I can only presume this was supposed to be horror, but for me, it just didn't follow through in this. Which was disappointing as someone who normally easily falls into the traps that horror provides.

I won't follow up with this manga because I can only imagine it is more of the same running from place to place in a desperate but fruitless effort to find someone safe. With a 50/50 chance of the childhood friend being found alive.

This does not even qualify as a novel; it is a short story.

But I loved it so much that I finished it and then immediately played it again ( and then 4 more times just for good measure); then I bought it for my kindle. If I could find a physical copy, I'd swipe it up in a heartbeat. I loved this book so entirely; I am tempted to listen to it again.

Listening to this book is the closest I feel like I've been to child-like wonder in a long time.

This is not a retelling of how one would normally think of retellings, It's of the same thread of the standard fairytale, but L. Austen Johnson has woven it into something new and interesting. Hence, in addition, its length making it easy for anyone to pick up.

I read this twice, two separate times and even right away when I've finished it, I struggle to find words to describe this book. It feels like a dream. When I reach out to grab something solid about this book I find myself coming back with nothing.

While this lack of solid memory of this book is weird, it honestly plays into the intrigue and mystery this book presents quite well.

I also can proclaim: It's Gay and IT SLAPs!

To put it simply I LOVED this book from beginning to end, so much that I want to read it again, because of how many stories are being told at the same time in this book.

I did not expect to enjoy this book even half as much as I did. The summary for this book does not do it justice. What you need to use to determine your interest is this line of the summary "Part detective story, part metaphysical enquiry, Strange Beasts of China engages existential questions of identity, humanity, love, and morality"
The rest of what is described in the summary is so watered down that looking back on it makes it feel like a summary of a summary.

I loved this book, because the writing format kept it interesting, I had expected something more like a scientific journal and that is not what you find.
The relationships throughout this book are incredibly interesting.
And finally Emily Woo Zeller, is one of my favorite narrators in the world and she did a fantastic job with this.

"Long, Long ago there lived an old man and an old woman. One Day, The old man went to the mountains to gather firewood and the old woman went to the river to do the washing... Skipping Ahead! He finally defeated the Ogres..."

I want to say that Peach Boy Riverside is an incredibly weird title, but with a character named "Saltherine Aladarake" it is hard to consider it the weirdest name in this series.

Both oddities are easily set aside as you dive into this book, as you are immediately thrown into a world that has so much to tell you and it is honestly almost nonstop action through this volume.

I will be continuing because 1. this is so out there I need to know more 2. wholesome kickass bunnygirl 3.I have to see if Mikoto and Sally get together because they set it up like their soulmates and I can't pass that up.

So this book is adorable, just as I had expected. It would have been incredibly disappointing if it wasn't.

I love that this offers a place to rate each recipe and put ideas for changing up a recipe and putting ideas for experiments while also providing some of their own.

It did feel incredibly odd that Chapters 8 and 9 only contain one item, and both items are related to each other.

This book had no right to be as wholesome as it was. Also, to leave me wanting more.

Ryan Parrott does an amazing job of building an interesting world while telling one family's story. Both are incredibly interesting on their own, but when paired together, it was a fantastic read.

So the instant I saw this my immediate thought was Kami-sama Kiss, enough so that I thought for a moment this was Kami-sama Kiss but branded differently. It's not quite, having read the whole volume it feels like it is pulling from Anime's like Inuyasha and Fruits Basket. (The love Triangle is evident within the first chapter.)

Whoever did the localization could have done better; a line that exists no joke is: "oh don't scare me, person! " I had to put by phone down and then come back to make sure I read it correctly.

I don't think I will follow up with this Manga, it seems to be a Monster of The Week Manga, with the Love Triangle being shoved in your face constantly. I suppose there is the potential that it could a reverse harem, but the lack of actual plot doesn't make me want to dig in deeper.

To say I inhaled this book would not even come close to the voracity in which I devoured this audiobook. While the start feels a bit slow, you quickly get sucked up into Manu's world. The descriptor I read on google of "Hogwarts-style magic school with the Twilight-Esque dynamics of a hidden magical species" as I updated my memory of what had drawn me to request the audiobook from my library rang true.
Honestly, it brought up the same feelings I felt the first time I entered Hogwarts through Harry's eyes. It is another place I will long to go in my dreams.

Unlike Harry Potter, though, this book goes at Societal Problems wholeheartedly and doesn't tiptoe around the problems that distinctly exist in both the human world and the world that Garber weaves into reality.