Manga Review: The Golden Sheep, Volume 1, by Kaori Ozaki

Rating (Out of 5): ~4

Publisher: Vertical Comics

Release Date: September 2019

Volumes: 3.

Spoilers?: Hints.

Buy it here: Amazon. Barnes and Noble. Book Depository. RightStuf.

Volume: 2.

Goodreads Synopsis:

Golden Sheep features story and art by Kaori Ozaki the author of The Gods Lie. “They say if you write down your wish, bury it under Sheep Tower and then dig it up after 7 years and 7 months, your wish will come true…” Tsugu Miikura, a high schooler who loves to play guitar, due to family circumstances, moved away from the rural town where she had spent her childhood. After several years, she’s back in her old hometown. She reunites with her childhood friends—Sora, Yuushin, and Asari—the friends she’d buried a time capsule with back in elementary school. Tsugu is overjoyed to be with her friends once more, but the bonds that she thought would never change have in fact started to grow major cracks…

Review:

I didn't know what I was getting into when I started this volume.

The volume starts in a very drastic place, and then goes backwards a bit. We meet Tsugu, who moved away from her hometown and best friends when she was younger, and is suddenly able to move back. There've been some family circumstance changes, and now that she's back, she wants everything to be the same. At first, it feels like it could be. But, slowly, the pieces of teen angst and change start showing through.

There are some very serious themes explored in this volume. Bullying, in particular, is harsh and awful, and we even get to see two different sides of it. And suicide, though I won't go into detail on that one, but warning none the less.

Tsugu is really the bright spot of this so far. She's optimistic, but also blunt and doesn't hide from things. When she discovers what's happening with Sora, she doesn't hide from it, and she doesn't shy from being there for him.

This volume took a very dark turn for a while in this volume. It's realistically harsh, and I definitely think it's well done in that. It's realistic in how it portrays being a teenager, too, while also being thoughtful about it.

I'm also glad to say that things seem to be looking up at the end of the volume, though. And knowing this is a short series, I'm hopeful that it won't go too dark and dreary in the end.

Novel Review: The Becoming of Noah Shaw (The Shaw Confessions, #1) by Michelle Hodkin

Rating (Out of 5): ~4

Genre: YA Paranormal Romance with Dark Themes

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Release Date: 2017

Spoilers?: No.

Buy it here: Amazon. Barnes and Noble. Book Depository. Powells.

Goodreads Synopsis:

In the first book of the Shaw Confessions, the companion series to the New York Times bestselling Mara Dyer novels, old skeletons are laid bare and new promises prove deadly. This is what happens after happily ever after.

Everyone thinks seventeen-year-old Noah Shaw has the world on a string.

They’re wrong.

Mara Dyer is the only one he trusts with his secrets and his future.

He shouldn’t.

And both are scared that uncovering the truth about themselves will force them apart.

They’re right.

The Cover:

I love these covers. They're very pretty and eye-catching, dark and ominous, and I appreciate that it's not embarrassing or cliche with a girl in a dress. It also works with the previous series, and each book in the series follows the same imagery, which I love.

Review:

I was surprised to hear that this series was continuing, as I didn't really think it needed to be, originally. I also didn't really consider not picking it up—I really enjoyed the first trilogy, and had no qualms about reading more. I was intrigued, but a tiny bit wary.

Upon starting this book, I had no idea so many people disliked it. I understand some of it, though—it does play with a lot of problematic themes (suicide, drugs, sex, self-harm, to name a few), and it has a lot of really awful, unapologetic characters, including the protagonists. But... I never minded those things. I even liked the story because of those things. One of my favorite things about the first series was how violent and bad Mara could be.

Now, to confess—it has been such a long time since I originally read the series, that I remembered very little of it. I barely remember how it ended, or any of the big reveals, or much of it at all. I don't think that hindered my reading of this book too much, though. (Re-reading would have helped clear up some topics, but oh well, my copies are in a box somewhere.)

This series is in Noah's point of view. His father has just died, he's moving to New York with Mara and some of their friends, and suddenly other Gifted people are committing suicide all over the place, only he doesn't think it's by their choice.

It's interesting being in Noah's head, instead of Mara's. They're both very dark characters, and they've experienced a lot of bad things. As the story progresses, we learn more about what his father was up to, what the Professor might have been doing, and what each character knows and hasn't been honest about. And Noah starts discovering, and accepting, some things about Mara that he didn't realize before this.

There are several surprises in this book. Following Noah as he discovers things is surprising, and a little rough at times. He doesn't want to deal with things, and he has his own moral code, but he's forced to make some decisions here. A big reason for why I want to continue this series, not only to discover all of the secrets and find out who is behind all of this and what they want, is to see Noah do something about it. He understands how The Game works, but he hasn't wanted to be a part of it. He's always wanted to kind of give up, to not be the Hero everyone claims he is. But now he's being put in a position where he might have to do just that.

I do really love Noah and Mara's relationship, and I enjoy how dark and rough and gritty, and psychological, this series can be. But I might actually want to know how the plot line wraps up more than anything else. It's surprising to me, but I want to know where this is going to go next.

Novel Review: Random by Tom Leveen

Rating (Out of 5): ~3.5

Genre: YA Realistic; Suicide, Cyberbullying

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Release Date: 2014

Spoilers?: Not really.

Buy it here: Amazon. Barnes and Noble. Book Depository. Powells.

Teaser Tuesday.

Goodreads Synopsis:

Who's the real victim here? This tense and gripping exploration of cyberbullying and teen suicide is perfect for fans of Before I Fall and Thirteen Reasons Why.

Late at night Tori receives a random phone call. It's a wrong number. But the caller seems to want to talk, so she stays on the line.

He asks for a single thing—one reason not to kill himself.

The request plunges her into confusion. Because if this random caller actually does what he plans, he'll be the second person connected to Tori to take his own life. And the first just might land her in jail. After her Facebook page became Exhibit A in a tragic national news story about cyberbullying, Tori can't help but suspect the caller is a fraud. But what if he’s not? Her words alone may hold the power of life or death.

With the clock ticking, Tori has little time to save a stranger—and maybe redeem herself—leading to a startling conclusion that changes everything…

The Cover:

I really like this cover. It portrays the subject really well, it's eye-catching. I think the model being a boy works, since the victim was, but mainly because the person who calls Tori is also a boy. I really like the tag-line, too. It's perfect for this.

Review:

I don’t know how I feel about this book. It definitely dealt with a tough, serious subject, so maybe that’s how it should be.

Tori, and her supposed friends, is being accused of cyberbullying and pushing a classmate into killing himself. And when she gets a strange call in the middle of the night, from some guy claiming to be looking for a reason not to kill himself, she’s forced to look at things a little differently.

Tori is definitely an unlikable character. She doesn’t feel she’s at fault, she’s extremely selfish and self-centered, and doesn’t really even feel very sympathetic about what happened. She just wants it to go away. I did not like her in the beginning, but I appreciate how well her voice was done. I believed her, completely, that she believed herself. Leveen really knows how to write a unique voice.

I liked the twist at the end. I think it just makes the call seem that much more important, and I like what they did to try and make her realize what had happened and who she had become. I also think, though, that her sudden change in thought was a little sudden. I think she still has a ways to go before she’s really changed, and I do think that was realized, though.

This is definitely a book worth picking up. The perspective, the subject and the way it was handled, I think it was all well done. And I look forward to reading his other books.

Novel Review: I Was Here by Gayle Forman

Rating (Out of 5): ~4

Genre: YA/NA Contemporary Romance/Grief

Publisher: Viking (Penguin)

Release Date: January 27, 2015

Spoilers?: No.

Buy it here: Amazon. Barnes and Noble. Book Depository. Powells.

Goodreads Synopsis:

Cody and Meg were inseparable.
Two peas in a pod.
Until . . . they weren’t anymore.

When her best friend Meg drinks a bottle of industrial-strength cleaner alone in a motel room, Cody is understandably shocked and devastated. She and Meg shared everything—so how was there no warning? But when Cody travels to Meg’s college town to pack up the belongings left behind, she discovers that there’s a lot that Meg never told her. About her old roommates, the sort of people Cody never would have met in her dead-end small town in Washington. About Ben McAllister, the boy with a guitar and a sneer, who broke Meg’s heart. And about an encrypted computer file that Cody can’t open—until she does, and suddenly everything Cody thought she knew about her best friend’s death gets thrown into question.

I Was Here is Gayle Forman at her finest, a taut, emotional, and ultimately redemptive story about redefining the meaning of family and finding a way to move forward even in the face of unspeakable loss.

The Cover:

I really like the cover. It's not a girls face, I like the pose and meaning. I think the feeling of the girl and the background and the colors work really well together. I like the font. I think this was a good job done.

Quotes:

•  "'She could do anything. Solve anything for anyone.’
  Alice pauses, digesting that. ‘Except for herself.’” (ARC, pg. 52)
• "Is this how it is with lies? The first one comes hard, the second one easier, until they slip off your tongue easier than truths—maybe because they are easier than truths.” (Pg. 94)
• "Life seems to be about endurance, not enjoyment, not fulfillment.” (Pg. 147)
• "...reading some story about a bunny that keeps telling its mother all the ways it’s going to run away, even though, obviously, if the rabbit meant business, it would not be telling its mother. When you’re serious, you keep quiet.” (Pg. 162)

Review:

I wasn’t too sure what to think when I started this—I barely even read the synopsis. I mean, it was Gayle Forman, so I knew I was going to get it. And now I’m really glad that I requested it.

Cody and Meg are best friends, and then Meg commits suicide, and Cody doesn’t understand. Now she’s dealing with her loss, trying to see what she missed, and finding out a lot more than she expected along the way.

The writing here was fantastic, as well as Cody’s voice. I was glued to the pages, anticipating getting back to it when occupied elsewhere.

The talk of suicide went in surprising places here, much more than I expected it to. And I really liked that. As well as the hit the family takes, the dynamic changes, how everyone is hit in some way. I liked the way that Cody was close to Meg’s family, especially her younger brother, because of her own mother.

Cody ends up going to Meg’s college house, meeting her roommates, and a lot of other people who knew Meg, who Cody never would have otherwise met. Alice was really nice, and a great help to Cody. Harry was a surprisingly nice, helpful guy, as well as Richard, none of whom Cody thought much of at the beginning.

And then there was Ben. At the beginning I wasn’t sure I was going to like him, but I did by the end. His relationship with Cody worked. I did like the way Cody kept convincing herself she was different, and thus was very difficult for Ben.

I didn’t know what to expect with this book, and was pleasantly surprised by all of it. I could not put it down. And I can’t wait for Forman’s next book, whatever it is. Also, she seems to be writing more new adult then young adult at this point, which is totally fine with me. I like that age range more.

A review copy was provided by the publisher, Penguin. Thank you!