Alex Richey

This is surprisingly technical. I appreciate the translation notes at the end that go into detail about the different car vocabulary. I'm super impressed with this story's pacing. 

First book I ever did original cataloging for, so I'm treasuring this experience a little more for it. :)

This has got to be the most unconventional “romance” manga I've ever read. It breaks all the rules and tropes and it's so refreshing. 

As beautiful as the comic was, I really want to read the novel version of this story. It's so fascinating. But seriously, beautiful artwork. It teases a sequel and I hope we get it, because I want more! 

The Dark Tournament vibes are REAL in this one. And it comes off like a loving tribute and not a full blown copy cat. Yu Yu Hakusho fans will understand when they read it. Aaaaa what a vibe!!!

If you've ever felt trapped in a relationship with a person that treats you as less than human, you will find solidarity in this book. Holy crap. 

The recent mass shooting in Maine made finishing this harder than I expected. 

Oh... something very bad is about to happen. 

Content warning: graphic, on the page depiction of a cat being harmed by a human. 

I thought for sure this would be a winner. I wasn't prepared for the content to be so violent, and if I had known ahead of time, I wouldn't have read this.

The story was a real tear jerker either way.

The part about Poppy's experience with EMDR for trauma really resonates, and I wasn't expecting it at all, but they definitely needed it after the events of the first volume. They continue to open up about personal experiences that break taboos and boundaries with humility and authenticity. 

I had a lot of ups and downs with this. I was originally annoyed by how bloated and useless a lot of the text felt, only to be pleasantly surprised by how much of it ended up mattering. I also came to enjoy the characters enough that their ramblings became more than tolerable, enjoyable even. I still think you could cut about 1/5 of the content without losing much, but it worked out for me anyway. What an interesting story. I frequently found it hard to put down–I just had to know what came next!

This was an interesting experience. It reads like a regular historical romance paperback book, just in comic form. I'd love to see more of this!

This helped me understand a lot about how trauma manifests and how it's treated. I've gained a lot of insights into my own experience with trauma. Some of the example cases were extremely difficult to read about, and some asked for more sympathy from me than I felt willing to give, but did demonstrate the author's points really well. 

“How could you possibly tell a story about a burping panda and jelly bean rain and aliens?”

I laughed out loud reading this. 

This book is so cozy and nice. If you've read any of Alex Gino's previous novels, you'll see some familiar characters. 

I love that this series is just a comic book version of “what if BTS decided to roleplay a team of 7 tiger-demon slayers?” and just took it all the way. The art is phenomenal, the stakes are emotional, and I'm excited to continue. 

There were some scenes that really made me squirm. I had a great time with this. Definitely take the content warnings at the beginning seriously. 

The issues I have with this might be inevitable, but I'm hopeful for where this is going. 

The pacing is lightning fast, jumping from segment to segment with almost no room to breathe. For readers already familiar with the story, this probably isn't as much of an issue, but it's my first time and I barely had time to process what was happening before the next big thing. There was also a lot of world building and info dumping, which is inevitable for the start of a series like this one. But therein lies the hope, because once we finish explaining how the world works, we finally get the story. 

Sophie is a good person and remarkably talented at most everything she does, and that's pretty boring right now. I hope to see her face situations that make her more interesting in the future. 

 I feel bad for clowns because I never ever want to be near one ever for the rest of my life. 

What I found most surprising was that the writing style stayed pretty consistent from the original novels. Paolini has grown significantly as a writer, and I love his new scifi books so much, and I expected that returning to this series would read differently. 

But it still feels like Eragon, and I like that better. It's comfy coming back to this world. And writing Murtagh and Thorn's traumas was handled well, and needed the time and experience Paolini has gained to come through so poignantly. This was a painful read, but a story worth telling. From the author note, it's clear that more stories are coming, and I'm here for each and every one of them! 

This was a lovely story with beautiful illustrations and pretty much nothing to do with super heroes or Green Lantern stuff. It's not bad, it just didn't meet my expectations.  

A melodramatic retelling of the making of the Gundam franchise, featuring it's original creator and director, several animators, designers, business people, and die-hard fans. While this is a highly exaggerated version of the truth of events, it is still based in real history and absolutely fascinating. 

My biggest complaint is that sexual assault and harassment against women is used for comedy. I'm sure this was probably pretty normal for the late 70's and early 80's, but it wasn't funny then and it isn't funny now. 

The ending was just ok. It felt gimmicky and needlessly melodramatic. The best part of the series remains the way Aoki's face is drawn when he is having any kind of emotion. 

This book was a struggle to put down every time. What a unique, twisty story. 

The illustrations were fantastic, and seeing Superman tackle some of the real issues we're seeing today is fascinating and exciting. Some of the writing was clunky and awkward, but the heart was there. 

This was cozy and charming. It started a bit slow, info-dumping as the character is introduced to the world she's suddenly found herself in, but it picked up half way through and I'm excited to see what cool things Sei will find herself doing next. All-powerful characters can be a hit or miss for me, but her nerdy personality and circle of pretty boys are holding my interest for now!