NetGalley Review Grab Bag Vol. 9

 What can I say, I requested a lot of books this year. Most of my posts are going to be review collections for a while, though I do have some actual posts about other topics planned.

I received free ARCs from NetGalley and the publishers in exchange for a fair review.

Title: Tune In to the Midnight Heart Vol. 1

Author/Illustrator: Masakumi Igarashi

Rating: 2.5/5

Published by Kodansha and available May 6, 2025, Tune In to the Midnight Heart pinged my interest in broadcasting. This new series follows Arisu, a high schooler looking for the girl behind the voice of his favorite livestreamer-- who he has tracked down to the school's broadcasting club. Which happens to be made up of four cute girls, each with a different broadcasting career goal. This setup of a guy and multiple girls is called a harem manga and it's definitely not for everyone. While I'm ambivalent about it, today I'm just here for the broadcasting. This will however appeal to fans of cute girls, dumb boys, and the interpersonal drama that comes between them. It will also resonate, I think, with anyone who has felt touched by a voice over the air, so I will keep reading.

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Title: Godzilla: Here There Be Dragons II - Sons of Giants

Author: Frank Tieri

Illustrator: Inaki Miranda

Rating: 5/5

Published by IDW Publishing and available May 20, 2025, Sons of Giants is a follow-up to 2024's series Here There Be Dragons that put Godzilla in the Elizabethan era. I absolutely love the IDW comics that recontextualize Godzilla, and the historical settings for this collection are very fun. This volume expands the lore of a secret society dedicated to the kaiju, as well as what roles the kaiju themselves have played throughout history. Grendel from Beowulf was actually Hedorah, Mothra parted the Red Sea for Moses, and Alexander Hamilton was assassinated by the kaiju society led by Thomas Jefferson. This series is so much fun and will appeal to fans of the Monsterverse and the National Treasure series.

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Title: When Devils Sing

Author: Xan Kaur

Rating: 5/5

Published by Macmillan Children's Publishing Group and available May 27, 2025, When Devils Sing was super exciting. A Southern Gothic novel about Faustian bargains, local folklore, and true crime podcasting? This is literally everything I love. I was a bit worried because the last demon-themed ARC I read was not very good (Below the Grand Hotel) but this was fantastic. A local teen goes missing and four other teens begin investigating. I'm trying to avoid spoilers since it's definitely worth reading, but I can say that the disappearance has to do with the local legend of three devils-- a legend that's integrated into the story very well and actually feels real to the reader. It's nice to see a young adult Southern Gothic horror novel, especially one with a diverse cast and an interesting twist on Faustian bargains and the creepiness inherent in local legend. My one wish is that the book would address how the folklore of the three devils and the cicadas would be affected by traditional Southern Christianity, though I suppose it isn't that important for a YA novel. It's still an amazing book and I'm really impressed and will be recommending it to fans of horror and Southern regional literature.

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Title: Search and Destroy, Vol. 2

Author/Illustrator: Atsushi Kaneko, based on work by Osamu Tezuka

Rating: 3/5

Published by Fantagraphics Books and available June 3, 2025, Search and Destroy is a retelling of Osamu Tezuka's series Dororo that reimagines the samurai story in a Soviet-tinged cyberpunk dystopia. The story follows Hyaku, a girl in this version, searching for her stolen 48 body parts in a Blade Runner-like world divided into humans (called hyoos) and androids (called creatures or kreaches). I think Tezuka would be impressed with this work-- he often recontextualized existing works, like in his Shin Takarajima (New Treasure Island, after Robert Louis Stevenson) and One Hundred Tales (based on Goethe's Faust). There are two things that keep it from rating higher with me-- first, the art, while expressive, is sometimes overwhelming and hard to parse (a problem I have with a lot of action manga, so it may be caused by my bad eyesight)-- and second, the slang terms hyoo and kreach are hard to take seriously. Other than those complaints, I think this will appeal to fans of cyberpunk, works like Akria, and fans of Tezuka. Since the series has just one more forthcoming volume, I'm considering getting it for my library's collection as a good short series.

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Title: Florenzer

Author: Phil Melanson

Rating: 4.5/5

Published by W. W. Norton & Company and available June 10, 2025, this debut novel immediately caught my attention-- I love historical fiction, especially about historical figures, and even more especially when it has a queer theme. This book follows three men in Renaissance Florence-- Lorenzo di Medici, Francesco Salviati (who you may remember from Assassin's Creed II), and Leonardo da Vinci. Many people have theorized that da Vinci was gay, and he's portrayed as such in this book. They're joined by a cast of characters so complex that the author has wisely included a list. All the historical figures and their intrigues remind me of Maurice Duron's Accursed Kings, and as that's one of my favorites, it's high praise. If you enjoy novels with a lot of historical detail, and the history of art and queerness, this is your book. It's great to see a book that demonstrates that we've always been here, regardless of how accepting society was. My only issues with this book are with the writing itself. It's written in present tense, which doesn't fit how sprawling the book is-- it's not a fast-paced action story, where present tense would be better suited. The author also often forgets to mention who the new point of view character is until well after the new chapter has begun, making it difficult to differentiate between the characters other than da Vinci. Technical complaints aside, this is really a great book and I'm going to ask our fiction selector to order it for our library. Happy Pride Month.

NetGalley Review Grab Bag Volume 8

 Back with more reviews! I.... may have requested a lot of books recently.

I received free advance copies from NetGalley in exchange for a fair review.

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Title: Destroy All Humans, They Can't Be Regenerated Vol. 3

Author: Katsura Ise

Illustrator: Takuma Yokota

Rating: 5/5

Published by Viz Media and available April 8, 2025, one of my favorite current manga series is back. I loved the previous two volumes of Destroy All Humans and I'm happy to say that the third instalment is just as good. We get deeper into the relationship between Emi and Hajime, as well as see more of a character introduced in volume 2, a girl Hajime initially thought was a boy. I'm really interested in Mayu, if she's gender-nonconforming or a trans boy or something else. Regardless of what her identity may be, she's a delight and it's great to see her in the story more. This series continues to be a fun, nostalgic look at Magic the Gathering and 1990s nerd culture. Also fun: the physical copies of the first editions of each volume come with a promo MTG card, so it's definitely worth collecting this series if you're into the game.

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Title: Adventures in the Louvre: How to Fall in Love with the World's Greatest Museum

Author: Elaine Sciolino

Rating: 5/5

Published by W. W. Norton & Company and available April 1, 2025, Adventures in the Louvre is an introduction to the great French art museum, discussing its past and present and it's famous residents, like the Mona Lisa and the Winged Victory of Samothrace. I absolutely LOVED this book, as a historian and an art buff (who, alas, has never been to the Louvre, except via Nintendo 3DS Guide: Louvre). It probably took me twice as long to read this book because I kept stopping to read parts out loud to whoever was around me-- my favorite thing I learned is that people write letters to the Mona Lisa, as if she's a living person. Can you truly say you love a piece of art if you're not willing to write it letters? My one issue with Adventures is that it could use more images-- there are only a couple per chapter and they're in black and white (which may be since I was reading an ARC), meaning to fully understand what's being described, you have to look pieces up yourself, but other than that this is an incredible exploration of one of the gems of art history.

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Title: Tokyo Alien Bros., Vol. 2

Author/Illustrator: Keigo Shinzo

Rating: 4/5

Published by Viz Media and available April 15, 2025, Tokyo Alien Bros., Vol. 2 is the middle part of a three-volume series now being published in English. I previously reviewed the first volume and found it an intriguing start. The series is mostly slice-of-life, like the author's current series Hirayasumi, with a few moments of sci-fi. The titular alien brothers are scouting out Earth for an invasion, and their base of operations is Japan. Volume 2 sees the less-assimilated brother, Natsu, blending in a little better by getting a job and (almost) getting a girlfriend; and both brothers trying to come to grips with the human emotion of love -- something they're not even sure they can feel. I think this series is progressing nicely and I look forward to the final volume.

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Title: Below the Grand Hotel

Author: Cat Scully

Rating: 1/5

Published by CLASH Books and available May 6, 2025, Below the Grand Hotel immediately caught my eye as both a 1920s and demon enthusiast -- a wannabe starlet enters a Faustian bargain in a hotel full of demons sounds awesome. I really wanted to enjoy this, but unfortunately I didn't vibe with it. Except for some references to Prohibition and Ziegfeld there isn't much historical detail, and in fact there are several glaring errors (like mentioning the Talkies in 1925, two years before The Jazz Singer) that really took me out of the story. There's very little 1920s atmosphere -- we don't even get to know the songs Mabel, the main character, sings. The demon content was better and I always like seeing demons with strange anatomy, like second mouths (a common medieval image), but I also couldn't get myself to care about any of the characters. The writing is really repetitive and nothing impacted me emotionally like other versions of the Faust legend have. Maybe I'm a little harsh on it, but I was really expecting more.

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Title: The Climber, Vol. 1

Author: Yoshio Nabeta, Hiroshi Takano, adapted from a novel by Jiro Nitta

Illustrator: Shin'ichi Sakamoto

Rating: 4/5

Published by Viz Media and available April 15, The Climber is a seinen series first published between 2007 and 2011, and it's nice to see older series getting English translations. This series follows a withdrawn high school student who discovers a passion for sport climbing. One of the amazing things about manga is how a good mangaka can make any topic or hobby engaging, even if you have no interest or experience with it in real life. I have no experience with sport climbing, but The Climber makes it feel like I'm right there with Mori. I think this manga will appeal to fans of other sport manga, obviously, but also action-driven stories and very realistic seinen art.

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Title: GAEA-TIMA the Gigantis, Vol. 1

Author/Illustrator: KENT

Rating: 3/5

Published by Kodansha and available April 29, 2025, GAEA-TIMA the Gigantis immediately caught my eye with the description "In the spirit of the classic Godzilla and Godzilla Minus One" (I've mentioned my love of Godzilla before and Godzilla Minus One is one of my top favorite movies). It also reminds me of the movie Pacific Rim, which involves kaiju becoming a part of life and commercialized in their absence. Design-wise, the kaiju remind me of the monsters from the Gamera series. GAEA-TIMA focuses on how the human characters respond to the kaiju-- fascination, fear, a desire to exploit-- and makes the reader think how they would react. While the situation isn't one our world actually faces (though I wouldn't put it past reality at this point) but kaiju have always been allegorical. I think kaiju are experiencing a media renaissance (especially in manga thanks to Kaiju No. 8). I think this is a good start, if a little derivative of KN8.

NetGalley Review Grab Bag Volume 7

 And we are back with more reviews! I have a very serious post in the works right now that will hopefully be out some time this month but in the meantime, let's check in on some new releases. 

I received free advance copies from NetGalley in exchange for a fair review.

Title: Hauntress

Author/Illustrator: Minetarō Mochizuki

Rating: 2/5

Published by Kodansha and available February 25, 2025, Hauntress is a major work in the horror genre for manga. It was published in 1993, before stalking was widely known in Japan. The story follows college student Hiroshi, who's being followed by a creepy woman. I was interested because it's on several "Scariest Manga Ever" lists and I do love a good scare. Unfortunately it's hard to make a drawing scary and this isn't scary to me. The stalking starts too early with no buildup, which ruins the tension. I did like that at the end the stalker becomes another urban legend (Japan is famous for its urban legends). The art reminds me of Junji Ito, which I know for other readers will be a plus but the one Ito book I've read didn't impress me much. This just wasn't scary for me.

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Title: Once Was Willem 

Author: M. R. Carey

Rating: 4/5

Published by Orbit Books and available March 4, 2025, Once Was Willem is something I thought I'd never find a good example of -- a fantasy story set in a real medieval era. This story follows a revenant (a reanimated corpse) and his found family of shape-shifters and spirits as they fight to defend the town's children from an evil sorcerer. The book combines dark fantasy, medieval folklore, and Gnosticism for the worldbuilding, and I was really impressed. I'm not particularly a fantasy fan and I've read too many bad attempts to mix fantasy with the Middle Ages but this was not one of them. There was a major historical error, referencing the so-called Children's Crusade before it was said to have happened, but that was all I caught, and for the most part the historical detail is really nice. This will appeal to fans of both dark fantasy and realistic depictions of the Middle Ages, as well as those of you who are monster lovers (hey, I'm one too!)

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Title: Dogsred Vol. 1

Author: Satoru Noda

Rating: 4/5

Published by Viz Media and available March 18, 2025, Dogsred Vol. 1 is the first volume of a new series by the author of Golden Kamuy. This series follows Rou, an ice skater looking for a second chance playing hockey. So yes, it is a sports manga. If that makes you think it's a story only for sports fans, you must never have read a sports manga. These are more often than not actually really exciting and full of emotion. Dogsred looks like it'll be no exception. The art is fantastic and conveys the speed and action of skating and I was immediately invested in Rou's story as he comes off tragedy and a breakdown to try to rebuild his life. I've never skated on ice but now I want to try it. This series will appeal to fans of action manga and stories about redemption, and maybe even the readers of all those hockey romances (assuming they actually like hockey).

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Title: Kai and the Kappas

Author: Stefanie Gamarra

Illustrator: Marta Pilosio

Rating: 4/5

Self-published and available March 20, 2025, Kai and the Kappas is a picture book about a monster-loving boy in a retelling of the folktale of The Boy Who Cried Wolf (Perry Index # 210) It's very cute and will appeal to monster kids. The art is nice and looks almost like paper cutouts. I did think some of the text passages where a bit long, which depending on the age of the reader might lose them a bit, but that was just a few pages. This is a good retelling of a familiar fable and I like that it uses a non-Western creature, in this case a Japanese Yōkai. I'll definitely suggest it to our picture book selector.

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Title: Viral Hit Vol. 1

Author: Taejun Pak

Illustrator: Kim Junghyun

Rating: 2.5

Published by Wattpad WEBTOON Book Group and available April 1, 2025, Viral Hit is a Korean webtoon now being published physically. I can't seem to get into webtoons/manwa but I look into them for work and these reviews. This series follows a bullied high schooler as he goes viral for fighting bullies on stream. The art is pretty good -- manwa tends to have pretty impressive realistic art and this is no exception. The premise will appeal to people interested in streaming culture and heroes starting from zero, but it just didn't interest me. The constant profanity, which is censored with asterisks, feels like they're trying too hard to be edgy and just looks dumb. It was funny seeing a kimchi slap right out of a K-drama (like this iconic video) though.

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Title: Men of the Harem Vol. 1

Authors: Alphatart (original story), Herelee (adaptor)

Illustrator: Yeongbin

Rating: 3/5

Published by Yen Press and available December 10, 2024, Men of the Harem Vol. 1 is already out but is still up on NetGalley and I requested it not noticing the release date. Oh well. Men of the Harem is another webtoon but I was more interested in this than Viral Hit. It follows a female emperor as she solidifies her power and plans to break with tradition and gender norms and gather a male harem for herself. I enjoy polyamory and gender subversion in fiction so I was interested. The art is very nice and I think the premise will be fun to see play out in future volumes. It takes place in a fantasy world, so silly names are all over the place. Despite her weird name, I do like the main character, Latrasil, and I can't wait to see her with her harem of pretty boys.

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Title: Semantic Error Vol. 1

Author: J. Soori

Illustrator: Angy

Rating: 4/5

Published by Yen Press and available November 19, 2024, Semantic Error is another book still on NetGalley that I failed to see the publishing date of. It's also another webtoon/manwa. This time it's a boy's love series, centered around two college students, one who has it out for the other after his graduation plan is ruined. So yes, it's one of those enemies-to-lovers stories that are all the rage lately. The art isn't as good as I've seen in other manwa (one of the main characters consistently has a huge body, making his head out of proportionally small). I've had little success with finding a manwa that interests me, but I think I like this one. The characters actually feel fleshed out and the plot is engaging. I can see why this is considered one of the best Korean BL.

NetGalley Review Grab Bag Volume 6 - New Year, New Books

 Happy belated New Year everyone! Today is our first batch of NetGalley reviews. We have several to get through so let's just get into it.

I received free review copies from the publishers and NetGalley in exchange for a fair review.

Title: Dogs and Punching Bags

Author/Illustrator: Kaori Ozaki

Rating: 4/5

Published by Kodansha and available January 21, 2025, Dogs and Punching Bags is a seinen manga following a woman's return to her small town home after heartbreak and her growing relationship with a strange young man with a tragic past. The rural setting is charming and captures the small town life where everyone knows everyone -- for better or for worse -- and the romance between the two leads is well done. This standalone volume will appeal to fans of rural settings, dramatic slice of life storytelling, as well as complex relationships and hopeful endings.

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Title: Fall in Love, You False Angels, Vol. 1

Author/Illustrator: Coco Uzuki

Rating: 3/5

Published by Kodansha and available February 11, 2025, Fall In Love, You False Angels is a shojo high school romance. I was interested because the summary likened it to Kaguya-sama: Love Is War, which I do like. This series follows two perfect model students who both have secret, darker sides. I don't think this part is very well represented, all they do with their other sides is be more assertive (while still being good) and I may be missing some cultural context but I just think that part of the story is rather underdeveloped. The art is really nice and the characters overall are cute and likeable, so maybe time will bring out more of their characterization. This is, after all, just the first volume.

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Title: Medieval Cats: Claws, Paws, and Kitties of Yore

Author: Catherine Nappington

Rating: 2/5

Published by Clarkson Potter/Ten Speed Press and available March 4, 2025, Medieval Cats immediately caught my eye as a medievalist and cat lover. And I really wanted to like this book, but several things hold it back. First and most egregious is its disregard for what the Middle Ages actually is. While the book itself places the Middle Ages between 500 and 1500 CE, which is a good estimate a lot of people use, it then ignores that and includes references to Shakespeare and even Isaac Newton, neither of whom were medieval. The images are properly cited fortunately, but there are no endnotes or other citations (at least in the ARC). I also couldn't find anything about the author (whose name I suspect is a pseudonym) and that bugs me. Overall it's got some good information about cats in the medieval period, but it's also unfocused and falls into the usual "Medieval means anything before the Industrial Revolution" folly so many non-academic things do.

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Title: I Want To Love You Till Your Dying Day, Vol. 1

Author/Illustrator: Nachi Aono

Rating: 2/5

Published by Kodansha and available February 18, 2025, I Want to Love You Till Your Dying Day is a yuri (girl's love) manga with an interesting premise -- a boarding school that trains magical girls for combat. It made me think of a bit of the controversial Elfin Lied, which was also of the Cute Girls Being Killing Machines genre. This series is just getting its start in English and this is the first volume but I wasn't particularly impressed. The worldbuilding leaves a lot to be desired (what are they fighting and why?) and the bits of the magic system that are explained are dubious at best. The big act of magic shown is transferring mana via kissing, which since this is a yuri manga is of course an excuse for girls to kiss, which wouldn't be an issue if one of the main characters wasn't said to be ten years old. This is on top of a trans or gender non-conforming character being called a "pervert teacher" multiple times, a stereotype that needs to end. Needless to say I'm not impressed, though the character design is cute.

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Title: Mujina Into the Deep, Vol. 1

Author/Illustrator: Inio Asano

Rating: 3/5

Published by Viz Media and available February 18, 2025, Mujina Into the Deep is the latest series from acclaimed mangaka Inio Asano, author of Goodbye Punpun. The summary caught my attention -- "In the near future, human rights aren't guarenteed, but they are for sale," especially since currently in my home country of the US human rights are very much up for debate. In this world, rights come with strict government control and people living outside these rights and control are called "mujina" (Japanese for badger). It is an interesting setup and I wonder how the story will develop for the main mujina, Ubume. I will say the constant sex is a little gratuitous and distracting, but the action is cool. It's rated M by Viz for some very good reasons. Because of how explicit it is I probably won't order it for my public library, but I am curious as to how it will turn out so I'll probably continue reading myself.

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Title: RuriDragon, Vol. 1

Author: Masaoki Shindo

Rating: 5/5

Published by Viz Media and available January 7, 2025, RuriDragon is a shonen series I've been super excited for ever since I read the first chapter on Shuesha's Manga Plus app. Almost as soon as I started reading I was telling our teen manga selector that they need to get it for the collection. The premise is simple. Ruri Aoki wakes up one morning to find horns growing out of her head, and her mother reveals nonchalantly that the girl's absent father is a dragon. Ruri is an adorable character and her struggles with her new life are relatable to readers her age, half-dragon or not, like changing bodies and trying to fit in with peers. I think teen readers will really like this one. The art is cute and the story is just a nice slice of life thing about learning to live with unexpected developments in your life, a well as opening up to support from others-- because your friends really do want to help you.