Jessica

Japanese Gothic deals with two different characters across timelines: Lee Turner is from the year 2026 and has fled from America and gone to his father’s home in Japan after killing his roommate. Sen is a young girl in Japan in 1877, trying to become a samurai. Both live in the same house across centuries. However, Sen and Lee find a closet door that breaches between timelines and allows them to visit and communicate with each other. Will going back and forth throughout time change Lee and Sen’s destiny?

The story of Lee and Sen is a tragic one. Both have horrible family lives. Lee’s mother disappeared when he was a child while on vacation. She is presumed to be in a sex trafficking ring or dead. Lee’s father avoids communicating fully with him, which makes Lee feel alone. To avoid the pain of this, he self-medicates in order not to feel anything. Sen’s father is abusive. He and his friends are trying to force the government to bring the way of the samurai back. However, he came back as the sole survivor. Now, Sen had her family go into hiding from the government to stay alive. Ever since Sen’s father came back, he has been abusive to Sen, her brothers, and her mother. He especially focuses on Sen, making her think all the time that she is not worthy of becoming a samurai and is a constant disappointment.

The grief the characters feel is overwhelming. Lee is constantly haunted by the fact that he couldn’t save his mom. He hears her in his dreams asking him to save her, and he feels hopeless each time that he is not able to do anything. Sen is constantly worried about pleasing her father to her own detriment. She trains to the point that she is tired. She also refuses to argue with him, even though it is against her best self-interest, like when she was asked to watch her younger sister die and to cut off her mother’s fingers.

There is also a concept of an unreliable narrator. Lee had been drugging himself for years when the story starts, and he stops cold turkey once he gets to Japan. Because of the drugs, he doesn’t remember all the details of killing his roommate or even where he hid the body. It makes you wonder if he really killed anybody or not.

There is also the aspect of the memory being reliable as well. Both Lee and Sen have situations that their mothers put them through, some things that may have been more horrifying than they realized when they analyze events from an adult point of view. It shows how children try to think of a situation as safe, because no child wants to believe that their parent would actually hurt them. However, Lee and Sen slowly realize that their mothers caused them more trauma during their childhood than they would have liked.

The story is a very gripping tale of grief and tragedy. You feel for the characters during their struggles throughout the book, and how they go about trying to prepare for their destiny. In honor of the book, I have the following questions: If you had the chance to learn about your future, would you take it?

Ever wondered what happened to the final girl in films like Scream and Nightmare on Elm Street after it ends? That is what you get in the novel The Final Girl Support Group. The novel follows a group of girls who are victims of massacres and are dubbed final girls in public. They meet monthly to discuss their trauma. During one of the monthly meetings, the girls find out that one of their members, Andriene, was murdered. All the girls are affected by this, but one of the girls, Lynnette, thinks this is the beginning of something sinister. Can Lynnette get the girls to prepare for a potential threat, or will the girls think Lynnette’s paranoia is getting the best of her?

Is Lynnette’s paranoia and fear in the book a good reason to doubt her sanity? That is a thing that the audience is left to figure out throughout the book. Lynnette has never moved on from her trauma. She doubles her tracks to make sure no one is following her. She makes sure to notice her surroundings so she knows where all the exit points are. She has turned her apartment into a cage where no one can get in. She has cameras to monitor her environment and a bulletproof door. Her best friend is a plant. She constantly keeps track of her attackers to make sure they don’t break out and come after her. She nearly killed one of the girls in her support group who came to check up on her. She kidnaps a girl, thinking that she is the only one who can protect her. Since Lynnette reacts purely based on emotions, it alienates her from the girls in the support group and the group’s therapists. It is hard to root for a character when you are constantly questioning their perception of reality.

Speaking of believability, the book raises the question about women who are victims of violent crimes. New evidence came up years later regarding Lynnette, and another support group girl’s (Dani) attacks. The evidence suggested that Lynnette’s actions led to the massacre against her family and herself, and Dani was accused of killing the wrong person in self-defense. Even though the new evidence came from questionable sources and was not heavily investigated, the girls’ victimhood was thrown out, and they are immediately treated as villains. It illustrates that women tend to be easily discredited when it comes to violence against them. Often they are thought to have brought the crime upon themselves, or there is a question of their sanity.

Should a victim’s sanity be questioned? That is something that the book explored with the character of Chrissy. She was part of the group meeting with Lynnette and the other girls, but left the group early on because she never saw herself as a victim. She not only worships the killers of various massacres, but she buys murder memorabilia and has created a museum in her house to display her trophies. Her boyfriend is even a killer, and she supports her endeavors wholeheartedly.

Despite Chrissy’s behavior, she is representative of quite a few women in reality. Recently, there was a guy convicted of killing the CEO of United Healthcare. Despite his crime, he has a loyal fanbase of groupies that support him and hope he will beat the charges. It is not just him. Various serial killers throughout the ages have received this type of treatment as well, with people collecting memorabilia from the various murder scenes.

There is a morbid curiosity about killers in our society. In the book, all the girls have slasher film franchises based on their trauma. In real life, the true crime genre is very popular. Slasher films and true crime shows give the audience the thrill of danger in exploring the mindset of a killer in the safety of their own environment. The interesting thing in both the book and in real life is that the killers tend to be remembered more than the victim, to the point where the killer is idolized, whether it is a real or fictional killer. It is hardly ever discussed what happens to the victim afterward. Does the victim find help to deal with the trauma, or does their life just fall apart? Does the victim live constantly in fear, or do they rise above the trauma and reclaim their life? Those would be more interesting to focus on than the exploration of the mind of a killer.

I found this an intense read. It explores our fascination with horror, especially when it pertains to murder, whether it is real life or fictional. I like that it showed the women fighting against the monsters that caused their trauma. Society tends to remember the murders more than the victims. I like that the novel took the opposite approach and focused on what happened to the victims. Some can reclaim their lives while others spiral downward and live in constant fear. Our protagonist, Lynnette, learns that letting her fear and paranoia control her actions has gotten her into bad situations, and that if she wants to move forward, she has to let go of those feelings.

Adelfried is a leader in his village and a family man. He uses his magical powers to protect his village and the people he loves. However, Adelfried feels that his brother, also a magic user, is a danger to the village. When he tries to confront his brother, the ensuing fight leads to Adelfried being accidentally sent to a new world of suburbs, cars, and airplanes. He gains the notice of a magic cult and a secret police force that wants to end his life. The only place that he has found refuge is with the Harper family. Will he be able to keep the Harper family and himself safe with the rising danger that is surrounding them?

As a lover of anime, I am fond of a good isekai story. However, it is usually a person being transported to a magical world. In this story, Adelfried is transported to a world where magic isn’t commonly used and science and technology reign. It is refreshing to see a magical character interact with concepts from the real world. In this case, it was Adelfried being surprised by the structures and technology being more advanced than he is used to. Instead of being frustrated at all the new tech and cultural differences around him, he quickly uses his magic to adapt to the world by learning English and how to use the internet. He didn’t let the sudden change in scenery stop him from moving forward.

In Adelfried’s attempts to move forward, I found it hilarious how Adelfried first meets the Harpers. He followed Evan home and bullied his way in to sleep. Jim tries to get him out of his house, but is quickly overruled by the members of his family when they find out Adelfried can use magic and replicate money. Even though their interactions start with using each other, it was nice to see how Adelfried and the Harpers grew to rely on and care about one another. Even though Adelfried is eager to get back home to his wife and child, he has created a found family with the Harpers.

The only complaint in the book is that there were a couple of characters whose purpose I didn’t understand. The story is told in multiple points of view, which is fine. However, there were two characters in the story that got their own point of view, and it didn’t help move the plot forward. The characters were randomly put in a chapter and never mentioned again. I thought it was odd given how the other points of view were strong and enhanced the plot.

Despite the complaint, I had a fun time reading the book. It was a good subversion of an isekai storyline. I also loved that it was jammed back-to-back action and chaos mixed with found family elements. Even though the multiple points of view were a bit clunky, I felt that it was still a good read and look forward to the next novel in the series that comes out next month.

In Himouto Umaru-chan, we learn that hiding yourself can be used to protect your boundaries. Narcissistic Traps by Sharelle Ellis taught us how people hide their true selves to lure someone into a bad situation. In James by Percival Everett, we learn that hiding your true self is a form of protection. What happens if someone uses all of the above reasons to hide their true self? You get Assassins Anonymous by Rob Hart.

Our protagonist Mark has been a retired assassin for almost a year due to a tragic accident he caused. He attends an Assassins Anonymous ( a 12-step program for reformed killers). Mark is pretty content right now with the program and his cat, P-Kitty. However, his old life catches up with him, and he is attacked. Seems there are some people who are not happy that Mark is not in the assassins’ business anymore. Mark flees through multiple countries with a target on his back. Who is after him, and how can he fight back without losing his sobriety to not kill people?

The novel explores the concept of self in several ways. Assassins are encouraged to have boundaries with everyone they meet in order not to accidentally expose themselves. The agency preferred people who didn’t have any type of relationships. Mark realizes it is a lonely business until he meets his girlfriend, Sara. He wants to tell Sara everything about himself, but he is scared. What if she flees when finding out that he is a killer? It is a question that a lot of people ask (not the killer part). People often wonder if sharing all parts of themselves, including the bad stuff, can cause people to run away. Mark knows that Sara loves him, but he doesn’t want to risk anything to threaten their relationship. He thinks that he is protecting her, but it backfires when the truth is revealed too late.

There are quite a few people who hide their true selves to get Mark back in the assassins’ business. Their deception causes Mark to resort to bad habits again, which he so desperately tried to avoid. It shows how tempting old habits can be when you engage in them again, and Mark has to debate whether falling back into these urges again is worth his sobriety or not.

One of the things that I found interesting about the Assassins Anonymous meetings is that none of the participants could reveal what their code names were when they were working for different agencies or governments. Part of it was so that they would lose attachment to their past lives. However, it serves another purpose. Mark learns that the reason was a safety issue. His code name is Pale Horse. Without knowing the other people’s codenames at the meeting, he doesn’t know which people he has crossed paths with under his code name and whom he made enemies with. It is a difficult situation because he likes this group of people, but telling them about his identity could not only end the relationship between members, but also get him killed in the process. It makes Mark wonder if he can fully trust anyone.

One of the biggest questions that the book asks is whether it is realistic for a retired assassin not to be able to kill someone, especially if this is in self-defense. Mark struggles with this throughout the book. While he is running, he often wonders if it would be easier just to kill the people who are after him. He wavers between wanting to use non-lethal weapons and using weapons meant to kill. It is interesting because a lot of people struggle with the same question. Many people would say that taking a life in self-defense is okay because you are protecting yourself, but others will say that you don’t have the power to choose between life and death for an individual. Honestly, it is a question that I have gone back and forth on as well. I’m not sure what the correct answer is, and I’m not sure there is one.

Overall, I really liked the book. What I have learned from this book, along with Himouto Umaru-chan, Narcissistic Traps by Sharelle Ellis, and James by Percival Everett, is that hiding your true self is a grey area. When in a relationship with others, you want to be able to share a piece of yourself, but how much is enough? Should it be everything, little bits and pieces, or nothing at all? It is an interesting question because it will vary from person to person. After engaging with these different media, I believe that it is up to the person to decide how much is too much to share. You are the one who will be dealing with the consequences, whether it is good or bad, so you get to direct the way the relationship is going.

What happens when happily ever after ends? The Extraordinary Dreams of Cynthia Peabody explores that notion. Cynthia Peabody has plans with the love of her life. They were to grow old together and live out their remaining years in a senior living community. However, Cynthia’s husband dies, and now she is swirling around in the emotion of grief everywhere she turns. Not being able to sleep anymore, she decides to do meditation. However, the meditation leads her to a weird dream where she finds an abandoned dog chained to a fence and looks miserable. Wanting to help the dog, she releases him and then wakes up. Baffled by her dream, she continues with her day-to-day routine until she goes into the backyard and discovers the dog from her dreams waiting there for her. Are Cynthia’s dreams becoming real, or is her grief causing her to lose her sense of reality?

Cynthia does question her grip on reality as she starts having more vivid dreams. The events happen in real life, but there is no evidence that she was involved in making those things happen. When she talks to her doctors, it leads to them questioning her sanity, but Cynthia’s best friend thinks Cynthia is the guardian angel of her city. Cynthia has to decide whether to trust her doctors or explore that something fantastical is occurring. Cynthia’s struggle with reality is a common one because as we get older, our bodies do begin to change and start working against us sooner rather than later. It was amazing seeing her face the issues she is having head-on instead of fighting them.

One way that she faces things head-on is by going into the outside world. For months, she stayed inside her home after her husband’s death, but she realized that staying home alone all the time wasn’t healthy. She started by taking in the dog and interacting with her next-door neighbor’s daughter, Juniper. The dog and Juniper gradually become her companions, giving her reasons to learn more things (like about nature, pop culture, and K-Pop). She also realizes that she has a lot left to give in her old age. She shares her knowledge of driving, work, and relationships with Juniper, who is a captivated audience and appreciates Cynthia’s words of wisdom. By taking walks with the dog, Cynthia notices more things in the outside world and how nice it is to have a constant companion again.

This novel surprised me because I thought it was going to be fantastical in nature. However, I found that the novel very much reminded me of the Pixar movie Up. Both have a sense of whimsy, but I thought they focus more on the idea of grief and growing older. Despite losing her husband and being elderly, Cynthia gradually realizes that her life isn’t over and she has more things to explore. Even if her health is becoming worse, hiding from it won’t help. She strives to make each day count, which is something I aspire to do. I have had so much happen to me emotionally, mentally, and physically due to my disability getting worse. Despite everything, I realized, like Cynthia, that I have a second act, and I intend to follow it to the fullest.