Canned Bread

I read this last year and obviously it's 5 stars, but this is the place holder for the visual novel/chapter (Because GR wants me to vet my visual novel to a Goodreads librarian and fat chance they'll accept it, so ring finger raised):

“Such is the Joy of Our Reunion” by Arknights

It is the 6th part of the Sui series and frankly, I think it was their best side story to date. My notes are in the Wave Notebook, to future me, as to not dereal Land of the Lustrous to hard lol

5/5 still

It's good, what do you want from me?

5/5

I am...shooketh that it was as good as it was.
Everyone's mileage will vary, ofc, but I was not expecting to have a heart to heart with a bard-pirate and an imp who I will literally now die for.

I do wish this was a series, I would have been ecstatic to follow Liz to her next journey in life. It's a shot less than perfect as the worldbuilding wasn't that clever HOWEVER I still enjoyed it immensely.
The other reason this isn't exactly a 5 star sweep is that platitudes are sorta in your face towards the end, though I think they maybe played to the strength in the story, however this is just my personal opinion and why I didn't give it more weight to lower it to 4 stars.

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If you are with me this far, if you do give this novella a shot (which you should anyway), it tugs at your heart for people who are past their college years and starting to learn empathy from others.
It really does stir your soul if you let Liz lead you. The worldbuilding, while minimal, is necessary as this a character driven story but the worldbuilding you do get, is a surprise.
What that is, you'll just have to bare your soul to Klamvik.

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Prose: Very clean that I literally had to double take that maybe it was AI. I want to give the benefit of the doubt that it is not though and he just knows how to write. However because platitudes were introduced too much in your face towards the end, small deductions are had. It's not unbearable, but I'll address it anyway. -.2

Plot: Simplistic but that's not the point of this story.

Pace: Fast if you don't drop it for a year like I did.

Characters: Here is where the story shines. We dive into Liz primarily, but we also get some like 3 dimensions on the imp and the bard-pirate that I'm STILL MAD THAT LIZ DOES NOT HAVE HER OWN SERIES DAMMIT. +5

Vibe: We're in loch, rolling hills, mist, we're eating gruel from a wet tent all while being called a hag. What not to love?

Worldbuilding: The number one reason it's not a pure 5 star, but again, this is not the point of the story, it's mostly just Liz's world. The small pieces we do get are exciting though it's not a lot tbh. -.3

Still, all my griping is kinda like Liz in the beginning of this novella, ngl, though it doesn't change the fact that just maybe. Maybe Stang has some competition

4.5/5

I'll let Gigguk explain this series:

“Osamu Dazai has one of the most tragic stories in Japanese history. As one of Japan's most famous novelists, Dazai experienced a darkness few humans have ever encountered, leading him to attempt to take his life not once, twice, but four times, to which fate denied him and forced him to continue living his tortuous life. Eventually, he would put his broken soul into the novel, “No Longer Human”, one of the most harrowing pieces of media to ever be created before he would eventually be able to succesfully take his own life. Finally fulfilling his wish of being left alone and finally given the grace of death.

Anyway! Here he is in a wacky isekai.”

With that in mind, it's like a fanfiction of giving an author one of the most shittiest hands dealt in life and giving him a second chance (even if he continues to self sabotage himself). I feel like it was created for him in a way, but also for me.
It had the perfect amount of gallows humor and the side blinds you with some peak existential advice.

As far as manga translating to anime, I watched this series thanks to gigguk (even if he doesn't put much else into this series ever again) and became one of my top animes of all time. Now going into the manga, I feel like I have more lore compared to the anime so, yes.

Pick it up if you're a fan of the anime or if you haven't watched it, I think people would enjoy it after they read the above epigraph and then going into the manga looking for gallows humor cause it has plenty of that.

5/5

First: Tor, why tf did you stamp your logo on the novella hardback? This is Giesbrecht's debut, not yours, get your logo OFF of novellas. This is also why I'm not crazy about Tor themselves these days. Authors, have sometimes no choice, however Tor, you can do better. You profit off your writers, the least you can do is be modest and give Giesbrecht a nice cover instead of just plain black hardback.
Anyway...

I have not read the reviews of this novella yet.

However, I imagine the 3.5 stars people or 1 star people all are triggered by a few things of Johanne. Understandably so. However, I might remind you, this is a crisis that is currently going on with THEIR ecosystem, not the book's. It is unfair to judge a book harshly for a crisis that is going on with themselves. Now if the book just described r@pe in graphic detail, THAT IS ANOTHER STORY

That out of the way, let's address some worms from this can.

.1. Johanne is very creepy stalkish and sorta r@pey: to this- Of course he is. Bro just became the "The Thing" for a long time, his only male role model raped him and he killed his aggressor, so...he doesn't really have the most ideal role models in his life. So, it's understandable that he's gonna be like this. HOWEVER, he still has a moral compass with him, he's SUPER gray in terms or character traits. 2. The relationship is toxic: Once again, of fucking course it is. We have a stalker murderer in one corner, and the other corner, a person who has been stuck in their dead family's house with their rotting corpses in the basement and have done weird murdery science experiments in their lab. They both don't know what a normal relationship is and are both terrified and intrigued by it.

I say all these things, not because I'm belittling people who have triggers (I have them too, this isn't new, I literally cannot handle pet deaths, I spiral horribly), I'm saying this so we know what horrible humanity looks like in reality.

If we continue to avoid the triggers in our fantasies, what's to say we don't also ignore the travesties in reality?

(also the people who review bombed this probably forget this was a horror fantasy)

Prose: Solid, clever and sneaky

Pace: Fast

Plot: Not evident at first but then becomes clear later but still well done

Characters: Everyone is morally gray (maybe except Ansley)

Vibe: Dark ass fantasy London with magic, but it's not London but it might as well be with a serial killer roaming the streets

Worldbuilding: Sneaky and wish there was more

5/5

Giesbrecht, wherever you are, I loved your novella to bits. You have the potentially to be a great dark fantasy writer, please publish again :(