ARC received from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Glass Syndrome is a complicated romance manga that follows two different relationships. In the much longer chapter one, 'Glass Syndrome,' Nijou is a chronic people pleaser who is asked to check up on an absent student he used to go to school with, Toomi, only to discover that his father skipped town and abandoned him He later uncovers exactly how Toomi has been making enough money to get by, and this inspires a lot of complicated feelings about himself and what he wants. In the shorter chapter two, 'Similar Figures of Love,' Kasumi has an unrequited crush on his friend and roommate, Chihiro, while Kasumi's upperclassman in the music department, Saiki, has an unrequited crush on him.

I walked away from this manga with very conflicted feelings. Overall, I loved the art style and I liked how complicated and broken the relationships were. (As Marie Kondo would say, I love mess.) Nijou and Toomi both have struggles and refuse to communicate at times, but I ultimately enjoyed how their story ended. On the other hand, I felt as if their story could have had more development, as their bigger conflict felt like it came to a breaking point too early. For one thing, Toomi used to go to school with Nijou and often mentions how he was 'back then,' alluding to some kind of history with him, and I thought that would be explored more and factor into their relationship. In the end, though I was rooting for them, it seemed like their story was missing some pieces.

When the second story began, I actually mistook Kasumi for Nijou for a moment and thought we'd be getting a bit of backstory for Nijou and Toomi's younger days. I didn't mind having a second story in the manga, and I love a good chain of unrequited love, but wanting more development from the first relationship left me wondering why a second had been added. (And this is totally on me, but their size difference had me worried that Kasumi was a lot younger than Saiki. It took me way too many rereads to figure out they were going to university and not a boarding middle/high school.)

One thing I enjoyed about both stories was the elements of consent added in. For Glass Syndrome, Nijou adorably asks for consent for everything until Toomi tells him it isn't necessary, and in Similiar Figures of Love, Saiki is reprimanded for stealing a kiss from Kasumi and the only way they kiss again is if Kasumi asks for it. I loved the potential of both dynamics and would have preferred to see Similar Figures of Love expanded into a full manga, with a little bit of padding added to Glass Syndrome to have two well-fleshed-out stories. I would still reread this and overall did like it! 

 ❧ 3 ★ 

ARC received from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The Fox's Kiss is a pretty typical shoujo manga. Koharu is a typical high school girl with fond memories of her youth; her grandmother always talked about seeing and healing demons, but as Koharu grew older, she realized those stories were all lies... Until her grandmother passes away and she meets Iori, a fox demon, and realizes those powers now belong to her. Iori says he's taking Koharu on a servant, but he's the one who follows her back to the city and stays by her side while she tries to live her normal life at school.

This manga is, as I said, very typical. You have a love triangle between the charming prince of the school, the rough, bratty newcomer, and the 'normal' high school girl, Iori declaring that Koharu is his fiance because he said so (she is also 16), and a fast-paced story full of ups and downs. This story was pretty dramatic and had a LOT going on every chapter, so this was even faster-paced than I'm used to. This would be great for fans of Inuyasha or Fruits Basket, but it's so reliant on tropes that people who love those stories will most likely find this repetitive and unsatisfying.

Unfortunately, as someone who has read manga and watched anime for a while, this was nothing I hadn't seen before and I ended up being very unimpressed. There are always ways to take tropes and stories and redo them in a fresh way, and I wouldn't bar anyone their take on this sort of story! In this case, however, it was cluttered, basic, and I wouldn't pay money to continue.

 ❧ 2.5 ★ 

ARC received from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This ballet manga follows a girl who falls in love with ballet and works hard to achieve her dream of becoming a great dancer. After watching an older girl named Risa dance at a recital, she throws herself headfirst into classes and struggles to reach her goals.

Unfortunately, I DNFed at 58%. I normally can't watch ballet in real life because it makes me very uncomfortable to watch how their feet move (too much sympathy pain!), so I was hoping this manga would capture the graceful motion, beautiful costumes, and other elegant and lovely elements of ballet without focusing on that part of it. However, I found the art style too simplistic for such a beautiful, moving dance style, and the pacing felt off to me. I had to stop reading after the book began heavily focusing on Kanade's desire to wear pointe shoes, which has a LOT to do with feet...

I would still recommend this to those who think they might be interested, as I may have been predisposed to not liking this sort of story.

 ❧ 0 ★ 

ARC received from the publisher via netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

You've seen this story before, but not like this: new girl transfers to a new high school and gets noticed by the popular squad, only to discover that there's something wrong with them. Only this time? The popular girls are vicious, morally grey werewolves who prey on date-rapey dudebros every full moon. Vibrant artwork with a retro lean brings this sharp, fast-paced story to life.

The story was fun enough, and I deeply enjoyed the art style and character design, but the story began to fall a bit flat for me once the romance arc began (though I did love the sapphic rep). It felt forced and resolved strangely quickly, and while I can't speak to the race aspect, the love interest was homophobic in passing and (appeared to me to) fetishize and other Becca. I really didn't expect them to get together and really thought Becca disliked that character until they suddenly kissed after three pages of being alone for once. This was the only part where the pacing felt odd and otherwise enjoyed the general plot pacing.

This book's big selling point is the patriarchy smashing, and I will say it delivered on that front. I finished this book with lukewarm feelings, but if this sounds like your cup of tea, I encourage you to give this book a try.

 ❧ 3.5 ★ 

arc and finished copy received from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. 

I hardly know where to start with this review. I already had high expectations, but SHE WHO BECAME THE SUN absolutely blew me away! This epic reimagining of the rise of the Ming dynasty's founding emperor follows the genderqueer monk Zhu Chongba, who was not born with that name or destiny for greatness; she stole both from her brother after a bandit attack left her the sole surviving member of her family. Refusing to accept her foretold destiny of nothingness, Zhu Chongba finds herself capable of anything if it means escaping fate.

However, this story is much bigger than Zhu's! Opposite her, the eunuch general Ouyang has his own struggles and fate to contend with. Several points of view weave between theirs and reveal more about the world and characters in a way that made it nearly impossible to put this book down. Despite the slow pace that perfectly matches other epic fantasies I've adored, such as The Poppy War and The Fifth Season, I feel like this book flew by and now I don't know what to do with myself! And don't let the words slow-paced fool you into thinking this book is itself slow. While there were moments to savor intense desire, details about the rich world, and deep internal conflict, Zhu took "0 to 100" as a motto to live by and I frequently found myself standing up in my seat, aghast at something I'd just read. The betrayal! The murder! The raw desire! Don't let the "Mulan" comparison fool you into thinking this is anything like Disney.

It's so hard not to write an entire essay on each character. Each one was so richly written, and I treasured so many of them. Ouyang's conflict was so complex and devastating, Esen's pure heart and arc had me tearing up, and I can't truly get into my burning love for Ma Xiuying and Xu Da without most likely spilling a ton of spoilers about their journeys. I'm amazed at the number of moving pieces and the way so many conflicting plans and desires came together to craft this truly great story, and I can tell a lot of care and genius went into it.

I can only dream of one day having the talent to properly put my feelings about books like these into words, but every page of Parker-Chan's debut shines with pure ability. Dialogue, emotions, action, and the world came together in an efficacious writing style I can only describe with my limited vocabulary and aptitude as *chef's kiss.*  I love stories based on classics and history that preserve the feel of ancient epics but without making my eyes cross the same way classics do, and Shelley Parker-Chan nailed this perfectly. While I found the comparisons to The Song of Achilles less applicable plotwise— it mostly focuses on the "enemy," which is far too simple a word for them, and in the immortal words of Rebecca Roanhorse, "Patroclus could never"— the gorgeous writing style felt perfect for the time period in the same way TSOA's writing felt perfect for a story set in Ancient Greece, while still being easy for modern eyes (like mine, regrettably... one day I'll actually read a classic... one day).

I realize I'm making a lot of comparisons here, and I by no means want to diminish the originality and brilliance of She Who Became the Sun. I'm simply floored that this book has so many elements of some of my favorite books of all time and joined their ranks so quickly, and if you loved anything I've mentioned or the comp titles, you're sure to love it as well. I am desperately awaiting the continuation and truly can't recommend this enough. Forget whatever destiny your TBR has for you and seize greatness (aka SHE WHO BECAME THE SUN) for yourself!

❧ 5 ★ 

 arc received from the publishers. thank you, penguin!

The Taking of Jake Livingston, or: Area Boy Is Really Going Through It All The Damn Time. I thoroughly enjoyed this quick-paced, chilling tale, which follows Jake, the aforementioned Area Boy. He has enough to deal with, being one of the only Black kids at his private college prep high school, but he also constantly sees the dead. All the time. In his vision, the 'dead world' constantly overlaps with his own— among unfinished equations and failed tests, ghosts caught in their own death loops are constantly distracting him, repeating the moments they died until they finally fade away... or break free.

Jake thinks he has it under control; keep his head down, tell ghouls to leave him alone, pretend they aren't there, and he'll be fine. But then he meets Sawyer Doon, the ghost of a school shooter who killed six of his classmates and then himself at a different high school a year ago. He breaks free from his death loop and decides to continue his work from the afterlife, fueled by his victims. With bodies piling up and the ghost focused on him as part of his grand revenge plan, Jake's previous medium knowledge becomes useless as he fights to survive both in the real world and the dead world. 

When I say this book had it all, I really do mean that. A social horror that uses ghosts, possession, and astral projection as an avenue for explorations of homophobia and anti-Blackness? Check. Horrific, bone-chilling scenes that made me afraid to sleep at night? Check. Kickass friends and a suave, charming love interest we should ALL be simping for? Check. A complicated main character, a complicated villain, and a complicated story that all deliver in a satisfying way? Check!

I'll admit, this book did take me a second to get into. It does switch between Jake's POV and Sawyer's, which I didn't expect, but the way it's organized makes sense once you get to the last third. TAKING is also crafted with intentional brevity, which was a bit strange since most books I've read tend to serve some piping hot exposition and worldbuilding upfront and then let you chew on it while the rest of the story pans out. However, TAKING dives right into it and weaves the details and rules of its world around Jake as he moves through his day-to-day. The mentor figure isn't as prominent as one might expect (which was sad for me, she seemed really cool!), but these narrative choices were, in my opinion, done in a way that really underscores the plot. There's no info-dumping because Jake is, despite being trained as a medium, ignoring what's around him as best as he can. The rules of ghosts and ghouls are there but don't matter very much when Sawyer upends what little Jake lets himself know. I really loved the way this was done once I thought about it, and I'll admit, Allister and Fiona smoothed over everything else for me. I adored them both. 

I can see how others may want a more fleshed-out story, but I loved how in the present this story was and it ticked a lot of uncommon boxes that I really liked to see in paranormal books (which are somewhat spoilery, so they'll stay unmentioned). There were some heavy topics in here, especially about microaggressions and school violence, but I also enjoyed Jake's personal journey and the arc he went through with his friends and love interest. I hope a lot of Black queer kids will be able to see themselves in this book.

(arc provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review)

Eat Your Heart Out is a summer camp thriller that is exactly what it says it is— in this Shaun of the Dead meets Dumplin' tale, a group of unlikely characters split into B-list horror archetypes have to band together and survive the zombie apocalypse when they realize no one is coming to save them. The main girl, Vivian, loves herself the way she is and knows she doesn't need to be fixed, but her mom and new step-dad send her to Camp Featherlite anyways. On the way to fat camp, her ex-best friend being on the same bus as her is the least of her problems when their first days go from bad to lethal. Vivian as Action Girl and Allie as The Basket Case are joined by The Jerk (the son of the camp's founder), The Nerd (a hacker with a secret), The Outcast (a quiet girl with an even bigger secret), and their pod's Facilitator, who might either be the Courageous Captain or the Jock with a Heart of Gold. It's up to them to see if they can fight against their pre-assigned survival chances, or if Featherlite's disastrous fatphobia will cut their lives short. 

I was expecting this to be humorous and ridiculous, but Eat Your Heart Out was more focused on conversations about fatphobia and diet culture among violent action scenes, which I thought were all done pretty well. The satire is less funny and tongue-in-cheek than scarily plausible given how fat bodies are treated in society, so this wasn't quite the horror-comedy I was expecting, but I still liked it all the same! My favorite character was definitely Vee, because who doesn't love an awesome final girl? However, this was an instance where I think Action Girl could do without a romance because I felt no draw between her and her love interest. I would even say it came out of nowhere because what I think might have been flirting in the beginning, pre-life or death situations, came off as teasing and Vee taking out her annoyance at being there on her LI. 

I would love to see Eat Your Heart Out developed as a movie because it fell somewhat short on some areas for me as a book. It leaned a little too hard into the slasher film campiness, and I would have loved to see more focus on the satire and theme. I felt there wasn't enough time spent in the camp since the setting could have probably changed without much issue, editing, or impact, and the fact that only two of the five campers were sent there against their will seems to work against the message. Their archetypes also seem to be their entire personality, except for Vee, who we get a bit more time and development with as the Resourceful Heroine. I expected some subversion of these tropes given the theme, and of course, there's no problem with not subverting tropes, but this is one of the reasons why I think Eat Your Heart Out would be a great movie instead. I could perfectly envision the scenes, which was part of why I enjoyed this book so much, and really enjoyed the descriptions. If any producer or scriptwriter is out there reading this, get cracking! 

With the POV switches keeping characters in the dark and the high-stakes action, this was a very fun read perfect for summer (which I will argue is the best time for horror)! As long as you go into it for the campy read it is, you're sure to have as great of a time as I did, and I would definitely recommend this book! 

❧ 3.5 ★