REVIEW: Ghoulia: Making New Friends Can Be Scary (book) by Barbara Cantini, translated by Anna Golding

Ghoulia: Making New Friends Can Be Scary is a children's fantasy book. I bought my copy new.

Review:

Ghoulia is a lonely little zombie girl who loves the color purple, playing dress up, and spending time with her dog, Tragedy. What she really wants, however, is to play with the village kids. Her aunt has forbidden her from being seen by others, afraid that they'll be chased from their home. Then Ghoulia finds out about Halloween and comes up with the perfect plan to spend time with the village kids and maybe even make some friends, without her aunt finding out or anybody learning that she's a zombie.

I loved the artwork - great Addams family and Tim Burton vibes. Tragedy instantly made me think of The Nightmare Before Christmas' Zero, even though their designs were pretty different. 

This was very much a "friendly zombie" sort of book - there was no mention of zombies eating brains, and the only difference it seemed to make was that Ghoulia looked different and could detach her body parts and then sew them back together.

I really enjoyed this, even though it felt like the ending came way too easily. It's a children's book, though, so I just accepted it.

Extras:

Instructions to help kids dress up like Ghoulia (or, more accurately, to help their parents help them), recipes for "Ghoulia's Purple Punch" and "Uncle Misfortune's Mud Mix," and four pages of "one of these pictures is different" activities.

REVIEW: Persephone: Hades' Torment (graphic novel) by Allison Shaw

Persephone: Hades' Torment is a graphic novel retelling of the Hades and Persephone story. I bought my copy new.

Review:

Apollo is trying to convince Eros to shoot Persephone with one of his arrows for him, but Hades accidentally ends up shot instead and falls for Persephone. Hades tries to find his way out of the inevitable, thinking that he and Persephone wouldn't work well together, but then he and Persephone end up meeting.

This was one of those times where I was drawn in by the cover art and ended up regretting it. There really wasn't much content here. Also, this was simultaneously both horny and weirdly chaste. There are two on-page sex scenes, but not much is actually shown (breasts, a flash of nipples). One of them is unexpectedly a threesome, though, which threw me a bit. Like, there wasn't much lead up, no prior introduction of this character, it just happened.

There were parts of the Eros and Psyche, Daphne and Apollo, and other stories - basic Greek mythology stuff. Hades spent approximately two seconds pining. I liked those two seconds, but then I got the rest of this. Meh.

REVIEW: Becoming RBG: Ruth Bader Ginsburg's Journey to Justice (nonfiction graphic novel) by Debbie Levy, illustrated by Whitney Gardner

Becoming RBG is a biographical graphic novel. I bought my copy new.

Review:

This looks at Ruth Bader Ginsburg's life and career. I realized, as I was reading it, that there was a lot I didn't know about her and the important cases she was involved in.

The artwork did what it needed to do but didn't wow me. Text boxes were occasionally hard to follow and broken up a bit oddly. The informational content, however, was great, and the format made it all quickly and easily digestible.

After reading this, though, her friendship with Antonin Scalia still didn't make much sense to me. Also, I wondered when she found the time to sleep. Her version of work-life balance involved staying up after her husband and kids went to sleep to get work done.

All in all, this was a good read that made me wish RBG were still around. 

REVIEW: The Moon Over the Mountain (short story) by Atsushi Nakajima, art by Nekosuke, translated by Asa Yoneda

The Moon Over the Mountain is a fantasy/magical realism Japanese story (or I misunderstood and it's symbolic or something). I bought my copy new.

Review:

This is the story of Li Zheng of Longxi, a young civil servant who quits service because he feels he has more to offer the world as a poet. He never becomes famous, however, and eventually leaves his wife, children, and everything else behind, disappearing. Later, his old friend, government inspector Yuan Can of Chenjun, encounters a beast that almost attacks him but races away at the last second. Then Yuan Can hears the voice of his old friend, who tells him that he has become a terrifying beast, a tiger. He had Yuan Can record some of his poetry and asks him to tell his wife and children that he is dead, and to care for them in some way. He admits that his combination of narcissism, fear of failure, and lack of desire to put in strenuous work is what has transformed him into a beast.

REVIEW: The Handmaid's Tale: The Graphic Novel (graphic novel) by Margaret Atwood, art & adaptation by Renee Nault

The Handmaid's Tale: The Graphic Novel is an adaptation of the dystopian novel by Margaret Atwood. I bought my copy new.

Review:

It's been a while since I read The Handmaid's Tale, but this seemed to be a pretty faithful adaptation of the book. The only part I could recall truly being left out was the bit from the book about the cat being abandoned. Oh, and I don't recall the graphic novel portion with the Japanese tourists walking around through Gilead society being in the book, but it's quite possible that happened and it just didn't stick with me in the midst of everything else.

The artwork worked well for the story (although not really for me personally) and made effective use of color. A couple parts were a little hard to follow, but for the most part flashbacks vs. scenes set in the present were made clear by differences in clothing.

All in all, I thought this was a good adaptation. 

REVIEW: The Skull: A Tyrolean Folktale (book) by Jon Klassen

The Skull is a children's book based on a Tyrolean folktale. I bought my copy new.

Review:

Otilla has run away (her reasons for doing so are never stated - she doesn't speak about her past) and is cold and exhausted when she comes across a big abandoned old house. A talking skull agrees to let her in if she'll carry him, since rolling around is difficult. The skull gives her a tour of the place and then, in the evening, admits to her that a headless skeleton comes every night to try to take him and will surely come tonight. Otilla promises to help him, and so she does, very thoroughly.

I love Jon Klassen's artwork. There's something haunting about his characters' eyes. That, plus the skull on the cover, made me want to read this.

This is a very moody, intriguing little story. In keeping with the folktale aspect, we never learn about Otilla's past, how the lord of the house died, and how the skull ended up in such a position (the skull, and presumably the skeleton, were originally the bones of the lord of the house). 

In his author's note, Klassen talks about coming across a book with this folktale in it, and how it morphed in his memory to become this book. 

REVIEW: Department of Mind-Blowing Theories: Science Cartoons (graphic novel) by Tom Gauld

Department of Mind-Blowing Theories is a collection of comics. I bought my copy new.

Review:

A collection of humorous science-themed comics. This was fun, although as far as science-y humor goes, I prefer xkcd. Even that tends to work better for me in brief spurts online than in book form, though.

As is usually the case with these collections, some comics worked better for me than others. There's a Nobel Prize-related comic that was amusing in ways probably not originally intended, but these are the times we live in now.

I also really liked the artwork overall. There's something satisfying about the clean linework and simple shapes. 

REVIEW: We'll Prescribe You a Cat (book) by Syou Ishida, translated by E. Madison Shimoda

We'll Prescribe You a Cat is magical realism. I bought my copy new.

Review:

This is divided into sections by cat: Bee, then Margot, then Koyuki, then Tank and Tangerine, and finally Mimita. Each cat section is focused on a particular human who is dealing with issues at work or at home and who has heard through a friend of a friend of a friend that the Nakagyo Kokoro Clinic for the Soul is wonderfully helpful. Each person assumes this is a psychiatric clinic, and each is told by the doctor that the clinic isn't actually accepting new patients but that an exception will be made for them. The doctor then proceeds to prescribe them a cat that will somehow help them. The cat is handed over by a beautiful, icy, and somewhat disapproving nurse. Patients are given care instructions for the cats that resemble medication instructions and are told to come back to the clinic after a set amount of time to return their cat.

The patients featured include a salesman dealing with an abusive boss, a fifty-something year-old man annoyed by a cheerful new female colleague, a mother who has a habit of dismissing her child's troubles as unworthy of attention, a perfectionist handbag designer dealing with issues at both home and work, and a geika (Kyoto version of geisha) mourning the disappearance of her previous cat.

REVIEW: Space Battle Lunchtime (graphic novel, vol. 2) by Natalie Riess

Space Battle Lunchtime combines science fiction, humor, and f/f romance. I bought my copy of this volume new.

Review:

Chef Melonhead has arranged for Peony to be kidnapped for the show Cannibal Coliseum. All that's left behind is a note saying that she'd resigned from Space Battle Lunchtime. Thankfully, Neptunia suspects it's a trick, particularly since Melonhead has conveniently presented themselves as an easy replacement contestant for Peony.

Lil' Magicorn practically stole the show. All that murderous, happy sparkle was fun to watch in action, even if only briefly. 

Although there's at least one more volume after this that I know of, the way this one ends makes for a decent, if a bit rushed, stopping point. The only thing I could have used more of was more dashing Neptunia/romantic moments.

All in all, a fun read.

Extras:

Three pages of bonus comics, a recipe for chocolate cupcakes, bonus illustrations, and a two-page look at Riess' coloring process.

REVIEW: The Poisoned House (book) by Michael Ford

The Poisoned House is a YA historical horror/mystery. I bought my copy new.

Review:

This is one of the many works I've read, finished, and then failed to review in a timely manner. On the plus side, I actually took notes right after finishing this one. On the minus side, those notes don't tell me much besides a few basics and how things wrapped up.

I honestly did not recall reading this. Even my notes didn't do much to jog my memory, so take this review with a grain of salt.

This is set sometime in the 1850s. Fourteen-year-old Abigail is a servant at Greave Hall. She's treated terribly by the housekeeper, Mrs. Cotton, who also happens to be the sister-in-law of the widowed Lord Greave. Strange things start to happen that prompt Abi to think her mother is haunting Greave Hall, and she begins looking into the truth behind her mother's death.

I didn't look into this much before starting it, so it took me by surprise that this was YA (and probably the younger end of YA, at that). Overall, this was okay - it obviously didn't make much of an impression on my memory. The ghost story aspects of this barely warranted a mention in my notes, although the mystery, at least, was reasonably interesting, and I wasn't expecting how things turned out. 

Milkyway Hitchhiking (manhwa, vol. 2) by Sirial, translated by HyeYoung Im

Milkyway Hitchhiking is an episodic manhwa (Korean graphic novel) that's hard to assign to any one genre, since it changes a bit from one story to the next.

Review:

I can't believe it's been over 10 years since I read volume 1. Anyway, like the first volume, this is a collection of short stories (episodic chapters?) loosely tied together by the presence of Milkway the cat, who seems to exist in multiple times and worlds.

In the first three stories, a trio of older ladies who are friends have their annual get-together and tell each other cat-related stories from their pasts. The next story is about a boy who misses his frequently traveling artist older brother. After a "convenience store" interlude that features cameo appearances of characters from earlier stories, there's the story of a tribe that has a marriage tradition of sending its young men out into the forest with a special cloth tied around their waists. The first person who finds them and removes the cloth becomes that young man's bride. The next couple chapters are about a cursed brother and sister. Next is the oddly sweet story of a fox being raising a chick...so that he'll eventually have chickens and therefore a steady supply of food. The volume wraps up with the story of a young prince raised to be little more than a weapon and the girl he saves from his father's cruelty.

REVIEW: How Not to Get Eaten by Owlbears: A Survival Guide for the Forgotten Realms (book) by Anne Toole

How Not to Get Eaten by Owlbears is a fictional guide. I bought my copy new.

Review:

I've played D&D a grand total of once. It was fun, although I never fully got the hang of how things worked.

I picked this up because the title sounded fun and I loved the owlbear artwork on the cover. Judging by a wiki I just looked up, the book's contents barely scratch the surface of what a fictional guide for the Forgotten Realms might cover, but hey, a general overview with a few specific tidbits here and there is fine when you're a newbie like me. 

This is written from the POV of Falgriss, a dragonborn ranger who traveled with Volo (who I was also previously unfamiliar with). It includes occasional advice about places to visit (or avoid), local monsters and other things to be aware of, etc. - viewing it as a travel guide of sorts, it's too broad in its content and skimpy on details to be of much use, like buying, say, a brief guidebook to all of Europe. Still, it was an easy read and I enjoyed the humor. I only wish the book's physical size had been larger - the artwork (and some of the text) was smaller than I'd have liked. A larger page-size would have showed off some of the details better. 

REVIEW: The Butcher's Masquerade (book) by Matt Dinniman

The Butcher's Masquerade is the fifth book in Dinniman's Dungeon Crawler Carl LitRPG series. I bought my copy new.

Review:

The surviving crawlers have made it to the sixth floor, "The Hunting Grounds," where they get a 30 hour grace period before hunters who will be trying to kill them are released. After the way the fifth floor wrapped up, a lot of those hunters will specifically want to kill Carl (although one group in particular has brought along some truly horrifying arrows just for Louis). Also, it's time for Carl to fulfill his side of the desperate bargain he made with the producers of Vengeance of the Daughter way back on the third floor.

Another floor means more nonstop action and the introduction of a bunch of new complications to Carl and Donut's already very complicated existence.

REVIEW: Shiver: Selected Stories (manga) by Junji Ito, translated by Jocelyne Allen, "Painter" translated by Naomi Kokubo

Shiver is a collection of 10 short horror manga stories (9, if you consider that one is technically a bonus continuation of another one of the stories in the collection). I bought my copy new.

Review:

As I usually do with anthologies, I'll write about each of the stories in this volume separately. The volume includes an afterword by Junji Ito and author commentary for all of the primary stories.

"Used Record" - Scat music from the afterlife - an old record everyone would kill to have. This was ok but would have been better if we could actually hear the music.

"Shiver" - What's the fear of holes called? Trypophobia? Well, this definitely checks that box. Cursed jade that infects people with holes that let in the wind and give an intense fear of insects. I found this to be one of the stronger stories in the collection, mostly because of the artwork.

"Fashion Model" - Some amateur filmmakers hire a couple models, one of whom is conventionally pretty and one of whom is maybe not even human. I was hoping this one would have more unexpected elements to it, but it was decent enough.

"Hanging Blimp" - People all over Tokyo are being hanged by blimps that look like their own faces. This was kind of creepy, but oddly funny as well. I laughed when the dad was all "Huh, that's horrible. Welp, I've got to go to work now!" Like, dude. Really?

"Marionette Mansion" - A whole family that's being controlled like puppets. This was weird and freaky, especially since I already find dolls to be fairly creepy.

"Painter" - A beautiful woman bewitches a painter. Meh, I wasn't really a fan of this one. It reminded me of Parasite Eve, for some reason. 

"The Long Dream" - Doctors are treating two patients, one a girl who fears death and one a young man who is having longer and longer dreams, to the point that he's becoming something inhuman. The body changes were a bit much, but is it really a Junji Ito story without body horror?

"Honored Ancestors" - There's a girl with amnesia, a boy with a dying father, and a huge monster that turns out to be [redacted]. This was some weird wtfery, which I know is a description that can apply to a lot of Ito's works, but still.

"Greased" - This focuses on a family living over their yakiniku place. Everything is oily and gross, and you can practically feel it oozing out of the pages. This one made my skin crawl. 

Bonus "Fashion Model: Cursed Frame" - A girl with a phobia of anything but full-body photos being taken of her becomes a model and has the bad luck to meet the model from the earlier "Fashion Model" story. Ok, so it's horrible of me, but I found this one to be a little funny. Don't mock the large and intimidatingly toothy model, folks.

REVIEW: The Anxiety Club: How to Survive Modern Life (nonfiction graphic novel) by Dr. Frederic Fanget and Catherine Meyer, illustrated by Pauline Aubry, translated by Edward Gauvin

The Anxiety Club is a nonfiction graphic novel. I bought my copy new.

Review:

Dr. Fanget looks at anxiety through the lens of three patients, Ismail, Mona, and Francois, each with different types of anxiety. There's some information about the history of the study of anxiety and what we know about the physiological and psychological aspects of anxiety. Then Dr. Fanget goes over the methods he used to treat the three patients introduced at the beginning of the volume, including information that readers might be able to use to help themselves. There's also a short section near the end about pharmaceuticals, although, from the sounds of things, Dr. Fanget preferred other methods of treatment.

The artwork didn't really appeal to me, but there were a few things mentioned in the treatment section that were new to me, or presented in ways I wasn't familiar with. All in all, this was a short, good, and potentially useful read.