A Wind Named Amnesia / Invader Summer

“Things are getting interesting in this sleepy little town.”

Here you have two stories that are very different from each other, but also very similar. The author is actually more well known for her Vampire Hunter D novels (and the anime adaptation is pretty stellar), and honestly the only reason I read this particular novel was for the Yoshitaka Amano artwork. I'm a sucker for his work.

A Wind Named Amnesia follows a main character in a world where three years earlier everyone lost their memories. He was taught by someone else who (for reasons) retained their memories, and now wanders around being this new world's Batman – saving lives, helping the less fortunate, all without killing (despite carrying a gun). The book follows his journey with a strange girl he meets, who asks him to take her to New Orleans. The story's premise was strong, but I sort of disliked how fast and loose the author plays with her own lore. Everyone's lost their memories – except for the short side stories where for reasons one person or another didn't. Or only partially lost them. Or somehow overcame losing them. I also kind of disliked how “white knight” the main character became in (over)protecting his female companion. The ending(?) also felt really weak and just sort of....there to end the book and not much else.

Invader Summer, on the other hand, follows a high schooler in a small town in Japan where a mysterious girl arrives out of nowhere and starts a chain reaction of strange events. The book starts out sort of like a high school drama that takes place over a summer vacation, but with strange sci-fi twists out of the blue (and a random Japanese criminal underworld subplot) I had a hard time really getting into what was going on. I thought this particular book was the weaker of the two honestly; I started out being interested in this mysterious town's strange occurrances, but then lost interest when the book started swinging wildly between different tones. Was it trying to be a sci-fi mystery? A crime drama? A summer romance? I have no idea. The end was also...again....just kind of there.

I'm glad I read it for the artwork, because the story was kind of a letdown.