This manga is adorable. But as a dog parent, seeing some of the stuff that happens to Zero was a bit difficult to get through. 

I received this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. 

 

The Book of Living Secrets is Lovecraftian horror (love it), with positive LGBTQIA+ representation (fantastic), and is YA to boot. I thoroughly enjoyed it. 

The central characters are Adelle and Connie - two teens who love a particular book enough to do some dark mojo in order to actually enter the story. But the world they end up in is more hellscape than period romance. Cue the chaos! It's an excellent concept with some truly gruesome monsters. 

The pacing was a bit uneven, lagging a bit in the middle of the story. But it did pick up in the end, resulting in a rapid fire final fight that I thought was very entertaining. 

But then there's the last page - holy crap. This book is screaming for a sequel. I had to read the very end twice because it totally threw me for a loop. What an ending - I loved it.

I received a copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Hands down this is my favourite book by Emily St. John Mandel. It's short, but she managed to pack a super engaging story into it. I ended up reading it in one sitting, and absolutely loved the ending. I don't want to give too many details and spoil it, but it links several people across time in a very clever way. One of the time periods occurs during a pandemic and touches on lockdown/isolation - that hit me kind of hard. 

I don't think I would consider this sci-fi; the method of time travel isn't explained and the story itself focuses more on the people and relationships affected by it. That's pretty much in line with St. John Mandel's other books and it's a good balance - I like it.

Junji Ito really nails body horror. I've read some of his short story collections, but this is my first experience with a full length story. The pacing was a little off at the end but overall it's a fantastic, gruesome tale.

I had such high hopes for this collection, but it was really rather average. I likely wont read the other 2 volumes.