The mixture of its own lore and folktakes is enthralling. There are even mechas, and a ship made from ancestral souls (landships)! I was excited to turn the next page, and the whole vibes business made me smile. The artwork is very fun, colorful, and expressive; very stylized. Zhara felt like she was just regulated to the love interest role. The other characters were much more interesting.  I didn't completely understand everything going on, but I would definitely read more. Overall, the reading experience was very CHAOTIC.

 Won an advanced reader copy in a giveaway! 

In the ARC version, everything is in greyscale, but the artwork is still cute. This is a very light-hearted collection of comics. Some of the comics focus on Beanie as a child, a teenager, or in adulthood covering various relatable things from the innocence of being a child, a move to a different country, an everlasting love of dogs, etc. I enjoyed reading these. 

 There is an ever-present layer of general f**kboyish-ness in general (being a “nice” guy, double standards of teen pregnancy, objectification of women’s bodies, scoring how many girls you can sleep with, boys go have sex; girls stay pure, male entitlement, etc). Know that in advance it may make the story annoying for the average female reader. I know there were many times I was annoyed. But I think having the book coming from Del’s perspective helps call some things out without coming off preachy. 

Beyond that, I found Del’s narrative fun. He had a strong voice. I loved Jameer! Del was always hilariously wondering if they were going to have to come to blows. The Purity Pledgers also captured my heart. I enjoyed how the story tackled that the lack of sex education can be very <b>harmful</b>. There were many times I had to laugh at the dialogue and how much of a butthole Qwan was lol. 

I’m very familiar with the purity pledge especially at a Black church. So, it was relatable to me (they had a Harvest Fest; any Christian kid growing up knows the Halloween alternative parties: Hallelujah Night, Light the Night, etc). I also love that the characters weren’t just black or white, the church and the non-church goers. Neither gets demonized here. 

Overall, I don’t regret reading this. I think I’m becoming a fan of Lamar Giles’ work. I would watch a Netflix adaption of this. 

Ending spoilers/rambling: 

so GLAD! Kiera didn’t get with Del. He was always pushing up on her in ways that made her uncomfortable. Some probably won’t like the Mya angle, but I figured they had a connection there. I was expecting Del to remain single. 

 

 

I read some reviews that were uncomfortable with Del’s brunt of realization coming after he found out his sister was sexually-assaulted. I hate to say it, but this is mad realistic. I know of way too many men, cousins even, that want to talk about who all is a hoe here and there, but until something happened unfavorably to their mom or sister, they doubled down on their misogyny. A lot of guys will even tell you they only care about the women in their family and everyone else can get mistreated. There can also be a lack of accountability when their guy friends are acting gross. 

 

 

With Pastor Newsome getting off scot-free after all his mess, have you been to a church lately? Call a pastor out publicly at church. You better be ready to bob and weave. The majority of the pastor’s supporters will skin you alive. That’s why most people just vote with their feet. A lot of indecent, abusive pastors stay in power because it takes a lot of courage to call out a pastor who has purposefully done wrong. I definitely agree Del’s mom should not have allowed the pastor to bully her son/left the church. I mean, eventually they find a new church, but only, after all the damage has been done.

 

I can’t with the manga. The way this girl be throbbing lol.

Listen, you already know what it is, good girl meets bad boy and the magnetic pull between them is too strong and steamy. He’s obviously bad news (he’s high up in the yakuza/Japanese gang), and the girl has had bullets flying in her direction from being with him, but he’s too hot, rich, and dangerous for her to say no. I like that the manga had Yuri seriously contemplate for a few pages the consequences of being with Oya.

Don’t you dare come here looking for plot. Most of the sex scenes aren’t actually sexy to me, but the artwork is great. A hot mess, but it’s entertaining.

SN: Oya has a lizard tongue. It’s way too long, man. The tongue-kissing looks gross. Also, he’s not that cute. His hair is uneven. He looks dusty. The suits and the height are what’s saving him jk. 

This is another good volume. Rio and Yuna have a good communication and clear the air of both their insecurities. It's so wholesome! I just love the ending. Ryosuke, Akari's ex, gets all in Kazoumi's face, and Kazoumi realizes his time is running out.
 
I can't wait for the conclusion of this series. <3

 I don’t know what’s happening. Mass enslavement, maiming of bodies and kids, and violence/death everywhere. Okay, but it feels like shock value at some points. Pretty artwork and women are the forefront of the story. Women are the baddies, the antiheroes, and everything in between. The monster spirits look mighty cool and their eyes will haunt you. I felt physically creeped out looking at them. 

Basically, witch-nuns are fighting against Arcanics (humans with animal characteristic, like anime-girl cat ears, fox tails, etc).  Arcanics are being killed and forced in to enslavement for a great deal of evils. MC chick, Maika, is oh-so-special and becoming monstrous. She also has a parasitic demon god in her arm. 

when she gets super hungry, she feeds on other people. Usually, kids.

 

Unfortunately, this series isn’t for me. It’s too drenched in darkness. 

 Very fun! As a business student, I loved all the business jokes too. 

 Becca had turned me off in the beginning. Just being honest. This story covers the woes and struggles of being an up and coming 20-something(?) creative (actor, producer, etc) in LA. There are more characters than Becca, but most of the story centers around her. 

You’ll see modern creative culture (some general other strictly acting-based): being pigeonholed into your most iconic role, producers wanting to sleep with you (and the unfortunate power-imbalance that can come from that), people only knowing you for your fame, wanting to make it so badly in the industry, people commenting such nasty things online/stan culture, working on “pretentious” films, etc. But there’s also a look at Los Angeles culture too with the vapid parties, body image, and people wanting to clout chase, I suppose. 

There is a lot of smaller things/subtext going on. For example, with Eve(ning Rodriguez) she’s classically-trained but having a harder time getting roles especially with the added hurdle of being a women of color. For that reason, she’s so hard on Becca who got a breakthrough. She doesn’t understand how Becca can squander her opportunity because she’s so hungry for her own break. Honestly, she gets

ruthless on some sleeping with the producer for tracks vibe.

 

I get tired of stories that punish ambitious women. Who cares if Becca didn’t love that dude? There’s nothing wrong with her taking her opportunity to act.

 

Not bad, but I can acknowledge this doesn’t end in a satisfying way. It’s overall open-ended, but that also strangely works in a way. Also, I liked the art style and the coloring! 

SN: The author note at the end was interesting.