both sides of the story.
That is what is done here and there's lot of input from side characters that really fleshes them out rather than being an addition to the plot. Everyone's unique and their perspective makes sense in their experiences.
It's not a fast paced book. Infact looking at just page numbers probably all the books in this series will take a lot of time for build up and even more so in later ones. So there's people who will like that and people who won't. That's about the only con for me.
Intriguing and just good fun.
Final rating - 4/5.
This volume was very quick, viceral, honest and just raw.
Miyuu has gotten out of her mom's control and now she has rediscover a self that she act ally likes and also relearn how to life live and r. A life where she learns how to stay afloat when things don't work out. She at a phase where every descision feels like a mistake.
It was very relatable. I could imagine myself in her shoes. I'm also loving how the author dedicates small chapters to side characters taking the time to show some insight on how these people tick inside or where they've been from and how they got to now. This part did feel too fast paced at first but story wise it really did make sense.
The one was much, much better than book 2.
There was still some things Tori did that were easily preventable. Just like the last book so it wasn't a bad book but not great either. Just okay and enjoyable if I didn't look into the details too much.
The second book certainly drags a lot but it still wins out in the end with what happened in the last part.
There were a lot of surprises that should have been obvious but I was quite hopeful nonetheless wishing for the opposite to happen.
Either way, this book may feel dragging due to the political intrigue and for the people on the other end it just might be what they wanted, but it's a good read both ways I feel.
MAJOR SPOILERS!!!!
I loved the beginning it was amazing and heart wrenching and I cried like hell when Kvothe's parents died. But it got weird and really sucked for me when he was at the University.
I get that he is young during his part and the impulsivity is his flaw but it wasn't the kind of flaw I enjoy reading about. Not to mention the recurring villain that is Ambrose really really ticked me off.
I really hate it when places of learning have these toxic environments in books and this book had that. I won't say it's necessarily a bad thing to put into a story but I hate it personally so that's also another major part of why it cut off for me.
I think everything comes down to personal taste and for me this book didn't make it.
Maybe it will in the future cause there were some parts I really enjoyed. But at this point in time I can say that will not be happening.
Overall: good story with slow pace plot yet solid prose and interesting cast of characters and the major protagonist struggles and character flaws.
Might not hit for everyone but still an interesting read.
May 20th, 2023:
A satisfying conclusion to the series and yet a little more.
Every genre has a formula unique to it. Can't write mystery without a mystery obviously and certainly can't write fantasy without an element that's outside the realm of normal possibility.
John Bierce's writing is one that does recognizes the formula but doesn't limit itself in the confines of the formula.
Mage Errant has a consistent theme of drastic situations and yet minimalizing on the depth of emotional angst as much as possible with some characters and balancing it out elsewhere to see what descisions would be made. To see how the story would play out.
It sounds artificial and yet works perfectly for this series and writing style and this conclusion followed the same idea to a T.
Therefore, I don't think this series would work for everyone, it certainly did wonders for me and I'm glad to have found it.
I also can't wait to see what else John Bierce has in store for us.
Final rating: 4.5/5
It was okay. Came for the magic school and cool studies part the book but focused more on the daily life aspect that going into a details about the experience which I wasn't really looking for. The ending was nice but really too late and lots of flaws.
Like, they take the test of loyalty. So why had Alex Munõz betrayed them? What was his reason for the hate??? Totally skipped over the record breaking assessments too in order to get to the actual young boy saving the day scene which thoroughly disappointed me.
Plus the prose needs a lot of editing. Good editing. There's is so much blatant confusion over what is being described or referred to in a scene and took me our of the story repeatedly. Describing swans flying in the sky for example,
“he breathed in deep and watched a flight of black swans streak across a sky the color of marigolds.”
Is the color marigold or the birds???? But the bird were described as black??? Which is which!!!!!?????
And that's just one example.
What I did like was the part where the school and the faculty weren't miserable gits who were unnecessarily mean, especially since these students were children. The school is actually exciting as promised and while there is bullying there is also community.
I think it just could have done better with pacing and figuring where it wants to go. Either really dark or lighter in tone. Would have done the book and story much better.
August 15 2022:
This was a long read. It takes off from where the last book ends and lots of mysteries are given answers to as best as they can be. I don't have any big complaints. The ending felt a little lacking with the way it explained everything and I rather it would not have taken that direction as I'm not a big fan of such takes. Nevertheless I enjoyed everything for what it was and also sad to say good bye to all these characters.
Final rating - 3.5/5.
August 10 2022:
If the previous books were the introduction to characters then for some characters this is were the readers get to dig a bit deeper into who they are as a person what exactly happened in their pasts.
Also one thing I absolutely adore about this series is the how the drama is portrayed. Till date I absolutely abhorred reading it and wouldn't touch it with a thousand foot pole but lo and behold this series made me love it. A big part of that is thanks to characters just finding time to sit down and talk things as much as they can.
The other is the romantic tension and I keep rooting for that one couple. This is my first series where I'm actually shipping characters really hard and enjoying every moment of their interaction.
Another thing I keep appreciating is how subtle the series keeps being with hints. There's mystery and speculation but no easy answer. You have to read ahead and find out. Now with the book length it does feel tedious at first but there's also plenty of things to enjoy looking at the big cast of characters.
I would definitely say it's worth it to keep reading till the end.
Final rating - 4/5
17th december 2022:
Legends and lattes had a theme set out and it followed it to the tee. It gives endearing characters the readers can easily relate to and interesting background stories. What's also interesting that a lot of the story has a gamified feel to it. The story does keep the stakes low but it's not boring.
One thing I would have liked a bit more would be a little more description on the world setting and the way magic works being somewhat of a beginner to the fantasy genre.
Otherwise on all parts it was wonderfully delightful through and through.
Final rating: 4/5 stars
There were predictable elements but I enjoyed them a lot because they were handled very cleverly. My only complaint is the editing. And the ending felt slightly abrupt.
I really really hated the middle part and had to skip a lot.
It almost became a twisted Belle story with a even worse ending.
Hope the third book's a lot better than this one.