When quiet Amelia finds an old note from a woman about to be murdered, Amelia finds herself compelled to follow the mystery and find out what happened to the woman. Along the way, she is launched into life, meeting new people, falling in love, and gaining confidence in her own abilities. As she uncovers the murderous secrets of the past, Amelia's own past rises up to haunt her, and she has to choose to cover up her own neurosis, or free herself to live life to the full.

The mystery plot is really good! I was kept guessing and in suspense to the very end, and I was amazed how every little puzzle piece, that made no sense in the beginning, fell right into place at the end. I loved it!

Amelia is a very weird and quirky person. She's lives inside her own head, and doesn't care much about appearances. She likes weird stuff, and buys an antique business to start her career. I liked her, but she worries too much about her own brain, since she goes to a psychiatrist who tells her she has a mental complex. She's actually just a normal person with some quirks, if everybody would just leave her alone and let her be herself! Seeing her begin to trust herself was the best part of the story!

I did NOT like that Amelia falls in love with the first guy she meets, and then they end up sleeping together after they've known each other for a week. Seriously?! It didn't even fit with her character. She's thoughtful and quiet and unassuming. And Joe is serious-minded and kind-hearted and not a jerk! So why did that even happen? It didn't enhance the story. It didn't enhance the characters. It was just thrown in for stupidity's sake.

All the supporting characters were very well-written, and you could just see the past unfolding as the main characters met and interviewed people from the murdered woman's life. Each of their personalities added another dimension to the mystery!

This is the story of Timon, a wealthy landowner in Athens, who gives away all his wealth to his friends, throwing parties, and supporting artists and politicians. When debt collectors begin to harass him, Timon applies to his friends for help, but they make up excuses and no one will loan him the money he needs. He becomes a misanthrope, and forsakes his life, his city, and his so-called friends, for a destitute life in the wilderness.

What a cheerful play! Everyone happy and cheerful and kind! Ha ha! Just kidding. This is quite a depressing tragedy, with no glimmer of happiness anywhere in it.

In the beginning Timon is fooled by his so-called friends' flattering words, and in the end Timon loses all faith in mankind, and hates everyone. He's a very dumb character. Despite repeated warnings from his faithful steward that he was losing his fortune, he continues to spend more than he has, wasting his money on people who don't really care about him, and not even bothering to keep track of his resources, his finances, or any of his business affairs. He deserved to lose his fortune, since he managed it so very badly. I have no pity for such idiocy. He didn't even try to be frugal, or even be aware of his own financial circumstances. He's just an irresponsible party boy who went off into the wilderness to pout when he lost his fortune.

The best part of this play is the riotous insulting matches that happened between several of the misanthropic characters, each vying to see who can insult the other, and inflict the most verbal damage. Some of Shakespeare's best insults can be found in this play!

This graphic novel follows a man who immigrates to a new land, and everything is strange and wondrous to him. He leaves his family to start a better life, and makes friends in his new country, works several jobs, until he has enough money to send for his family.
The land he travels to is weird and wild, has monsters for pets, and crawly vegetables! It's a dream world with strange public transportation, and wacky home appliances.

The drawings are imaginative and beautiful! I love the sepia tones that give a feeling of history. There are no words or dialogue in this book (even the alphabet is invented), so the illustrations become the complete focus. The details are wonderfully descriptive, so that you can follow the story easily. People's facial expressions tell the whole story, and there is a feeling of time passing or history coming to a point that is lovely and poignant.

Since the immigrant can't speak the language or understand anyone's words, there is no need for dialogue anyway. This story is all about connecting to people without words, across language barriers, across cultural differences, and through the simple things we all have in common.

Beautifully done!

This is the story of Antimony, a young girl at a mysterious boarding school, who meets robots, forest spirits, mechanical birds, and some very strange classmates. With her friend, Kat, for backup, Antimony follows her curiosity, gets involved in some wild adventures, and stirs up strife between the technologically-advanced school and the forest spirits. And she somehow finds time to explore the library, and do her homework.

I loved the humor and sarcasm in this webcomic collection! Antimony is reserved, brave, and does what she wants. She's kind and courageous and self-reliant, but she holds a bitterness and pain inside her, since her mother has died. She's a beautifully complex character, and the perfect person to unravel the mysteries of Gunnerkrigg.

I like the art, and the panels are easy to follow. The mythical and spirit characters are wild and weird. I really loved how the story progressed, and enigmas and mysteries were drawn out and then resolved. Great writing, and I want to keep reading the rest!

Otogi, a descendant of the Grimm Brothers, has to battle his ancestors' fairy tale characters, and trap them inside an ancient magical book before they destroy him. But the dark truth about the deal the Grimm brothers made to write the stories isn't the only mystery Otogi will need to unravel if he is to discover who he can trust and who is determined to kill him.

I liked the premise of this story, and I love fairy tale retellings! As each of the fairy tale characters appear, I was interested to see what they would be like, but was disappointed that most of them are girly men with long hair and lacy clothes. What's that about? I think it's cool that someone like Cinderella is actually a man, but he acts so weird, and I didn't like all the innuendo stuff going on.

Otogi is a sarcastic person with plenty of bravado, but he is also reserved about his past. He has his own mysteries that he is hiding too. I like his reactions to things; he's just put off by half of what happens. He's always saying some version of "What is this stupidity?" haha!
He's also very compassionate, and wants to believe that there is good in everyone.

The plot was interesting, with lots of magic, mystery, and action! Otogi builds friendships, experiences betrayal, learns to fight, and studies like crazy for his school exams. And there's a surprise twist at the end that I never saw coming!
A fun story!

In this 2nd volume, Otogi meets more of the fairy tale characters with whom his ancestors, the Brothers Grimm, entered into a dark agreement. Otogi has to decide whether to bind the fairy tale people into a magical book, or give some of them a second chance. But he doesn't know who to trust, or who will betray him.

The action really picks up in this one, and many of the characters must go through a personal journey to determine what side they will be on in the upcoming fight. Everyone has their own schemes, and most of them are trying to use Otogi for their own ends, but his goodness and kindness wins him loyal friends.

Otogi wants to see the best in everyone, and he finds it hard to believe that anyone could be completely evil. He surprises everyone by being merciful and forgiving, even when he is badly wronged and has his enemies in his power. He's sarcastic and reserved, but he learns to open up to his friends in this book.

We get to see a little more of the history of Cinderella in this book, and some of the mysteries of the past are explained. I was thoroughly entertained by the plot, and interested in the characters!

A good ending to an entertaining trilogy! I was surprised by the plot twists and secret identities. There's some really good action, and funny lines. I love all the mystical magic, and the fairytale characters that join together as a team to defeat the villains.

Otogi is really good at inspiring loyalty in others, because he's always ready to give people a second chance. He's very forgiving and understanding, and he draws people to him despite his loner tendencies and his sarcasm.

The flashbacks into Cinderella's past were certainly illuminating, and I loved the way that fairy tale was rewritten. The only one who doesn't seem to have much of a backstory is Rapunzel. Even Red Riding Hood has a secret or two. But I suppose there's not enough room in three volumes to develop each character in any depth. The main characters have lots of depth though.

It still weirds me out that Cinderella is all masochistic and creepy. Still... despite the weirdness, it's an enjoyable manga.

This plot makes no sense. I have no idea who anyone is or what happened. The story is told by jumping between two (or three?) timelines, so there are all these different sets of characters, most of whom look alike, and it's impossible to keep track of them all. There's also a prophecy and a magic peacock dude that confused me even more. Then there came the giant sand babies; I'm not sure if they were real or imagined. Was that part of a giant sand baby nightmare? Did someone dream that whole thing, or were the babies really there? IDK.

I'm confused if the Prince was reincarnated as the other crazy dude in the ruins, or was that his long-lost son or something? And why did the girl have one blue eye and one brown eye exactly like the lion cub? Is she a mystical lion baby? How is that connected? What is happening here? This makes NO sense at all!

And why was the guy being drowned at the beginning seeing visions or something? At first I thought maybe he time-traveled through the water to the other timeline and he became the crazy guy in the ruins.... uuummmmm..... but I guess not. They just looked alike.

Why did that one woman keep threatening to kill herself if she didn't get her way? What was her problem?

These are questions for which I shall perhaps never know the answers. I'm okay with that. This was a waste of time and energy, and my poor brain hurts trying to piece all this nonsense together. Why can't you just tell a straightforward and CLEAR story? It would kill you to explain something in the narrative every once in a while?

I expected more from this book. It's basically an intro summary of each of the first 5 books in the series, with some illustrations of various characters and settings. But it's nothing I didn't already know from reading the books. There's not any new or interesting information about the series, and I was hoping for more details on the various territories, or even short stories of the characters' backstory/past.
Disappointing and very short.