chantaal's Reviews (2.32k)

In Trumpets of Death, we follow Antoine, a young boy who is left to live with his grandparents in rural France. His mother is missing, and his father has too much on his plate to take care of Antoine. His grandmother is sweet if strict, and his grandfather for some reason aggressively dislikes him. Left to forage with his grandfather one afternoon, Antoine eats a strange mushroom and goes on a strange odyssey. 

Now, the synopsis for the book says "mysterious forces of nature culminate in a fearsome hunt through the forest that will resolve their differences once and for all." I have to ask, what fearsome hunt? What resolution? After this journey for Antoine begins, he's pretty much alone. There is NO resolution with his grandfather. We have no idea why his grandfather even dislikes him so much - and that's the main issue I have with this graphic novel. While it's great at showing Antoine's situation, it doesn't really delve deep into character work. I have no idea why his grandfather is the way he is. I have no idea what the journey Antoine went on meant beyond him having some sort of growing up moment - which was not even that clear in the book until we're told he felt that he grew up in the forest. Character growth doesn't seem to be something the author is interested in showing on page.

Writing aside, I do have to give the author credit for doing some really interesting work with the art and color direction. Every section of story has its own color scheme, working in an almost monochromatic way but with different color choices. The art works well to show Antoine's boredom and loneliness, and the passage of time. 

I wish this did more with the character work, or that it gave us more focus on Antoine's grandparents vs all the time spent showing various pages of panels showing time passing. I just came away from the end of this asking what was even the point?

Many thanks to NetGalley and Lerner Publishing Group for the ARC. Trumpets of Death will be available  August 5th, 2025.

I'm totally down for the concept of this book and I really liked exploring that, but hooooly shit I hated Lampo and couldn't stand the idea of being in his perspective for this entire goddamn book. 

 Look, I'm going to say this right here at the top: this manga felt like it was written exactly for me, with every single thing I love about this type of slice-of-life cozy story. 

Luka is a perfectly pretty prince of a vampire who discovers a bathhouse on the human realm. Curious, he magics his way there, finds out he really, really likes the bathhouse and the human running it, and decides to stay. Very simple opening and setup for what turned out to be an incredibly cute slice-of-life cozy found family story. 

Running the bathhouse is Sakura and his grandfather, and his very young brother Umenosuke. Luka's appearance is weird, but they all kind of roll with it and he says in the bathhouse, helping them run it and bring in more business. Each chapter is its own little slice-of-life story as we watch Luka grow into being part of the bathhouse's core family, and experience life in the human realm.

The art is fantastic across the board. Each main character is very distinct, and the creator is great at both beautiful characters and cute characters. 

It's all so cute. I loved it. It may not be for everyone, especially if you require plot and stakes and some tension, but if you just want something along this vein, it's a great read. 

2024 Hugo nominee for best short fiction, 2024 Nebula nominee for best short story. Read for free at Clarkesworld. https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/kim_02_24/

I'm glad I read the original Le Guin before reading this, because I can see how it is in conversation with the Le Guin piece. It unfortunately doesn't seem to have even a fraction of the nuance Le Guin did.

This story very obviously lays out the theme, pokes at it with a stick, then turns to you and asks if you Get It. Half of me finds the obviousness of it charming, and the other half wishes I had five seconds to think about the story on my own merit and not have it shoved in my face while I read. 

Very good at creating a creeping dread that lasts throughout the story, not bad. However, the ending was...huh??

DNF at 44% because I cannot go down the route of doing another hate read, and that is where this is leading. 

I can't even try to come up with a brief description of this because its left such a bad taste in my mouth. Thin plot, obvious and unoriginal world building, and not a single character that I cared for. 44%, nearly half of this book, and not only was I still trying to keep characters straight (many of them are so similar that you could exchange one for another and nothing would change in their plots) but I JUST DIDN'T CARE ABOUT ANYONE OR ANYTHING.

Not for me. Sooo not for me.