Happy New Year! I'm back for another round of NetGalley ARC reviews because I requested too many books last year. Let's see how many I can knock out. I have been insanely busy with two jobs so I'm just now catching up on my reading.
As always, I received free review copies from NetGalley and the publishers in exchange for a fair review.
Title: The Drops of God Vol. 1
Author: Tadashi Agi
Illustrator: Shu Okimoto
Rating: 4/5
Published by Kodansha and available November 18, 2025, The Drops of God is about something I know nothing about -- wine. I drink enough Dr Pepper that I should be made an honorary citizen of Waco, Texas, I am not fancy. But I do enjoy learning about new things. Something I love about manga is how it's such a versatile medium for telling stories-- any topic can be portrayed in manga. Drops of God follows Shizuku, the son of a famous wine critic, and who betrayed the family business by working for a beer company. He has to prove his sommelier skills to inherit the family fortune. This is high-stakes drama for people with stock portfolios. While it's not meant to appeal to me, someone who no joke has a famously poor sense of smell, I actually learned some things about wine and I enjoyed the business/family drama. Like many protagonists before him, Shizuku struggles under the expectations of others and just wants to live his own life. The art is really nice, it's a realistic seinen that will appeal to a more mature audience. This manga will appeal to wine drinkers who like drama about family, expectations, and high-stakes business.
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Title: The Devil She Knows
Author: Alexandria Bellefleur
Rating: 5/5
Published by Penguin Random House and available October 21, 2025, The Devil She Knows caught my eye for being a romance novel about a Faustian bargain -- and a queer romance at that. The last human/demon romance I reviewed (Demon With Benefits) left me speechless at how bad it was -- bad plot, terrible writing, no worldbuilding, and genuinely the worst lines I have ever read. But this book proves what we all know to be true -- lesbians make everything better. Sam is a chef, somewhat stagnated in life, and upon proposing to her girlfriend, is rejected and dumped. Cue Daphne, a cute, sassy, pink-loving demon who offers Sam six wishes in exchange for her soul. Now this is what I want in a novel about a human and demon! Sam is a very relatable character, passionate about her work but not going anywhere with it, and desperate to win back the person she loves. Daphne is an incredible snarky, suave demon in the vein of Goethe's Mephistopheles. I love the worldbuilding and details -- Bellefleur clearly knows Dante's Divine Comedy, referencing specific circles of Hell in clever ways (like taping a cooking show in Circle III, the Gluttons, judged by Cerberus) and mentioning that Purgatory is a mountain. Proper Dantean cosmology is the way to my heart. Sam's love of cooking and food is also described well -- she authentically sounds like a chef. And I love her character arc, as she discovers the truth behind her situation and fights to stay true to her self and her background, and how Daphne's demonic shenanigans bring that out in her. It's funny and cute and a smart remix of the Faust legend focusing on the theme "be careful what you wish for." I loved this book and kept sending great lines from it to my equally demon-obsessed friend, and I recommend it to anyone who likes queer romance, Dante, ships Faustopheles, or pretends they're on a cooking show when they're in the kitchen.
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Author: Natan Last
Rating: 4/5
Published by Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor and available November 25, 2025, Across the Universe is a microhistory of my favorite kind of puzzle-- the crossword. Depending on who you are this is either the most boring or exciting thing ever. I absolutely loved the combination of learning how crossword puzzles have been constructed alongside how their history is entwined with the history of American culture. For example, the crossword became a popular pastime in the interwar period, when leisure time became far more common for the American people. I love learning how culture is molded by historical events (culture is of course a historical factor itself, but you know what I mean). I also didn't know that Simon & Schuster, one of the Big Five American publishing houses, got an early boost from publishing the first crossword puzzle book. The New York Times's iconic crossword, which is profiled throughout the book, was even an early example of the subscription system our entertainment is now locked into today. Thanks a lot. Having to pay for Crunchyroll aside, this book is of course going to appeal to puzzlers, but also to readers who enjoy learning about cultural institutions they may take for granted. My only issue is that I feel it could use more images to demonstrate the different puzzle styles discussed, especially the earliest "word-cross" games.
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Author: Van Jensen
Illustrator: Kelsey Ramsey
Rating: 4/5
Published by IDW and available January 13, 2026, Godzilla: Heist is another in the publisher's series of "put Godzilla in silly scenarios" and as always it's a lot of fun. This time, master criminal Jai finds he can use Godzilla as a distraction for his heists, and, flanked by a team of mercenaries, he's on a mission to find the scientific research done by his mother that was confiscated by the British government. If you watched Ocean's Eleven and thought "Pretty good, but needs more kaiju," this series was written for you. Jai is a cool protagonist, and I like the Indian representation-- especially since much of the story takes place in the UK. I love his changing morals over his situation-- from his anger toward Britain for stealing his mother's work and being willing to unleash a monster on the country, to realizing he wants to get the mission over to prevent more carnage. The narration is a little overly self-aware and leans on the fourth wall a lot, but I can't really complain because the IDW series tend to be pretty goofy. I love the cover art done by the legendary Bob Eggleton, especially since I grew up with his covers for the Random House Godzilla books, and I'm happy to see he still does work for Godzilla. My mostly unrelated complaint (which does not factor into my review) is that the ARC provided by IDW is terrible-- the text is so blurry I couldn't read it on any device. Fortunately, Hoopla has the individual issues. I have no idea how IDW gave NetGalley such a low quality file, but I hope it doesn't happen again.
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Title: Godzilla Legends--Mothra: Queen of the Monsters
Author: Sophie Campbell
Illustrator: Matt Frank
Rating: 5/5
Published by IDW and available January 27, 2026, Mothra: Queen of the Monsters might as well be titled Fyo Stop Reviewing Godzilla Comics, They Aren't Even In Your Selection Area, because I need to stop requesting every Godzilla ARC I see. I can't help it, I love Godzilla so fricking much, okay? And there has literally never been such a good time to be a Godzilla fan. This entry in the IDW catalog follows two sisters, Mira and Emi, as they set out to help Mothra be reborn to save the Earth -- the publisher's summary namedrops the Heisei-era trilogy Rebirth of Mothra. The sisters are clearly a new generation of Shobijin priestesses, and I love that. The sisters travel back in time to the Jurassic Period to find Mothra's egg and protect it from Megaguirus so it can hatch in the future. It feels a lot like a Heisei era plot. The main conflict is really the trouble the sisters have as trainee priestesses, thanks to their disharmony. Emi fully embraces her connection to Mothra, having been rescued and trained by the Shobijin after the kaiju battle that destroyed her home and family. Mira on the other hand blames Mothra for losing the fight and letting the tragedy occur. The art, colored traditionally by Matt Frank, is absolutely gorgeous and colorful, perfect for the already colorful Mothra. I love the design for caterpillar Mothra, she's so cute and round and yellow. Unfortunately, the ARC provided to NetGalley is low quality again, this time with the art being blurry. Fix your files, IDW! Over all this is a really fun addition to the Toho IDW comics, and it's great to see Mothra getting her own individual story. It'll be a treat for Mothra fans out there, especially all the references to Rebirth of Mothra-- and thank you to this comic for helping confirm that Desghidorah wasn't a false memory from a fever dream I had twenty years ago.
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Title: The Demon of Beausoleil
Author/Illustrator: Mari Costa
Rating: 4/5
Published by Oni Press and available January 27, 2026, The Demon of Beausoleil immediately appealed to me for being about queer demons, one of my favorite things. Oni Press never fails to deliver unique comics (it's the publisher of Scott Pilgrim, for example), so that was a plus too. Here we have Helianthes (Hell) Beausoleil, a cambion -- half human, half demon -- who works as an exorcist in between getting in trouble for things like seducing his soon-to-be brother-in-law. He's accompanied by his stoic bodyguard Elias-- and of course they have tension so think you could cut it with a knife. The publisher's summary says "a world of half demons and the boys who love them await" (shouldn't that be "awaits"?) and, they're right. I, a certified demon-loving boy, was instantly charmed by the bratty, sexy Helianthes. As we learn more about Hell, I loved him even more -- not at home among humans or demons, and rejected for his nature in unexpected ways. I especially appreciated his discomfort, to say the least, with being different and "cursed" and his reaction to the birth of another cambion -- "Another freak in the family line!" When he describes this new child as "A half breed!... A deformity! A sin! An abomination!", you can feel all the internalized hate and anger he has. Anyone who's been "born wrong" -- disabled, queer, or disadvantaged in any way -- will recognize this feeling. I like that it doesn't shy away from these negative emotions, or the result of being told "I'm the only one who could ever love you." Elias is a wonderful often-annoyed but steadfast bodyguard in the tradition of Dr. Watson, and who doesn't love a loyal hunk? The one issue with this graphic novel is that, while the art and designs are nice, especially the demons, the brown and red color scheme is boring and makes it a little less fun to look at than it could have been with more color. However, overall it's a great story about sexy demons, curses, and unconditional love, and it will appeal to adult readers who like a bit of drama with their monster boys.
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Title: Princess Mononoke Film Comic: All-In-One Edition
Author/Illustrator: Hayao Miyazaki
Rating: 1/5
Published by Viz Media and available January 27, 2026, Princess Mononoke Film Comic (which appears to have been named by someone who thought Borat was a serious film) is exactly what it says on the tin -- a comic made from the Studio Ghibli movie Princess Mononoke. I really find myself struggling to say much about it because it simply uses stills from the movie as comic panels, with added dialog bubbles. Princess Mononoke is a great movie about giant wolves, uncanny-faced deer gods, and the conflict between nature and industrial civilization and it's one of my favorite Ghibli films. Like all films made by the legendary Hayao Miyazaki, it looks fantastic. If you've seen the movie (and you should), there is literally no reason to read this. There's no unique art, no extras like interviews or concept art, and literally has four pages of stills of the Japanese credits. Viz couldn't even bother to translate the katakana onomatopoeia in the panels, instead opting for a mind-numbing sound effect glossary at the end of the book. And Viz has the gall to charge $35.00 USD for this lazy movie storybook? If I could rate it zero out of five I would. You're at the library, just check out the movie, you'll enjoy it far more.
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Title: Spirited Away Film Comic: All-In-One Edition
Author/Illustrator: Hayao Miyazaki
Rating: 1/5
Look at my review above this. This is literally the same situation. Film stills with speech bubbles and lazy sound effect translation only in a glossary at the end. How is Viz expecting to get away with passing off this lazy photo book of a beloved film as a manga? Again, they want $35.00 USD for it. Save the money and go get a pizza and get the movie from the library.
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Title: Flip Flip Slowly
Author/Illustrator: Mame Ohtako
Rating: 2/5
Published by Kodansha and available December 16, 2025, Flip Flip Slowly is a BL (boy's love, manga focusing on male romance usually written by and for women) that involves a librarian. Sign me up, we need more manga about librarians and librarians falling in love. Hagiwara is our librarian and he becomes fascinated with his patron Yabumi, an anthropology professor older than him who has a methodical approach to reading. Both are gay-- Yabumi was outed, Hagiwara is still closeted-- and they slowly fall in love over a series of drives. It's a slow-burn romance, and sometimes it feels like the romance isn't building. The dialogue feels very brief-- which I know is a result of how Japanese is formatted into speech bubbles, but it still felt like not much was being said or I was only hearing snippets of the conversations. The art is nice, though Yabumi doesn't look any older than Hagiwara. I do really like how it captures the complex emotions that come with being gay, like Yabumi struggling with the dissonance of being hurt by his father's homophobic rejection, but also grieving his death-- being queer is complicated. Over all, it's a decent, if slow, BL.
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Author: Nick Wolny
Rating: 5/5
Published by William Morrow and available December 30, 2025, I had to know what was up with a book on personal finance aimed at a queer audience. As a queer person who is working on my finances (and running a business alongside my librarian job), this was a timely find. Nick's introduction points out an issue all too common-- thinking as a young person you can "figure out the financial stuff later." He also acknowledges that queer life can feel "temporary, transient," something I unfortunately recognize. Many queer people simply don't see much future, especially as the political climate gets worse. Nick lays out the many societal reasons why, but his goal is to help us live joyous queer lives, and he strikes a jovial, conversational tone to guide the reader. But don't let his breezy writing style and Cardi B references fool you-- he comes armed with solid information and citations, and serious psychological understanding of what keeps people in financial trouble and how to change our thinking. All of it relates back to the unique challenges and perspectives of the LGBTQ+ community. This will be a good way to introduce these concepts to readers who might be reluctant otherwise to engage with financial topics. A lot of queer people I see online are self-proclaimed leftists who view business, finance, and money with an annoying level of naïve disgust. Hopefully a queer perspective will convince more people to focus on their finances, and feel more empowered.
