NetGalley Review Grab Bag, Vol. 11

The seemingly never-ending list of books to review continues. I made a huge mistake in requesting so many from NetGalley, at this point my blog is all reviews and nothing else. In truth, I'm actually working on a few large projects for work, and I'll talk about those as soon as I get the okay from my employers. For now, let's see how many reviews I can knock out in one go.

Title: Godzilla's Monsterpiece Theatre

Author/Illustrator: Tom Scioli

Rating: 5/5

Published by IDW and available July 22, 2025, Godzilla's Monsterpiece Theatre is another entry in IDW's mission of "Let's see how many crazy situations we can put Godzilla in before someone calls the cops on us" and I am all for it. I actually got one of the individual issues at a local comic store earlier this year so I'm excited to see the full collection released. The first thing you notice is the art-- it's reminiscent of Golden Age comics and it really fits the subject of Godzilla interacting with classic literary characters. Even my dad commented on how it looks like an old comic. Then we get to the story. Jay Gatsby's party is interrupted by a Godzilla attack. Sherlock Holmes, now retired, and Jules Verne (who's a cyborg, naturally), join Gatsby and his G-Force in fighting the monster. And then Dracula appears, the Mummy, werewolves, Frankenstein... I sound crazy trying to explain it in a review but just believe me it's a fun monster mash that takes the premise seriously. It'll appeal to fans of the classic literature portrayed, as well as goofy reworkings of familiar stories.

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Title: How To Be a Saint

Author: Kate Sidley

Rating: 5/5

Bruce Springsteen once said "It's hard to be a saint in the city". Kate Sedley's new book, published by Sourcebooks and available August 19, 2025, demonstrates how hard it is to be a saint anywhere else. I was immediately laughing out loud at this book, which was specifically written for me-- alongside my years of religious studies training and specialty in Christianity (including my bachelor's thesis on medieval heresy), I love humorous nonfiction. This book is both a delight to read (it calls 2 Maccabees "Attack of the Clones" and spends a whole chapter on good ways to die to achieve sainthood, as just two examples) and a solid introduction to the doctrines of canonization and Christian hagiography. I'd definitely recommend it to anyone interested in the topic. However, it doesn't mention that St. Christopher had the head of a dog, so unfortunately it's worthless. Just kidding.

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Title: Demon With Benefits

Author: Aurora Ascher

Rating: 1/5

Published by Kensington Books and available July 29, 2025, I requested this book solely because the demon character's name is Meph (short for Mephistopheles, the demon from the Faust legend. There are only a few references to Faust and Meph doesn't at all act like his mythological counterpart) and I wanted to see how bad it would be. It's a bog-standard straight bad boy romance with a lot of informed character traits (the author clearly has never heard of "show, don't tell") and some truly dire lines. The story and romance are boring but the writing in places got so unhinged I kept reading just to see what insane descriptors the characters would use next -- Meph, our bad boy demon, in the middle of sex thinks about The Lion King. This book isn't particularly good as a paranormal romance since the demons and witches rarely act like they have any powers. At one point the heroine is tied up by the villain, a powerful demon, with literal rope. Why doesn't he use magic? The worldbuilding is almost nonexistent and the main relationship isn't engaging. I can't think of anyone I'd recommend this to. It's not objectionable, just incredibly boring and weirdly written.

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Title: The Girl, The Priest, and The Devil

Author: Theo Prasidis

Illustrator: Staša Gacpar

Rating: 4/5

Published by Dead Sky Publishing and available September 23, 2025, this graphic novel caught my attention because of my interest in folktales and the Devil, and for its unique setting -- Ottoman Greece. The titular girl, Daphne, is ostracized by her village and called a witch thanks to the corrupt local priest, and she receives no support from her father. The priest is a tyrannical presence who gladly collaborates with his Ottoman overlords, even as his parish struggles under the harsher taxes imposed on non-Muslim subjects. The plot is a little hard to summarize without spoiling it, so I'll just leave it at this -- the Devil isn't the character you expect it to be. The art is dark and gorgeous and I love the caprine devil design. It's also really gruesome in places, so content warning for a brutal execution and the killing of an animal -- but the violence never feels gratuitous, it works with the story. I really enjoyed this comic, though I have a couple issues. First, it's rather short, at just 112 pages, and I felt there were things that could be expanded upon -- the altar boy Angelos, for example, could use a background, and we never see any explanation for Daphne's ability to talk to animals, which would be really fascinating to expand upon. Second, I would have liked a glossary of the Greek and Turkish words used, but that's because I'm a word nerd. Overall, this is a great horror comic that combines the historical and the supernatural.

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Title: History Matters

Author: David McCullough

Rating: 5/5

Published by Simon & Schuster and available September 16, 2025, History Matters is a collection of essays, speeches, and interviews by the beloved late American historian David McCullough (the voice behind Ken Burns' The Civil War). I think you can see why I would have to pick this one up, and I'm glad I did. As the title suggests, it answers the questions people have about why they need to know about history -- remembering all those dates and names is hard, and it was so long ago, anyway. McCullough sums it up in a commencement speech he delivered in 2018: "history is human." History matters because it's the story of people, from which we learn everything. In an interview, he says "...I'm interested in the creative drive, the continuity of a civilization, the connection between one generation and the next." Reading this, all I could think was YES. This is what I love about history and why I want to talk about it. This book is such a great read for anyone interested in history, whether you have a degree in it like I do or you're just an enthusiast. You get a deeper look into McCullough's career, his writing process, and his philosophies for both history and America.

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Title: All- Negro Comics: America's First Black Comic Book

Authors/Ilustrators: Various

Rating: 5/5

Published by Image Comics and available November 4, 2025, All-Negro Comics is an anniversary reprint of the first comic anthology by all Black creators, first published in 1947. I knew I was going to love editor Chris Robinson's approach to the material from his introduction, where he lays out his tenants for the book: "Tell, Teach, Tribute," encouraging the readers to pass along what we learn to others-- tell others about it, leave a review, or make our own comics starring the characters. I'm happy to do just that. This comic book celebrates Black heroism, culture, humor, and pride in African heritage. We've got a hard-boiled police detective, cute fairy-like beings for kids, adventure stories, and even an attempt to reclaim, in the words of the original editor Orrin Cromwell Evans, the "almost lost humor of the lovable wandering Negro minstrel of the past." Sometimes it's jarring to modern readers, which is good -- the past was the worst and no one was perfect. The comics overall are fun, and it's sad knowing this was the only issue published. The essays included in this edition give the reader more context, and the bonus modern comics are a fun addition that reimagine the original works. I really want to suggest this to our library's Western graphic novel selector.

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Title: The 1960s: Maps For Curious Minds

Author: Gordon Kerr

Illustrator: Claire Rollet

Rating: 5/5

Published by The Experiment and available October 28, 2025, I had to read The 1960s: Maps for Curious Minds. The 1960s is my favorite modern decade, and I love maps. This is a colorful atlas of politics, culture, people, significant events, and science, and it's exactly the kind of book I would have poured over for hours in high school. Even though I'm familiar with the 1960s (even teaching about it in college), I learned a lot, especially about scientific advancements (something I don't know as much about as I do about the era's culture and politics)-- like did you know the first silicon breast implant was done in Michigan in 1962? I mention this not to brag about my experience, but to say I'm glad to see a book that doesn't just cover well-known facts that you can read anywhere, and this book is more than just "did you know about the Hippie movement?" This is a great resource for learning about the era, and I'm definitely going to recommend it to anyone even mildly interested. In fact, I'm going to recommend it to my dad, who lived through the '60s.

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Title: Before You Go Extinct

Author: Takashi Ushiroyato

Illustrator: Kanato Abiko

Rating: 4/5

Published by Kodansha and available October 7, 2025, Before You Go Extinct is the first manga I've reviewed in what feels like forever. This standalone volume is a meditation on life, death, and the pressures of being productive, and to reproduce. It's dark-- beginning with a penguin on a mission to kill other penguins before they go extinct in other ways. The duo that appears throughout the story are the same two souls, trying to come to terms with finality and annihilation through metempsychosis. The contrast of cute animals and the heartbreaking themes is... a lot. I do really appreciate how it tackles reproductive futurism, the belief that no matter what, having children is a good thing-- a message heavily promoted in Japan and increasingly in America, which is at odds with the material and social conditions our world faces today. I'm docking it a star just because I don't know who to recommend it to. Usually I can say who something would appeal to, but I'm not sure who that would be for this. 

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Title: I Wanna Be Your Girl Vol. 2

Author/Illustrator: Umi Takase

Rating: 5/5

Published by Random House Children's Books and available November 4, 2025, this is the second volume of a series I gushed about in another review collection. I continue to be obsessed with this seinen series about a trans girl and her best friend, a cis girl. Akira and Hime are both adorable and Akira's story continues to hit me right in the feels, as we used to say, despite not being transfem myself. I really hope this series gains traction because it's an excellent story for kids to learn about the trans experience-- and it's also just a great high school story in general, about the ups and downs everyone faces at that age. In volume 2 we learn about what made Yukka quit track-- a girl she liked rejected her and made her feel like an outcast-- and we get more from Akira's perspective, including her father's only partial support. I definitely look forward to the final two volumes (it's a four-volume series) and want more people to read it. 

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Title: The Art of Rumiko Takahashi: Colors 1978-2024

Author/Illustrator: Rumiko Takahashi

Rating: 5/5

Published by Viz Media and available September 30, 2025, Colors is a celebration of the work of one of manga's most beloved creators, Rumiko Takahashi. If you're an otaku, you've probably read or seen one of her series-- a remake of Ranma 1/2 is currently airing on Netflix, and InuYasha was a staple on Adult Swim back in the day. This artbook, comprised of pages from her manga, individual art pieces, sketches and storyboards is enhanced with Rumiko-sensei's commentary, giving the reader insight into her process in developing beloved series like Urusei Yatsura, Ranma 1/2, Mao, Maison Ikkoku, and InuYasha. It really feels like a friend showing you their sketchbook and I love it. Her art is so warm and cute but stylish, and she clearly loves her job and sees it as bringing joy to her readers. Even when it's a lot of work-- in the included interview, we learn that she draws eighteen six-panel pages every week. She's right when she says a manga artist needs to be strong. This book will be a welcome addition to any manga fan's collection, and I'm going to request my library gets it for the nonfiction section.

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Title: Nana 25th Anniversary Edition, Vol. 1

Author/Illustrator: Ai Yazawa

Rating: 3/5

Published by Viz Media and available October 21, 2025, the popular shoujo manga Nana is now being reprinted in omnibus form. This series follows two young women moving to Tokyo, both named Nana. The art is incredibly stylish-- the mangaka, Ai Yazawa, studied fashion design before becoming a manga author, and she crams so much detail and realism into her characters in every panel. I WISH I could draw clothes that look half as good as hers do. Story-wise, it's definitely a product of its time (late 90s-early 2000s), especially with Nana Komatsu's early attempts to date older men, and it's very straight. As someone who is literally the opposite of a straight college girl, I couldn't really relate myself to Nana Komatsu, though I liked the punk Nana Osaki more. The story may not appeal to me as much as it will to others, but I can tell it's well-written, and as I said the art is absolutely killer. Definitely read this if you're into fashion and complex emotional entanglements. I hope Ai-sensei, who put the series on hiatus back in 2009 due to her poor health, is doing better. 

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Title: The Macabre

Author: Kosoko Jackson

Rating: 1/5

Published by Avon and Harper Voyager and available September 9, 2025 (yes I am aware I am very behind in my review writing, cut me some slack), The Macabre is a fantasy novel that caught my eye-- centered on art and with the British Museum as a major setting, I really expected to love it. Unfortunately it doesn't deliver and I ended up DNFing (did not finish) it six chapters in. While it's ostensibly set in the British Museum, somehow it never bothers to describe the place, or even mention any of its famous exhibits (the Rosetta Stone? Louis Chessmen? Elgin Marbles? What are those?) Even London gets described, laughably, as "[looking] like any city back home in the States" which makes me feel like the author doesn't know what London looks like. I've been to both many US cities AND London, and London does not look like Detroit or Chicago. For the topic of the book, magic artifacts, I was really expecting something like The Magnus Archives or even the SCP Foundation, but even the magic is pretty boring. It just reminds me of a problem I have with so many books-- the author can't be bothered to describe the world, and I can't be bothered to care.

NetGalley Review Grab Bag, Volume 10

 I'm finally back in the office after my summer vacation! I spent a week exploring the lovely historic city of St. Louis, Missouri, with a close friend of mine, a fellow librarian. Now that I'm back at work I have a lot to get caught up on, including book reviews. And can you believe it, this is the tenth collection of my reviews? As always, we have a lot of manga, as well as some historic themes, so let's get started.

Title: Snegurochka of the Spring Breeze 

Author/Illustrator: Hiroaki Samura

Rating: 3/5

Published by Kodansha and available June 24, 2015, Snegurochka of the Spring Breeze combines my love of manga with my fascination with Russian history (though my name is Russian I'm not actually Russian myself, but I've long been something of a slavophile). This standalone volume by the creator of Blade of the Immortal follows two mysterious Russians who go by Bielka (squirrel) and Shchenok (puppy). Bielka is in a wheelchair, having lost both legs, and Schenok has an eyepatch and is in constant need of medicine. Both have even more mysterious connections to the major players of the Bolshevik Revolution, which occurred nearly twenty years before. The art is gorgeous and almost makes you forget you're reading a manga. My main issue with Snegurochka is that some of it is hard to follow. Scenes sometimes change from page to page, and there's nothing that clearly delineates the passage of time. The result is a beautifully drawn but disjointedly written and paced story. Another issue is with some of the content-- it depicts sexual assault of a disabled person, and the person who commits it becomes a sympathetic character later on without anyone addressing what he did. This will probably not sit right with a lot of readers. Overall, I did enjoy this manga, especially towards the end when the writing and pacing comes together better. I'd recommend it to fans of Russian literature, especially works like Pasternak's Doctor Zhivago, and fans of the mangaka's series Blade of the Immortal.

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Title: Issak Omnibus 1 (Vol. 1-2)

Author: Shinji Makari

Illustrator: Double-S

Rating: 5/5

Published by Kodansha and available June 10, 2025, Issak is a series I wasn't previously aware of but was definitely interested in once I began reading -- not many works take place in the Thirty Years War* (a 17th century conflict between Catholic and Protestant forces in what is now Germany that was actually one of the worst wars in European history). To make it stand out even more, it follows a Japanese mercenary -- basically the opposite of Clavell's Shōgun. I was instantly hooked -- I loved the historic and linguistic detail (German is my second language) and the art is fantastic. And who doesn't love a strong, silent type on a personal mission who nevertheless shows concern for others? This is an awesome start to a series I'm going to follow. I especially love that the author includes an afterword about the inspiration for the story, and there's a section of historical notes that give more context to the story. I'm definitely going to look into getting this series for the library.

* At least in English and definitely not in Japanese

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Title: I Wanna Be Your Girl, Vol. 1

Author/Illustrator: Umi Takase

Rating: 5/5

Published by Random House Children's Books and available July 1, 2025, I Wanna Be Your Girl is a little late for Pride Month, but it's never too late for trans stories. Hime's best friend Akira is beginning her social transition as they start high school. As a queer person I was immediately drawn in and repeatedly punched in the gut, but in a good way. The art is adorable and I love the characters, especially Hime and Akira (Anzu is a little annoying so far so I'm not a big fan of her). Aside from the issues that arise from Akira being a trans girl, the kids experience the usual high school drama -- crushes, jealousy, defensiveness, and anger. It has a good message of letting people figure things out on their own time, and not making people's identities about your own feelings (too often the loved ones of trans people are concerned with how they feel about the trans person in their life, rather than how the actual trans person feels). This is going to be an amazing series for younger readers, both LGBTQ+ kids and young allies.

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Title: Brain Damage

Author/Illustrator: Shintaro Kago

Rating: 2/5

Published by Fantagraphics Books and available July 15, 2025, Brain Damage is an anthology of ero guro (erotic grotesque, an art movement combining horror and eroticism) stories. I've reviewed horror manga before and I keep having the same problem -- it's just hard to make a drawing scary. This book falls into that issue. The first story, "Labyrinth Quartet" starts out reminding me of the internet urban legend Saki Sanobashi but quickly becomes a slasher movie. I liked the second story, "Curse Room," which had a unique take on zombies. "Family Portrait" is mostly scary for its focus on sexual perversion/assault. The final story, "Blood Harvest," is about mangled corpses found in undamaged cars that turn out to be vampiristic -- mostly it's an excuse for Kago to show off his admittedly impressive gore skills. I'm giving the book two stars, for the unique story of zombie caretakers, but other than that I was bored.

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Title: The Architect's Epiphany

Author: Chi-Ho Kwong

Illustrator: Chi-kit Kwong

Rating: 4/5

Published by Mad Cave Studios and available August 19, 2025, The Architect's Epiphany is a manhua (Chinese-language comic) by a team of brothers. I don't have a lot of experience with manhua so I'm working on expanding my horizons. This has gorgeous art, especially in its designs for ancient monuments and the guardian beast, and I was immediately entranced. I have to admit that reading-wise I was really confused and thought maybe the translation was poor, until about a hundred pages in I realized that I was reading the speech bubbles backwards. I had forgotten that Traditional Chinese, used in Hong Kong, is read right-to-left, rather than left-to-right like Simplified Chinese, used in mainland China. Whoops. Once I went back and started reading in the correct direction, I was impressed with the story. A shaman from a destroyed city sets out to find the City Builder, who can reclaim their lost home. This story will appeal to fans of Chinese fantasy, like The Untamed/Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation, and the Western animation Avatar: The Last Airbender. 

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Title: Evil-ish

Author/Illustrator: Kennedy Tarrell

Rating: 4/5

Published by Macmillan Children's Publishing Group and available July 22, 2025, Evil-ish follows Hawthorne, a wannabe villain, as they first audition for and then accidentally become the leader of the local legendary group of evil-doers, the Brigade of Shade. This book fits nicely in with other recent fantasy graphic novels for young readers, like Off Menu by Oliver Gerlach, and The Baker and the Bard, by Fern Haught, though it's not as purely cozy-- the stakes are higher. Hawthorne is a likable and relatable protagonist, ending up being too nice to be evil, and their rival, Maple, becomes an interesting foil. It's nice to see a nonbinary main character, as I'd like to see gender variance be more integrated into fantasy society, and it's sweet seeing Hawthorne's mom being supportive. I do think the main resolution is achieved a little quickly, the story could have stood to have been a little longer. That aside, this is a solid graphic novel for younger readers and will appeal to anyone who loves villains and feels frustrated with their life and has a feeling of stagnation. The art is really nice, the character designs are all unique, and Tarrell does some amazing things with backgrounds and set pieces. I'm definitely looking forward to more from this artist.

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Title: The Age of Video Games

Author: Jean Zeid

Illustrator: Émilie Rouge

Rating: 2/5

Published by Andrews McMeel and available July 22, 2025, The Age of Video Games caught my attention for being about my favorite pastime. Even though I've read and listened to so much about the history of gaming, I'll always enjoy hearing about it again. Maybe it's all the experience talking, but I wasn't as impressed with this book as I'd hoped. It has very little chronological organization, such as jumping from Pac-Man in 1980 to Out Run in 1986, which doesn't make much sense. The dialog is frequently awkward, thanks to being translated from French-- while I'm not great at French myself I don't think it was translated well enough to flow in English. A lot of information is left out-- there's nothing about the Xbox and its impact on the industry, for example; and it repeats a disproved urban legend that Space Invaders led to a shortage of 100 yen coins. That's not a huge issue, just one that I should think should be fact checked. I did appreciate the insight into some French developments, which I'm not as familiar with as the American and Japanese industries (interesting now that I think of it that they don't mention that Ubisoft is French). The art is nice and has some good details that reflect the (mostly) visual nature of video games, and I'm very happy to see an appearance by Jerry Lawson, developer of the Fairchild Channel F. Overall, I'd say this isn't much more than a serviceable introduction to video game history. It's too unfocused and sometimes baffling to read.

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.

NetGalley Review Grab Bag Vol. 5 - Year End Edition

Time for the fifth edition of NetGalley Grab Bag Reviews! I am working on a deep dive into my favorite video game series but that's going to take a little while. In the meantime, I have some books I'm very excited to review. Unless something really good pops up on NetGalley soon, this will be my last review set of the year.

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

Title: Bruce Songs: The Music of Bruce Springsteen, Album-by-Album, Song-by-Song

Authors: Kenneth Womack and Kenneth L. Campbell

Rating: 5/5

Published by Rutgers University Press and available September 23, 2024, Bruce Songs is a complete study, and celebration, of my favorite singer.  I absolutely love Springsteen. Born To Run changed my life and I actually wrote a paper in college about what "Backstreets" means to me. Suffice it to say this book was written for me. It's an academic-level breakdown of everything you could want to know about Springsteen's work -- how the albums were put together, the historical context of each album era, and what reviewers of the time said. As a historian, I especially appreciate the historical background, which contextualizes these timeless albums with what was happening in the world when they were written. Despite all this information, it never gets dry. As I said, it's a celebration as much as a study, and fans of the Boss will love this unique look into everything he's done.

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Title: Dante's Inferno: A Graphic Novel Adaptation

Illustrators: Paul and Gaëtan Brizzi

Rating: 4/5

Published by Abrams ComicArts and available November 19, 2024, Dante's Inferno is a Dantean's dream -- a gorgeous visual retelling of the first canticle of the Divine Comedy, Inferno. The artists couldn't be better chosen, Paul and Gaëtan Brizzi worked on Disney films in the past (including the spectacular Firebird segment of Fantasia 2000) and their illustrations here are fantastic, in their signature graphite. They remind me a bit of Gustave Doré's famous illustrations, but with more modern sensibilities. I first read Inferno as a high schooler and would have loved this. My one complaint is the font -- it's nearly impossible to read and I tried viewing it on three different screens. I don't know if this is an issue with the proof provided by NetGalley or a bad font choice but I hope it cleans up by publishing because otherwise this is a graphic novel to treasure, for fans of medieval literature and expressive art.

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Title: Destroy All Humans. They Can't Be Regenerated., Vol. 2

Author: Katsura Ise

Illustrator: Takuma Yokota

Rating: 5/5

Published by Viz Media and available January 14, 2025, Destroy All Humans. continues in its second English volume (in Japan they're up to 16 volumes, as it's been going since 2018). I reviewed the first volume previously, and as a Magic: The Gathering fan, I really enjoy this series. In fact, it's my favorite new license of 2024. The second volume has more cards, more battles, and, surprisingly, some fanservice for those of you interested more in girls than Magic cards. This volume also introduces a new character and deepens the relationship between the main characters Hajime and Emi, and it looks like the rest of the series will be just as good as the first two entries.

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Title: Shimazaki In the Land of Peace, Vol. 1

Author: Gouten Hamada

Illustrator: Takeshi Seshimo

Rating: 5/5

Published by Kodansha and available November 26, 2024, Shimazaki In the Land of Peace combines action with slice-of-life storytelling, and it's a great combination. The titular Shimazaki was trained to be a terrorist and now just wants to live a normal life, working sedate jobs such as manga assistant and café waiter -- though he puts his old skills to use when necessary. The publisher's blurb calls it a "fish out of water comedy" and that sums it up well. The art is excellent and very detailed, especially in the action sequences, and it's some of the best seinen work I've seen this year. This series will appeal to fans of series like Sakamoto Days and in general those looking for a day-to-day look at a reluctant secret agent. I'll definitely look into selecting this series for our library's collection. 

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Title: Tokyo Alien Bros., Vol. 1

Author and Illustrator: Keigo Shinzo

Rating: 3/5

Published by Viz Media and available January 21, 2025, this is the first volume of a series by Keigo Shinzo. I've already reviewed his other series Hirayasumi before on this blog, and I've really enjoyed that. I like his approach to slice-of-life stories so I was interested in how he would take that theme into science fiction. Tokyo Alien Bros. does what it says on the tin, following two alien brothers as they scout out our planet from the vantage point of Japan's capital. As always with Shinzo, the art is charming and the world feels lived in, and there were parts that made me laugh out loud. It is important for fans of Hirayasumi to note that this series is much more explicit. It was a surprise to me when I saw the mature content notice on the cover and again when I read the book. Maybe it's for that reason -- the adult content feels at odds with the chill atmosphere and what I'm used to from this mangaka -- that it feels so jarring. This book will appeal to fans of slice-of-life who don't mind some sexual content and profanity in their manga. While I sound a little negative about this series, I do want to see how it progresses.

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Title: Ashita no Joe: Fighting for Tomorrow, Vol. 1 

Author: Asao Takamori

Illustrator: Tetsuya Chiba

Rating: 4/5

Published by Kodansha and available December 24, 2024, Ashita no Joe is about as classic a manga series as you can get. Originally published in Weekly Shonen Magazine from 1968 to 1973, it has that early Western-influenced style from before manga developed into what it is today. This story follows Joe, a drifter, down on his luck like everyone else in the slums, who turns out to be a great boxer. The action is intense and the world is dark and grimy and the story doesn't shy away from the dangers of life as a boxer. This omnibus is the first time Ashita no Joe has been published in English and it will appeal to fans of combat sports as well as those interested in the early days of manga. It wasn't really for me but I can tell it's good. Its influence can be seen in everything from other sports manga to fantastical series like Naruto. Now having got some experience with it, I'll keep an eye out for its influence elsewhere.

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Title: Vagabond Definitive Edition, Vol. 1 

Author/Illustrator: Takehiko Inoue

Rating: 5/5

Published by Viz Media and available January 21, 2025, Vagabond Definitive Edition, Vol. 1 collects the first three volumes of one of the most highly regarded manga ever. It's the third highest rated manga on anilist.co and even from reading just the opening chapters it's easy to see why. The art is perfect -- it's realistic in a way I've rarely seen before, even in other seinen series and the action is awesome. As it should be, it's about the legendary 17th century swordsman and philosopher Miyamoto Musashi. This series will appeal to fans of both fantastical action series like Berserk and history-based series like Vinland Saga, and I'll look into getting this volume for work once it's released.