ceraphimfalls's Reviews (319)

After a couple of weak volumes, Volume 9 brings back the good stuff in the form of rap as dinner entertainment, Tatsu saving small businesses, and a girl who won't eat her vegetables. This is the grounded ridiculousness that makes TWOTHH work and that has been missing for a little bit. And my sweet baby Otaku makes another appearance as a fashionista in perhaps my favorite moment of the series.

My favorite vignette: Chapter 77; Bonus 3

As all of these books are made up of stand alone stories (with the exception of one two-parter), it is strange for me to say that this volume is disjointed. There's just no flow. The stories don't elevate each other. But Tatsu collecting dues for the Neighborhood Association is classic TWOTHH, and that carries the book. Finally, the Otaku is quickly climbing the ranks and may be my favorite ancillary character.

My favorite vignette: Chapter 58; Bonus 3

We get our first two-part story and it is glorious! The highs in this volume are high and the lows are clichéd at worst. Also, it includes my new favorite line from a book: "There's a hit out... for your balls."

My favorite vignette: Chapters 47 and 48

Ok. This is clearly written for teens, but it's about a lady in her thirties who just wants to eat good food and read good books and get away from it all. YES PLEASE! It's quiet and cute, and what action there is is necessary and not gratuitous. I really enjoyed myself.

Nothing has ever quite captured the way a cat gets into your heart and your brain and makes you their faithful servant. True adorable horror.

Perfect. The patter and the rhythm were gorgeous. And as a kid with "unruly" hair, who got in trouble for wearing it naturally, this hit me right in the gut.

There's writing an aesthetic, there's emulating an aesthetic, and then there's worshipping an aesthetic. This book is solely the latter. It doesn't seem to understand its purpose other than to be a VIBE. It is repetitive without building tension. It is slow-paced without mystery. It is painful without having been broken. This isn't dark academia- this is a dark author insert that happens to be set at a school.

I appreciate that it understood that this was a story about women, and written solely from a female gaze, without input of male characters or references. But it still feels rushed and incomplete, while being overproduced and verbose to the point of folly.

I'm not super familiar with European folktales, beyond those told by Disney. So this was frankly all new to me. I've heard many people in my life comment on how violent and dangerous our stories, the stories of Japanese and Ryukyuan people, are. But I'll be damned if that isn't some cultural bias because Europeans can be maudlin as hell. The Singing Bone was messed up in the most fun way possible, but the star of the collection (and, let's be honest, of my heart) is Tatterhorn. She's the perfect heroine and I love her so much.

It's 1:30 in the morning as I finish this, which should be endorsement enough. But my cats have relinquished some blanket and I am not one to look a gift Grootslang in the mouth, so I'll just say this- I can't wait to get my hands on the sequel.

Hello, dear reader. Would you like to cry? Would you like to have your heart ripped out Temple of Doom style by the love of a community for a man and his cat? Then this is the book for you! The truly continuous story arc in this volume takes the storytelling to new heights, making this BY FAR the best volume in the series so far. Six stars.