REVIEW: Episode Thirteen (book) by Craig DiLouie

Episode Thirteen is horror. I bought my copy new.

Review:

This book is set up as the written version of "found footage" horror - it's composed of journal entries, emails, text messages, and transcripts of video and audio footage left behind by the cast and crew of a ghost hunting show called Fade to Black. 

Episode 13 of the show is going to center around a place called Foundation House, which is famous for being a site of paranormal research in the 1970s. After working with several research subjects in order to find the top three most psychically sensitive, the research team planned to conduct several experiments to contact paranormal entities. One of the research subjects dropped out, but the other two stuck around long enough to be driven crazy by the experiments. The research team had planned further work when they all mysteriously disappeared.

Fade to Black's cast and crew consists of Matt Kirklin (true believer and lead investigator), his wife Claire Kirklin (scientist, skeptic, and co-lead investigator), Jessica Valenza (stage name for Rashida Brewer, the show's only professional actress), Kevin Linscott (true believer, former cop, and the show's tech manager), and Jake Wolfson (the show's cameraman). 

Matt's under some pressure - it's still up in the air whether the show will be renewed for a second season, so Episode 13 has to be really good. What he doesn't realize is that his scientist wife has become increasingly unhappy with being on the show and is planning on leaving. Jessica, meanwhile, is painfully aware that this is her biggest and most steady acting job ever, and that it could go up in smoke at any minute. Kevin is a bit sore because he originally wanted to be part of the primary investigation crew, and he'll take any chance he can get to talk about a supposed experience he had with a demon when he was a police officer. Jake prefers to stay in the background and has no interest in sharing personal details about himself.

Matt, Claire, and the others will only get 72 hours at Foundation House before it's demolished. By Day 2, things are already looking promising. They have no idea what kind of rabbit hole they've found for themselves.

REVIEW: Unicorn on a Roll: Another Phoebe and Her Unicorn Adventure (graphic novel) by Dana Simpson

Unicorn on a Roll is the second collection of Phoebe and Her Unicorn comics. I bought my copy new.

Review:

Christmas is coming up, and, after much deliberation, Phoebe finally figures out the perfect present to give Marigold. Then we've got Valentine's Day - Phoebe has a bit of a crush on her spelling partner, Max, and she's surprised when she learns Marigold has a crush of her own, on a unicorn named Lord Splendid Humility. Phoebe meets even more unicorns when she's invited to Lord Splendid Humility's birthday party.

I really enjoyed the first volume, but I think this series truly clicked for me during the Christmas portion of this volume. It showed a lot of heart and demonstrated that Phoebe and Marigold have had an impact on each other.

I loved the introduction of Lord Splendid Humility and getting to see other unicorns.

All in all, this was a great second volume.

Extras:

An introduction by Lauren Faust, a guide to drawing facial expressions, instructions for making sparkly unicorn poop cookies, and instructions for making an origami horse face.

REVIEW: Phoebe and Her Unicorn (graphic novel) by Dana Simpson

Phoebe and Her Unicorn is a collection of fantasy comics. I bought my copy new.

Review:

In this volume, 9-year-old Phoebe is skipping rocks on a pond when she meets a unicorn named Marigold Heavenly Nostrils. As a reward for rescuing her from the overwhelming beauty of her own reflection (Marigold is more than a little conceited), Marigold offers Phoebe a wish. Phoebe eventually settles on wishing for Marigold to be her best friend. They spend time together, doing friend things like having a sleepover. Phoebe's arch nemesis, Dakota, also learns about Marigold, but Marigold's Shield of Boringness prevents this from being much of a problem.

REVIEW: A Guest in the House (graphic novel) by Emily Carroll

A Guest in the House is a horror graphic novel. I bought my copy new.

Review:

Abby is a relatively new stepmom. She's quiet, biddable, and and does as her husband David asks. But as she hears things like her stepdaughter Crystal saying her mom lives in the water, and something about Sheila (Crystal's mom) having committed suicide when David said she'd died of cancer, Abby starts to develop suspicions about her new husband. Then she sees Sheila's ghost. The ghost tells Abby that David murdered her, and Abby has to decide what to believe and what she's going to do about it.

REVIEW: The Replacement Husband (book) by Eliot Grayson

The Replacement Husband is m/m fantasy romance with historicalish elements. I bought my copy new.

Review:

This is set in a Regency-ish fantasy world in which people known as "goddess-blessed" exist. As far as I could tell, the goddess-blessed were men who were 1) gay, 2) required to marry other men, and 3) would magically bring good fortune to whichever man they married.

Owen is one of the goddess-blessed. After hitting his head and being carried home by Arthur (although Arthur's brother Tom convinces Owen he was the one who did it), Owen meets his saviors and instantly falls for Tom's charm and nonthreatening good looks. Tom proposes, Owen accepts, and then Tom turns out to be a cad. Owen, facing the prospect of ridicule and damage to his reputation, reluctantly agrees to Arthur's offer to marry him instead, unaware that Arthur has been nursing a crush on him since they first met.

REVIEW: The Disabled Tyrant's Beloved Pet Fish: Canji Baojun De Zhangxin Yu Chong, Vol.2 (book) by Xue Shan Fei Hu, illustrated by Ryoplica, translated by Mimi, Yuka

The Disabled Tyrant's Beloved Pet Fish is danmei, Chinese m/m fantasy romance. I bought my copy of this volume new.

Review:

The incident with the second prince's mother is resolved, effectively ending his chances of becoming the Crown Prince. Meanwhile, the third prince becomes more of a problem. Prince Jing becomes closer to Li Yu (named Xianyu as a fish) - Li Yu is unaware that Jing has figured out that his human and fish selves are one and the same. 

Prince Jing is the definition of infatuated. The guy turns his entire home into an elaborate pond for Li Yu. The whole bit about the message carved into the palace walls gave me secondhand embarrassment. The guy does not care one bit what anyone thinks about his feelings for, as far as others are aware, some random dude who just showed up at the palace one day.

REVIEW: Lavender Clouds: Comics About Neurodivergence and Mental Health (graphic novel) by Bex Ollerton

Lavender Clouds is a collection of comics about Ollerton's experiences with neurodivergence and mental health. I bought my copy new.

Review:

This wasn't exactly what I expected. I really liked Ollerton's part in Sensory: Life on the Spectrum and was therefore looking forward to reading this. I recognized one or two comics from that collection in this one.

Unfortunately, for some reason the flow in this was really bad, and reading the volume straight through felt like being pelted in the face with an almost insurmountable level of executive dysfunction, depression, burnout, and social anxiety. 

Things get a bit more positive and hopeful by the end, but I could have used a few more rays of sunshine woven throughout the whole work. Lavender Clouds presents very little in the way of strategies for dealing with all of these negative feelings - they're basically just something to endure. Lots of folks will likely find this relatable, but be sure you're in a decent enough headspace before diving in.

REVIEW: The Disabled Tyrant's Beloved Pet Fish: Canji Baojun De Zhangxin Yu Chong, Vol.1 (book) by Xue Shan Fei Hu, illustrated by Ryoplica, translated by Mimi, Yuka

The Disabled Tyrant's Beloved Pet Fish is danmei, Chinese m/m fantasy romance. I bought my copy of this volume new.

Review:

 Li Yu is an 18-year-old guy reborn as a carp in the danmei novel he read (called "The Tyrant and His Delicate Concubine," I think). It's some kind of gamified rebirth - something called the System tells him that he must either change Prince Jing's personality or he, Li Yu, will die. To accomplish his task, he has to become Prince Jing's beloved pet fish and fulfill various other quests and subquests.

In this particular volume, Li Yu must somehow save the life of Prince Jing's cousin and only friend, Ye Qinghuan. In return, Li Yu will get to spend increasingly longer periods of time as a human, which will make future tasks much easier, but could also make things more complicated if Li Yu is thought to be a yao (if I remember right, some kind of dangerous supernatural being).

REVIEW: The Cage (book) by Bonnie Kistler

The Cage is a mystery/thriller. I bought my copy new.

Review:

At a fashion company, Lucy (from HR) and Shay (from Legal) enter an elevator, which gets stuck and loses power. When the doors are finally opened again, Lucy is dead. Shay claims she killed herself during a panic attack. If it was murder, Shay is the most obvious suspect.

I'll start by saying the elevator and what happens in it really doesn't matter. The real story is what's going on with all the characters. It's an interesting overall story, but it's kind of odd that Kistler set it up so that "did Lucy commit suicide or was she murdered?" seems like the primary mystery when it's really more "Why did Lucy die?"

I couldn't tell whether the author wanted readers to think Shay was brilliant or not. Honestly, she got super lucky. She made some incredibly stupid decisions early on and only started to sharpen up later in the book. Jingjing was probably more badass overall.

This was a reasonably fun read, but pretty flawed.

REVIEW: Stitches: Short Stories (anthology) by Hirokatsu Kihara, art by Junji Ito, translated by Jocelyne Allen

This is an anthology of short horror stories. I bought my copy new.

Review:

This one's on me - I wasn't paying attention and initially got this thinking that it was an anthology of Junji Ito manga shorts. Instead, it's an anthology of (primarily) textual short stories by Hirokatsu Kihara, illustrated by Junji Ito. This didn't necessarily have to be a bad thing. Maybe it'd be a Japanese Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, with the illustrations making everything several times creepier.

Or not. Most of the stories were either not very memorable or were downright disappointing with their lack of follow-through. "The Kimono" was kind of sweet and creepy, and "The Play" was mildly creepy. However, several of the stories literally ended with some variation of "nothing happened, thank goodness." It was a letdown.

There is one manga story in the collection, created by Junji Ito and based on a "true story" collected by Hirokatsu Kihara. It starts off good and creepy due to Ito's artwork...and then the main character chickens out and changes the subject in order to avoid learning anything truly scary.

All in all, not really worth it, not even for Ito's artwork.

REVIEW: The Gray Man (book) by Mark Greaney

The Gray Man is a spy thriller, the first in a series. I bought my copy new.

Review:

The Gray Man (Court Gentry) was previously CIA until they burned him. He now works for Don Fitzroy, a man who is forced, in this book, to betray him in order to protect his family. Gentry eventually figures this out - he's being hunted because an outgoing Nigerian dictator wants his head in a box for killing his brother, and Fitzroy was a way to get at him because Fitzroy has weaknesses that could be exploited, whereas Gentry supposedly does not.

In an effort to save Fitzroy's family, particularly his twin 8-year-old granddaughters, Gentry drags his exhausted, bleeding, broken body all over Europe (particularly France).

REVIEW: Bingo Love (graphic novel) written by Tee Franklin, art by Jenn St-Onge

Bingo Love is a f/f romance graphic novel. I bought my copy new.

Review:

This starts in 2038, with Hazel comforting a woman (who I later realized was Mari) who'd been kicked out by her parents for being gay. She begins telling her story, which goes back to 1963. Mari transfers to her school, and the two of them immediately get along. They become friends and eventually realize they're attracted to each other. When their parents find out, they break the two of them up and find men for them to marry. In 2015, Hazel and Mari finally meet each other again during a Bingo game and realize they're still in love with each other. However, there are plenty of family complications - upset kids and grandkids, Hazel's husband, all of whom feel hurt and blindsided.

REVIEW: Nichijou: My Ordinary Life (manga, vol. 10) by Keiichi Arawi, translated by Jenny McKeon

Nichijou is a high school comedy manga. I bought my copy of this volume new.

Review:

This volume introduces a French fry thief who only ever steals a single fry. Nano does full-on battle with him. For a good chunk of the volume, Arawi does 1-3 panel comics, leading to moments like when a comic's title becomes its own single-panel comic. Mio almost (finally) hears the results of the manga contest she entered volumes ago, but her use of a pen name messes things up. There are more hair jokes. We get a flash forward, in which Mio is a manga creator, with Mai taking her sweet time to come help, and Yuuko traveling somewhere outside Japan (maybe discovering a new species??). There's also a storyline about a time capsule in which the girls are sending letters to their future selves. Nano, Mr. Sakamoto, and the professor somehow switch bodies, and there's some kind of corn power battle involving a snake.

This had some good moments (like the flash forward), but then it kind of went off the rails. I have no idea what Arawi was thinking with the 1-3 panel comics. Maybe getting tired? An extended flash forward section would have made for a great stopping point for the series.

This is the last volume I own, and I plan to stop here, although an English translation of volume 11 is available and an English translation of volume 12 will be released later in 2025.

Extras:

Several full-color pages.

REVIEW: Nichijou: My Ordinary Life (manga, vol. 9) by Keiichi Arawi, translated by Jenny McKeon

Nichijou is a high school comedy manga. I bought my copy of this volume new.

Review:

Mio meets Yuuko's celebrity lookalike, Double Cheeseburgirl. Mr. Takasaki freaks out about Ms. Sakurai seeing his pic of her as a high schooler and accidentally makes it look like he really has a crush on Ms. Nakamura. Nano and Mai get really into a book called Double Crops: A Textbook (which I later realized was written by Ms. Sakurai's father). Misato continues to have weird delusions of romance with Sasahara. Mio buys an over-priced cutting board from a weird vending machine. Also, Ms. Nakamura is now somehow living at the Shinonome Laboratory?

Yet another random and weird volume, with a lot of the weirdness somehow interconnected. So, basically a normal Nichijou volume.

It's been a while, but I think the one pen featured in a strip near the end of the volume is a reference to one of the teachers in Azumanga Daioh.

Extras:

A few full-color pages and a page about minor characters.

REVIEW: Nichijou: My Ordinary Life (manga, vol. 8) by Keiichi Arawi, translated by Jenny McKeon

Nichijou is a high school comedy manga. I bought my copy of this volume new.

Review:

Ms. Nakamura continues to try to capture Nano. Yuuko hypnotizes various students, with varying degrees of success. The newspaper subscription guys are back and trying their best. Misato thinks her younger sister Mihoshi is in love with Sasahara. There's an extended flashback to Mai's middle school days as a transfer student from Alaska, more hair-related humor, and we finally meet Ms. Sakurai's father, who turns out to be a narcoleptic novelist.

Definitely better than the previous volume. More characters are getting the spotlight, which is helping to keep the jokes fresh. I like the way some of the jokes extend across multiple strips and morph along the way.

My one issue was that the middle school flashback was a bit sudden and jarring.

Extras:

A few full-color pages and a page introducing some of the people Yukko, Mai, and Mio knew back in middle school.