Johan

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC!

First of all, I gotta say the art is amazing! It's not your typical art style, I don't think I've ever seen an art style quite like Sam's and the “rough pencil” look it has really fits the scary vibe of the comic, especially the earliest parts of it. And it makes the colors pop more whenever there are colorful details.

I also like what the story was trying to tell, and I wholeheartedly, 100% agree with the sentiment, but personally, more than scared at the comic, I was confused for the most part at why things were happening. I don't think the comic quite fits the “psycological horror” descriptor because it has too much physical violence for that, imo. Psychological Horror is more about what's left unsaid, about what you can't see, what you think and ruminate, that ends up eating you from the inside. This comic didn't really gave me that. 

I'm also a bit disappointed because I expected an horror comic through and through and by the end of it it turned into a fighting comic? I'm not against fighting comics, I love me some fantasy and a good fight, but it's not what I came here looking for, and I feel like the change was a bit abrupt. It sort of just happened in a couple of pages.

I think I will give a chance to future books but I'll be sure to come with a different mindset lol.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC!

I think the book would have benefited from being longer because it felt really rushed most of the time. We barely met the characters and their personalities and motivations, the characters were acting like they knew each other from years since the first second, the bad people gave away their “badness” since the first moment and there was no other possible baddie, the ending felt super rushed.

Also, the books is full of pop culture references, and while that's nice to date the time the story is supposed to be happening in, it also feels like it will get old REALLY fast. 

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC!

I find the idea of an unlivable world because of climate change and the fact that now people have use this synthetic bodies to be able to live on the surface while the real bodies are confined underneath very very interesting. When I realized the manga would be about a police group that fights against moded synthetic bodies I was really excited for the infinite fighting posibilities. Instead, the three episodes that compose this volume were quite underwhelming in my opinion. The bodies are not real and they can't even feel pain and you can use mods and programming to make them do anything, but the fights are just... not that interesting? That's a death sentence on a fighting manga.

I have to be honest and say that I find the pacing quite slow. The episodes feel like they are a bit too long and drag on. I don't know if I would rather the manga was serialized weekly but I do think it would benefit from tightening the chapters (either by adding more content or by making them a bit shorter, or perhaps adding subplots? Although to be fair, it's still a bit early to do that, we're only three chapters in)

Regarding the art, I think it's quite good? It's not super original in this genre and demographic but I do enjoy that women aren't super stylized (so far) to have gigantic breasts or hips, that's always a bonus point for me. 

I think the plot of the manga has a LOT of potential, but it needs to be exploited FAST.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC!

Don't you just love psychological thrillers that put you in the perspective of someone going insane? Because I do. They're my favorite type of story.

The story starts with a couple of friends stranded on top of a mountain during a snowstorm after one of them gets injured. Believing he's going to die, he confeses to the murder of a mutual friend, but by pure luck they manage to find a cabin nearby to shelter the next two days while the rescue team arrives for them. The rest of the story focuses on the developing paranoia that arises and continues growing in both characters, as each of them worries if they are going to be killed by the other, or if the crime they just confesed to is going to end up coming to light. 

I think the build up of the tension is REALLY well done. The characters start thinking something might be wrong but keep making excuses for what's happening and going in circles again and again, trying to deny what they're experiencing. At the same time, they start making wild conjectures that make no sense except when assuming the worst case scenario. Every single move, noise, breath and face starts looking suspicious to the point that the reader starts getting paranoid too. And every single time you think the character is safe, another problem arises. The stakes keep going up again and again until the very end.

Aside from living inside the mind of the characters and experiencing their deteriorating though process the art starts getting less and less polished? While at the beggining it was your standard 90's manga art style by the end some of the faces look like they came out straight from a Junji Ito manga, which is a nice touch to make us feel the terror they are experiencing even though this is definitely not a horror manga.

This has definitely become one of my favorite reads of the year.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC! 

“Home Office Romance” is a the story of a blooming romance at the height of Covid in Japan, while both main characters are forced to work in near isolation from home.

What more can I say besides the fact that I absolutely loved this story? It made me giggle and kick my feet in the air almost every chapter and that's a very hard feat for a romance, let alone a straight one, to make me feel.

The art style, without being super out there, has an original feel that distinguishes it from other romance manga that I've read, without mentioning the fact that it's also very polished. No single panel or chapter felt rushed out or like a first draft or like this was a second serialized work from the author.

Most importantly in my opinion, the story felt REAL. I felt like the author was really drawing the story of how he met his wife, not reading a romance manga. A lot of manga tends to be very tropey and formulaic, so this one was a breath of fresh air. Neither the problems that arose from their work, nor the conversations they had as neighbors, nor the mental ruminations from the characters felt overdone for the sake of comedic efect nor forced to create a false sense of conflict and urgency for them to get together. And also, because of the short nature of the story (only this one singular volume) it was also told very thightly, every chapter connecting with the next one, nothing being used as filler or irrelevant to the plot.

I will 100% recomend this to everyone I know. It's a short and super sweet read that won't make you feel like you wasted your time for a relationship without chemistry.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC!

The art of the book is absolutely gorgeous! The color palette chosen gives a cozy warm vibe with all the greens and reds that's very appropiate for the themes of the comic.

With that said, the tile of the book is “Witchcraft: A Graphic History” yet it doesn't actually tell the history of witchcraft, nor does it tell the full story of Biddy's life or the trial she went though. The little stories about her and her apprentice are nice, but I personally couldn't properly enjoy them because every two narrative pages there were two or three glossary pages talking about famous witches, famous trials, elements to use for spells, etc.

I feel like it would have been benefitial to first show the comic and later have a little glossary with all the information details, just in case someone wants to read only one or the other. 

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC. 

This one is a short comic book that ilustrates the kind of everyday situations that most of us either have experienced or will experience in the future, either nice situations, sad situations, or that weird time that a random old man sat besides you on the bus and told you his entire life story before arriving to his destination.

While I related to a couple of the situations I found the comic book a bit lacking, both in terms of content and creativity. There's an infinity of experiences that could have been told so I guess it just would have been nice to see the author portray more experiences in general (as the book is very short. You can finish the read in 30 min probably) and also a bit more outside of the “romantic relationship” realm as I felt that was the one that got most of the spotlight. I especially enjoyed the family ones (relationships between parents and children) so it would have been nice to have more of those, but there was also a big missed oportunity to expand on the catalogue of individual experiences (like the stories on the bus/train, our relationship with pets, with our own sadness, with the little things that make us happy, the embarrasing and frustrating everyday moments, etc)

I also felt like the art was underwhelming:
- The colors are very flat and there's basically no shadows, it makes the drawings looks one dimentional, they don't pop out of the page.
- The art style and the color palette are also very safe. Everything is drawn with pretty much the same proportions as in real life, and colored in the same way, so the drawings could have been substituted by photos and it wouldn't have much of a difference.
- As there is no play with the color or the drawings itself it would have been nice to at least have variations in the formating, but every comic had the same 4-koma type of format that, while adecuate and even encouraged for social media (especifically Instagram) leaves a lot to desire in a comic book.

It's a nice enough side read for when you have a little time to kill and don't want to spend much mental energy trying to piece a plot or even to share on social media for it's relatable aspect, but there's not much besides that. 

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC!

It's an ok enough comedic sch00l slice of life type of manga. Nothing really out of the ordinary regarding the “plot” of each chapter or the art style, everything is very common to this type of manga. I did like the little variations it has though. Like having Hinamori state clearly since the beggining that she likes girls and has already had crushes before instead of having the typical clueless, new at everything protagonist. I also like the fact that Hinamori is not int love with the senpai (yet lol) and that despite idolizing her she get's annoyed with her antics because boy is she annoying right now. I'm fully expecting the senpai to go through some character growth before she fully rizzes Hinamori. 

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC!

This is the first time I read a novelization of a movie so I don't know if it is always like this but I was a little disapointed by the lack of content? The book promised to delve deeper into the mind of the characters yet I felt like it was basically a retelling of the movie save for the last 10 or so pages, where they did add a bit of new content (both thoughts of a character and a bit of extra scenes)

I also feel like despite being a novelization the book tried too hard to be like the movie/like a movie in the sense that they would describe jump scares randomly? I get that in horror movies you see shadows and hear noises at random since the beggining and that's fine! Because that helps create atmosphere and build up tension. But books don't work the same way, it just doesn't translate the same to describe a place or a conversation and then throw something like “a shadow walked fast behind them without anyone noticing”. It's honestly comical and it feels like they didn't managed to properly translate the story to a different medium.

With that said, I think the last chapters of the book were VERY good! The way the author jumped from scene to scene between paragraphs describing the situations all at the same time, while all of the characters were experiencing a tense moment was amazing and it rised my tension lol.

I also enjoyed that they built up the ending a bit more than in the movie, because I was honestly confused after watching it, but even with just those little extra scenes I think it rounded the story nicely. 

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC!

At the beggining I was not quite convinced about the book. I had a hard time getting into the narrative voice as it felt very “stream of conciousness” and was quite dense. I also felt disappointed because the book is a political fantasy yet it felt like there was really no fantasy element to it. As I kept reading I started getting little by little into the rythm of Marney's voice but I was still unconvinced regarding the fantasy elements so I kind of resigned to enjoy other parts of it (the overall delicious queerness, the political intrigue)

Boy oh boy, was I in for a ride.

I won't deny the book is slow. Very slow. But that last 30% of the book was insane. It just kept escalating. It made me nervous, it made me CACKLE, it made me sad, it made me scream in surprise. I feel like that last idk, 100 pages, made me feel every single emotion in existence. And when I reached the ending and realized its ties to the beggining? I just knew I was in need of a second read.

The narrative is exquisite and while it's hard to get through (even more as non native english speaker) it serves its purpose of supporting the plot, especially since it's a first person POV. 

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC!

I think the translation needs some more polishing before publishing because there were a lot of “what”s spread out throughout the book that made absolutely no sense, even to me, a non native english speaker. At some point the translator also used “her” instead of “they” when refering to a group.

To be completely honest I finished the book against my will, and only because it was quite short. The reading experience is just not enjoyable, either because the writing becomes very dense at parts (either looooong paragraphs that go on for pages and pages) or “chapters” that are composed of single paragraphs that feel more like lore/worldbuilding thrown on the page rather than actual narration?

Either way, the book requires way too much mental energy to even try to understand what is going on, only to realize that nothing really happens and what little it does happen it not really intelligible. It does feel like a dream though, with it's jumbled timelines, so if that was the goal, it definitely was achieved. 

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC!

The most common reaction I had while reading the book was receiting “what the fuck, what the fuck, what the actual fuck” on a loop. I found most of the stories quite bizarre and didn't knew what to think of most of them tbh, especially at the beggining.

The book tackle themes of body horror here and there but imo where the book shines the most is in it's descriptions of truly the most grotesque situations. Not only is Grudova great at coming up with the exact situation/imagery to disgust you (the son in the third story, iykyk) but I think it becomes even more disgusting and disturbing when you sit for a moment and meditate the fact that this IS life for a lot of people. It is exagerated, but it also reflects accurately what a lof of folks have to go through because of 🌈capitalism🌈

Putting that aside, I did find myself kind of disapointed that a lot of the stories seemingly had no plot? They felt a bit like outlines (very curt narration, not much description) or first drafts. It would be like peering into the life of this random person one moment and then at a random point the story ends. I suspect both the language she used and the nature of the narrative might have to do, again, with the fact that this are supposed to be your random everyday person, whose lives are just kind of unremarkable? Yet the simplicity of the language makes it that more shocking when you read someone eating vomit nonchalantly because there is just no build up, there's no sensation that this is a special moment, it's just part of every day life.

I think for me this is might of those books that becomes more enjoyable when you read it a second or third time. Because on first read I think it is quite easy to fixate on the grotesque parts and overlook the social critique. 

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC!

The book is divided in a series of mini comics instead of one big long comic which I think is ultimately for the best, because this book is totally slice of life as there's nothing ACTUALLY interesting going on in their lives while they live in Japan. But that's not the point of the book! The book is a document of the important or funny or sad or peculiar or shocking stuff the couple went through in Japan. No one actually cares about how another country separates their trash to recicle it, but it is certainly fun to see the culture shock of someone from a vastly different culture when encountering the peculiarities of living in a new country, which I think it's what the book is really about. 

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC!

I really like the fact that the protagonist is on a wheel chair, I don't think I've ever read any genre of manga where anyone uses a wheel chair, let alone the protagonist of a battle shonen. Really refreshing.

I also like the fact that the protagonist is always on the wheel chair and it's not something that goes away when he goes from “every day mode” to “murder mode”. It would be really easy to have the character be on a wheel chair but gain a power up that lets him bypass his disability when he has to fight, so I really like that the author put effort into creating different chair modes that allow him to do different stuff (like climb a floor without using the stairs) while still mantaining the use of the chair.

It's not the most creative or original manga out there, on first glance the plot seems quite basic tbh, but it's certainly entertaining to read because it goes straight to action and every single chapter so far had a fight. The art is also pretty good and fits the overall tone of the story. 

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC!

Pros:

- The main characters feel very grounded, like actual people whose lives we're peering into. They have their likes, dislikes, quirks, way of working, etc. and there's not a lot of talk about said backstory because they are 40(ish) and most of it it's not relevant to the story, at this point in their lives it's just part of them as persons.
- There's also a definite lack of drama for the sake of drama compared to other romance books I've read before, which is certainly refreshing. When they have a discussion or fight either they stop talking without petty interactions or make up by directly apologizing without skirting around the topic. It definitely makes them feel like the inteligent adults they sure are.
- The antagonist also felt very real and like an actual person with their own interests instead of a caricature bent on ruining the main characters lives for petty reasons.
- The medical setting didn't felt like it was chosen just to have a quirky/cool medical romance and use it to “hinder” the romance until a certain word count (“oh we're so busy, we can't date”). The novel is actually set most of the time inside the hospital or in settings/situations surrounding the hospital (like a nearby cafe, or during a medical disertation(?), etc) and the characters are actually seen working, through the common everyday, mid disasters, and you can tell the author did their research and knows what she's talking about: there's actual medical jargon and more than once we peer inside the operation rooms and it's dynamics, wether it serves the romantic plot or no, because that's part of the life of the characters.

Cons:

- Sometimes the discussions or certain topics are glossed over with a time skip, so if, for instance, they fight in a chapter, they make up at the beggining of the next chapter, which makes it feel a bit unearned? Like there was no time for them to change their mind or meditate on the situation because there was barely a couple of pharagraphs in between one and the other.
- Although the book is classified as enemies to lovers the actual “enemies” portion was so brief that it felt more like a friends to lovers story, it would have been nice to spend a bit more time with the “enemies” dynamic since that's what the reader wanted to read and was expecting coming into the book. 

Too short... I wanted more, they were pretty cute 

I'm gonna miss their bannter so much

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC!

  The design of the book is absolutely gorgeous and super kawaii hahaha.

The recipes look well explained while mantaining it relatively simple. I like the fact that it includes not only the size of the dish and expected time of preparation but also the level of difficulty. If I ever want to try my hand at ramen I know what recipes to start with. I also really like the fact that it teaches how to prepare all parts of the ramen, from the soup to the side dishes to eat it with.

It's also very nice that the author not only included the traditional/most common recipes but also some of her own inventions, because it helps visualize what kind of stuff you can add or interchange in your own ramen as someone that doesn't live in japan nor has the same ingredients they have (or not as readily available)

It's trash. We all know it. We all enjoy it.