I loved this so much, my god.

I blindly chose this off of a list of YA & middle grade comics for my Year of Comics reading challenge. Pure luck on my part. Our main character, Snapdragon, is a young girl who finds herself in a partnership with the local scary woman in the woods, Jacks. Snap helps her with animal bone reconstruction from roadkill (which she sells to academics, museums and collectors) in return for Jacks' continuing help with a passel of baby possums Snap found one day. During the course of their continuing friendship, Snap discovers that magic is real and Jacks knows how to wield it - thus the creation of a witchy mentorship.

I could go on for pages and pages about the relationships in this book—from Snap's best friend Lulu, who we see socially transition from a cisgender boy to a girl who is a lot happier with her presentation, to Snap's incredibly supportive (and a little bit overworked) single mother, to the care Jacks had for Snap's entire family because she loved Snap's grandmother Jessamine as a young woman (and beyond). There were social difficulties mentioned in course of the narrative (former friends bullying Lulu, problems with wlw relationships in the case of Jacks and Jessamine) but they never dominated the story: everyone was who they were unapologetically, even when it hurt.

The reunion between Jacks and Jessamine after the main plot was resolved was so good, it made me cry. I'm crying just writing about it now. That they were apart because of their disagreement on having children and not because ~society forced them apart~ makes it an even sweeter moment of homecoming.

Cale might be trash (he is absolutely not, but we'll go with it), but he is is hot af. 

ngl, this is far better than I was anticipating, considering the Everything about it. The subtitle of this story should be "the power of the prostate cannot be underestimated".

It was nice to come back to this series after a few years away.

I love that the author chose to make the conflict of this story NOT between Jacob & Vic. Their relationship is the healthiest thing Vic has ever had in his entire life; it would break my heart to see them fumbling because of shadowy conspiracies. 

Normally the luddite detective trope drives me insane and it still is a little frustrating here, but it's so much more understandable when it's Vic, an endearing psychic hot mess. But seriously, join us in the future, my dude.

I didn't particularly suspect

Patrick

until he adjusted his glasses in at the shooting range. Then I knew something was shady. It was absolutely a clue from Price, but it just reminded me of megane characters in anime adjusting their frames ominously.

That feeling when the concept was better than the execution. A very meh kind of read.

The main character, Nora, has so many regrets in her life, up to and including the death of her cat right before she decides to end it all. After doing her best to die, she ends up in the Midnight Library, a liminal space where she is able to experience snippets of lives she might have had if she made different choices. Unfortunately, the entertainment ends where that description does. Nora was not a character with a ton of depth and I don't think this was intentionally meant by the author to be a facet of her depression; he just didn't write her to be very interesting, despite this fascinating thing happening to her. 

Also, I am more likely to be critical of men writing women, because often, they absolutely cannot.

I was drawn first to the anime by the dulcet sounds of my favorite voice actor, Suwabe Junichi. That man can get me to love any character, any time. Without his distracting influence, this manga is still entertaining.

Itadori is definitely prime shonen hero material: incredibly selfless, overpowered, definitely a little head empty, no thoughts kind of kid. He eats a desiccated finger for a power up during a battle with a creature he learned about 10 minutes ago. Now he's got the Sword of Damocles hanging over his head and a mission to eat 19 more of those yummy, yummy fingies.

Got about half-way and lost interest. Maybe one day I'll pick it back up. 

hi, i love them.