This is a very sweet manga, and is more about the power of friendship and community and having someone who Sees you, than it is about romance. I thought it was very emotionally intelligent, tugs at the heartstrings! ;___;

It does deal with some mature themes, like suicide and grief. But there is an uplifting message underneath, about not living with regrets and taking a chance on yourself.

It's a beautiful manga to read, too. The speech bubbles are tailored to personalities and emotions, you can hear the tone in the text very clearly, nothing lost in translation.

I DID get annoyed by just how obtuse or mousey Naho is on occasion. You know what it means when someone holds their hand out to you, they want to hold hands! Take his beeping hand!!!!

But all in all, a moving read.

I had no idea what to rate this book O_O;.

For the longest time I was at 5 stars: The world-building was immense and intricate, there was an intriguing eons' long conspiracy to unravel, forces of magic and man outmaneuvering each other... The high fantasy was accessible, expressed in digestible chunks, and repeated often enough that a glossary or an appendix wasn't really needed to get the gist of who belonged to which province or allegiance... Anything I didn't understand, I wasn't supposed to understand, and the protagonists were depicted as being equally ignorant of new, fantastical terms or names they came across.

But about a third of the way in the repetition became annoying dead weight :/. This is almost a 1,300 page book, so when I say "a third" I mean "SEVERAL HUNDRED PAGES!!!!" That is a LONG time to keep rehashing what's been said/done, instead of MOVING FORWARD with the plot O_O. WE GET IT! Kaladin is struggling with depression, Dalinar is struggling with regrets, Shalan is struggling with guilt, round and round and round their thoughts go, and where the plot goes, NOBODY KNOWS! Meanwhile, the most interesting parts of this book, imo, are Szeth's chapters, which were each brief interludes of awesome magical assassinations lost like needles in the haystacks of philosophical, self-flagellating chapters belonging to everyone else! I love all the characters, I love that they struggle to find or forge honorable choices in a bleak, cutthroat, war-torn world, make no mistake. But hearing someone worry about choices instead of BEEPING MAKING THEM ALREADY is just not interesting when it's done for /too/ long. At some point, the book needed to be more than thoughts.
But the book seemed to be making /promises/ that EVENTUALLY a choice would have to be made, an action taken, a plot moved forward... AT SOME POINT (this book kept promising) the story was going to go full Red Wedding, baby bird. All I had to do was be patient and trust Sanderson. So, rather than knocking this book down to a 2, like I normally would for "Boredom", I kept faith, and was reading more of a 4 star into it...

But then the last 100 pages happened... And some of the twists are revealed... And I don't think the book earned them :/. I think, for a world which introduced superheroes, shadow monsters, lifeforms merged with rocks, parallel dimensions, visions, fairy folk linked to feelings and natural elements, a witch who will grant both a wish and a curse... FOR ALL THAT, the "big reveal" of book 1 is just "people are greedy creeps, and we Other people we don't understand."... People Be People?! THAT'S all you have to say?! After all that magic?! People are terrible to people - WELL DUH, I KNEW THAT, I didn't need a 1,300 page fantasy novel to tell me humans are awful, sheesh!

I really really REALLY want to knock this book down some more stars for not living up to its promises. The reveal was not worth the wait. BUT, I have it on good authority from other readers I trust, that this book is barely the tip of the iceberg, and I should keep going. I have been wrong many times before: Red Rising, Shadow and Bone - I can't judge a series by its first book. But these books are looooong, and how long am I supposed to wait for the payoff to my investment? Also, I can't deny that while I was reading, I was immersed. The world was alive, I cared about the characters, I reveled in its uniqueness.... I don't think it's fair that I demote the book a bunch of stars for its twists in the last 100 pages, when I enjoyed the intrigue of the first 1,000.

It's a toss up :/. Know, if you pick up this book, it's meticulous, it's detailed, it's long-winded -_-;. You're basically sitting down to read The Dark Crystal. There is a lot to love, and a lot that can feel plodding or preachy, and in the end it's up to you whether the ending is satisfying or just hippie-dippie-ish. Enter at your own risk, and pace yourself.

This was the worst, most boring, least inspiring, series-torpedoing finale I have ever read. I want my time back >___<*!!!

Remember how our heroes spent the entirety of Cress figuring out how to rescue Kai from his ill-fated engagement to a mind-controlling evil queen?

Yeah, in Winter, they retcon that, and send Kai right back into her clutches, to be manipulated and threatened and rendered useless for 800 pages.

Remember the rebellion Cinder and crew promised to insight on the moon, to rid the Lunar subjects of the same evil queen, and her army of witches and werewolves?

Yeah, no, Cinder and co. have no plan, sit in their spaceship for a month, and a shack for a little bit, stumble into Snow White for awhile, make a Youtube video, then immediately surrender.

Ooo, speaking of Snow White, were you excited for the introduction of the final, all-important, mega-moon-princess to help our heroes from the inside?

So was I! But, turns out, she's only out for her traitorous boyfriend, and HE'S only here for her, and they will both let EVERYONE and ANYONE die so that they can make-out for a little bit. ALSO, despite having magical abilities, cunning, AND the zealous love of her people to empower her, Winter is not a strong person. She is, in fact, infantalized, and her boyfriend needs to carry her, feed her, bathe her, medicate her, swaddle her, etc.

OH! Speaking of boyfriends, did we like all those ships that had been building over the course of the series? Nice combinations of young women growing into their identities, gaining confidence, forming friendships with capable but emotionally tumultuous young men who ALSO grow and mature for having opened up their minds and hearts to another? Did we like that?!

Great! Because they are all rendered drooling monkeys in this book, either because a hott Lunar smiles at them, or because an invasive doctor pumps them full of steroids, or a mind-controller hijacks their hormones. It's so fun when a character you care about is rendered the opposite of who they've grown to be. Also, what message are we setting here? "Boys will be boys", they can't be blamed for eye-banging someone who's not their girlfriend? Really? Really?! It's 2022, respect your audience, do better.

Oh hey, speaking of hott Lunars and a modern audience: Were you hoping for a local culture that's different from Earth? Especially where glamours run rampant, and the fashion is bright and whimsical. Maybe gender fluidity and LGBTQA relationships are more accepted?

Too bad. Lunars are presented as trans predators... Because the world needed more of that... X_X;;; . And all of our heroes are cis :/. No shame to heteronormative couples! <3 But with so many diverse characters... would have been great to reimagine a classic, fairytale princess/prince somewhere on the LGBTQA spectrum. Missed opportunity.

Hey, just a thought: This is a sci-fi book that takes place centuries in the future ON THE MOON, where people have evolved magical powers of persuasion and manipulation. Maybe, our heroes will have to invent a way to intercept glamours, like a visor with software like Cinder's eyes, which can decode glamours. Or, maybe citizens on the moon outlawed weapons a long time ago, because there is no need for primitive, Earthen guns and such, when EVERYTHING is a weapon if you have mind-control, and can just trick your opponent's brain into feeling pain? Maybe our heroes have to teach people to overcome their own delusions, like snapping out of hypnosis, with a code phrase, a mantra, a rallying cry.... the power of love.... Something? It could be a nice metaphor for believing in /yourself/, not some fairytale savior to come to your rescue?...

No. Nope. There are no sci-fi tactics in this book. It's straight up knives and rifles and axes and punching and wild wild west. Our heroes are taken advantage of again and again, and turned on each other, because they never come up with a plan for how to circumvent the mind-control powers of their enemy. And the enemy never gets creative with illusions and creates multiples of people or weapons, like Loki, or a doppleganger to trick the heroes into harming a friend who looks like an enemy, or HARBORING an enemy who looks like a friend - nothing. Nothing. No sci-fi in this sci-fi. And in fact, what sci-fi was introduced over the series, like Cinder's cyborg attachments, are rendered useless. No creativity, no message... Such. Sloppy. Storytelling.

But hey, there's at least a twist happily ever after, right? Cinder never wanted to be queen of the moon, she would be much happier as a mechanic on Earth, or at least on The Rampion. She hands the moon over to Winter, right? And lives happily ever after with Kai?

No. Winter goes nanners after murdering a dude who wanted to rape her. She becomes a zookeeper. Cinder really does inherit the moon and gets left behind by her boyfriend and all of her friends. And then, after totally destabilizing the government, and nominating herself to be...the government, Cinder decides she's only going to be a temp at this job before abdicating and abolishing the monarchy all together.... The moon would be in complete chaos and civil war, and still, NOTHING STOPS THE MIND-CONTROLERS EXCEPT INVASIVE SURGERY!

Okay, not great, but a happy-ish ending. And the plague, the antidote gets distributed?

Sure... but it's harvested from test-tube babies. The version Dr. Erland was working on... vanished?

O_O;;;... Is there anything that wasn't terrible in this book?

... Scarlet and Wolf have a really great reunion kiss... And Iko, as always, is amazing.

An 824 page doorstop >_<. Do. Not. Read. Imagine your own ending for this series, folks. Because any fanfiction would be better than this.

A seamless, Escher's staircase, of a story! <3 I was swooning over the writing in this one, from start to finish. Each character has depth and complexities, both sympathetic and repugnant, all very relatable. Each chapter transition or PoV shift feeds the story, propels it further, but shifts your perspective and understanding. It's just a brilliant demonstration of how multifaceted people can be, how you can't get their full truth from one angle, and how easy it is to misinterpret someone if you're stuck on one perspective. There's a theme throughout of various kinds of obsession - crushes, following trends or gossip, internet sleuthing, voyeurism, a bully or other predator singling out their victim - and how they stem from a flawed, narrow perspective, trying to label a person, make them conform to a preconceived notion... The book debates the age-old question: Is what's observable /about/ someone really enough to /know/ a person? How do we sift through the lies others tell, the lies we tell ourselves, the lies by omission, to finally reach across and /know/ someone? And the book ties together the instinct to prise for truth with a loss of innocence; you only know to dig deeper when you're old enough to know that everyone keeps secrets/shames below the surface. Coming of age isn't a moment when you're mature and in command of your life; rather it's the darker, scarier moment at which you're prepared to question everything in your life, and that can happen at any number age.
Listen to me getting all Literary Theory over here XD. Gosh, I wish Thrillers had been a college elective, it would have been so fun to dissect this book... which is all about dissecting others XD. A fantastic book, with lots to digest. Highly recommend!!! <3

This retelling humanizes the mythological characters like never before. Angrboda's tragedy is universally understood: A woman used, vilified after she was victimized, who then struggled to reclaim her power, and found herself and her strength through acts of mercy. It was refreshing, and empowering, to hear the spitefully dubbed "mother of monsters" reimagined with such empathy. This gorgeous book cover ought to be adopted as the new #MeToo badge.

HOWEVER, anybody who, like me, picked this book up thinking, "I love the Marvel Loki, and so WOULD LOVE to read a Loki romance novel!" is going to be veeeeeery disappointed by this book. In fact, this book is VERY triggering with all of its relationship dramas, violence against women, child abuse and deaths, and graphic deaths in general. Make no mistake, this book is a drama and a tragedy, not a romance.

The book had some beautiful things to say about the importance of myth and history, and how we carry stories - and the influence of our ancestors - everywhere. And the book reads like a love story to myths, it has that same "This happened, this happened, and this happened, and all was well, for a time. But it would not last. One day..." that epics like Beowulf or The Odyssey tended to have. I saw what the author was doing, stylistically, but personally I found the lack of break for a METAPHOR or anything poetic, now and again, to be tedious, like I was reading the world's longest, saddest, children's book. That's just a matter of preference, though, not a reflection on this author or this book.

But this book isn't really /for/ myth lovers, either. It's not about Angrboda's amazing magical exploits, those are sort of glossed over. It is, at its core, the study of a woman, or even womanhood, and how women survive trauma and derive purpose in a world that seems destined for violence. If you read for escapism and were hoping this book would provide a fantastical brain-vacation, do NOT read this book! There are very REAL traumas in it, and you will just make yourself sad. If you want a cathartic cry, this is the book for you. And if you read to pick books apart on their literary merit, go nuts! There is a lot to dissect and discuss in this book.

This piece of garbage was written by a magazine writer, and it SHOWS. Every other page is a description of an ensemble, or a product placement, or a pop culture reference. Nothing about this book stands on its own merit; even if you edit out all of the ads and name-drops, the plot is still ripped entirely from Buffy the Vampire Slayer - a fact acknowledged IN UNIVERSE by the Buffy!

Unlike Stranger Things' use of nostalgia to ground the show in a particular time and place, or Grady Hendrix's homage to horror being used to highlight the relationships between and struggles of women, THIS beeping book's callbacks only baffled and angered me with their irrelevance. Babysitters Coven takes place in the present day, stars a 17 year old protagonist (meaning she would have been born in 2002, and her teenage pop culture references should have been inspired by the years 2012-2019), and yet said protagonist uses slang and horror references from the 90's and 80's?! Where are the shoutouts to The Vampire Diaries or Paranormal Activity or literally anything The Sitters would have actually seen, and WHY would she ever use the phrase "Gag me with a spoon?!" This was clearly a case of an older author trying to write for a teenager without actually knowing what a MODERN teenager sounds like. Because the protagonist's voice and references are outdated, she fails to give the book any kind of realistic, spooky gravitas, and her references aren't used to reflect upon the era or her coming of age or any broader message, they're just... there.

Know what else is "just there"? LOTS and LOTS of scat jokes! Farts, vomit, periods, pee... just... WHYYY???!!! Who is this book FOR?! The target audience, teenage girls, won't get the references, and will be grossed out by the body "humor". The secondary target audience, older women, won't want their paranormal escapism to come with a side of jock farts; trust me when I say we get enough stinky guy smells in reality! So... this book is for, what, prepubescent girls who might still appreciate toilet humor, but who also recognize 80's and 90's pop culture references? Who is this 10 year old, where are they? And why not - if you want to cater to a young audience - make your babysitters club more appropriately aged, 13 or 14 or something.

Hey, speaking of babysitting, WHAT did that have to do with the plot?! The line between "There is a parallel realm full of demons who eat positivity" and "We demon-hunters ALSO get cash for making sure kids go to bed on time" was never adequately drawn. Kids are sources of positivity, is that what we're going with? Have you never seen a toddler throw a fit? There is a whole fairytale subgenre, the Changeling story, that is NEVER explored in this setup! How did we not get an Orphan situation, or Children of the Corn?! Why were there no possessed babies in this book?!

There COULD HAVE BEEN a story here, with the creatures who drain positivity and leave folks with shame, jealousy, anger, depression... That's LITERALLY what being a teenager feels like, sometimes. Especially, in the case of Esme and Cassandra, teens who suffered losses, or teens who were shuffled through the foster care system, OR teens who don't feel like they fit in at school!!! If you want to write a story about teens, for teens, write a giant metaphor for the teenage experience! It's right there!!!

This book has nothing of value. It says nothing. It is not entertaining in a dumb, fluffy way. It doesn't even function as a good doorstop, because it's so light. And in fact, it was printed poorly, the ink smudged on many pages. And, for no discernable reason, it smells like baby powder? Did someone in marketing think it would sell better if it smelled better? Like trying to lure prospective home-buyers with the smell of fresh-baked cookies? It's a cheap cheat of a book. Pass!

Very cool use of text and space, making the book mirror the house. But the morphing house didn't really scare me, it just seemed like a gimmick.

The blurb nails it succinctly; for once this is a book with accurate billing which you can trust by its cover! On the surface this is the story of a woman who travels between parallel worlds, but it is so SO much more. It's about ALL of the other distances between people which make us each separate worlds to ourselves: Differences of race, religion, class, culture, temperament, opportunities, perspectives... It's beautifully and thoughtfully written, moments of action and intrigue leading to philosophical introspection with the intensity and grace of a swirling galaxy. I am so moved, and I am so hyped to follow this author! A stunning book for a veteran author, and an absolute genius debut!!

This book is false advertising, and I am royally angry about it. The jacket summary promises a retelling of Romeo and Juliet set in 1920's Shanghai. But instead, it's a sci-fi whodunnit about black lice which burrow into people's scalps and drive them crazy enough to commit suicide. Even though the leads may be named Juliette and Roma, and there are the obligatory set pieces - a balcony, roses, rival families, a masquerade - STILL, this "retelling" borrows from Romeo and Juliet in name only; the alleged romance that happened between the two leads happened BEFORE the events of this book, and they have as much chemistry now as a snake and a mongoose. Because the book yada yada's over Shakespeare's fated romance like it's backstory - and not THE CENTRAL POINT - she relies on the audience's knowledge and love of Shakespeare to fill in the characterization of Juliette and Roma, and supplies next to nothing for their personalities now except "they're gangsters!" Juliette and Roma aren't sympathetic leads, which makes following them along as they detangle the sci-fi murderish mystery I DID NOT ASK FOR a CHORE. I fell asleep multiple times reading this book.

The book is also just not very well written. It is very obviously a debut novel, because it's messy and wordy. After 100 pages of waiting for better and falling asleep, I started keeping score by writing down bad quotes in a journal XD.
Ex.1 - p.130 "For the first time, the city may finally fear the barrel pressed to its temple like a poisoned caress." A simile within a metaphor? Ouch! XD Does this count as a mixed metaphor? Shanghai is a girl being stroked by a poisonous gun? Or, Shanghai is a girl being stroked by a gun in the same manner as one with a poisonous touch might stroke a girl's face? Who has a poisonous touch, who delivers poison that way? XD
Ex.2 p.144 "The miniscule difference was that Juliette was careful, intensely controlling of how much of that hate she let slip to guide her hand."... The description was said IMMEDIATELY AFTER she threw a dagger at someone's head in annoyance XD. She is not careful, or controlled, and she wears her hatred out in the open in every scene! XD Also, letting something slip to guide you... those words are at odds with each other. This whole sentence could be tighter: "intensely controlling" could just be "controlled"; "how much of that hate she let slip" could just be "how much hate", you get the idea.
There were too many instances of Telling instead of Showing to count, times when the story SAYS "The most violent gang" or "The most powerful", etc. For an example of a book which actually shows its gangsters at work cutting deals, taking names, and exacting "payment", (and still have time for THREE romantic subplots) see Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo. (Also, and this is nitpicky, but the gang names did not instill fear or respect from me XD:
"What should we call this gang?"
"I don't know, The Gang?"
"Sure, but what about their calling card? Maybe a red rose?"
"The SCARLET Gang!"
"Great, perfect! And their rivals?"
"I don't know, man... A White Rose?"
"What is this, Alice in Wonderland?"
"I don't know! 'A Rose by any other name', you know?"
"I guess... But might it not get confusing? What about The White Wolves? The White Tigers? The White Mambas?"
"Uuugh, so many choices, this is giving me a headache! Just - The White Flowers!"
"What happened to Roses?"
"Nah nah nah, too much thinking, head hurty. Flowers. Move on-."
"But at least it could be a symbolic flower! The White Oleander. White Dahlias. The White Chrysanthemum -."
"Yes, all, any, don't care. 'Flowers'. Move on!
-______-;

Last strike against this book, I found it racist and even dangerous, given when it was published :/. Sure, the various Western countries carving up Shanghai for their own self-interest are the antagonists in this book. But the exposition works in jabs against The White West, like, they "don't honor their ancestors", or "The West corrupted them" (them being girls sent away to school abroad). Lourens, a Dutch scientist, uses "vaccine research" as a front for drug trafficking, and our "heroes" enable the deception. The heroes themselves being Chinese and Russian nationalists who glorify violence. One hero, Kathleen, is a trans woman living under a stolen identity, and a member of The Scarlet Gang.
...This book was published in 2020...
Vaccines are a hoax? Violent reparations are in order, down with The White West? Trans people are predators? This book was VERY difficult to stomach. I was already turned off by its pugnacious protagonists and pompous prose; its underlying messages did nothing to redeem it.

Three strikes you're out, TVD. Don't bother, folks. Nothing but disappointment here.

This is a PHENOMENAL 5 part ballad to womanhood. The isolated worlds of hope and grief we keep swirling within ourselves. The million ways society, family, peers, even total strangers, will carve us up, commodify, objectify, object /to/, parts of us. The rage and weight of injustice we inherit from each other, and so often choose to vent and inflict pain on one another, rather than empathize and heal. The ironic need and desire for sacred, safe spaces, and community, despite the vitriol. The archaic notion of "men's work" being all those survival skills - medicine, engineering, wilderness studies - which are crucial to being self-sufficient, and branded as "witchcraft" when performed by a woman; or the belief that a woman's sexuality is like a magical power she can use to beguile a man, and therefore a weapon which must be stamped out of her control, make her naive of or ashamed of her own body, and spiteful of others.

The book only lost half a star from me because I felt like another turn of the screw was coming, and it aaaaalmost does, but then the book decides not to give as much weight to the idea as I hoped it would. The idea being this: Men cut each other down, too. Men are taught what is "manly". They are taught to "handle" their women. To mold themselves and carry themselves a certain way and to shame those who don't fit the mold... I thought the big twist was going to be that there were no poachers, only boys from the village serving their "Grace Year", learning to subjugate, objectify, corral, to excise their feelings and be "real men". I thought this was going to be Lord of the Flies, Boys versus Girls edition. I'm pleased that the story remained an entirely feminine space, it's an important story that needs to be told, and would have been undercut by equating boys and girls experiences entirely. Buuut I still feel the book COULD have gone down that road, if it had wanted to. Because otherwise, the book seems to suggest that there are only 3 decent men in the whole world, the rest have no problem being murderous monsters, and the 3 "decent" guys still have expectations that they're going to get sex as a reward for good behavior, which undercuts their "heroic" actions. Just sayin'.

That said, the love story that does unfold is very sweet! Boy and girl bond over the home they make, the skills they teach each other. Yes, there is sexual attraction, but it's not lust that forges their bond. Prejudice melts into trust, survival evolves into comfort, it's a beautiful fable for what marriage is SUPPOSED to be: Not an obligation, but a loving partnership.

Tangentially, there is a beautiful blending of pagan and Christian imagery in this book: The Garden; "taboo" knowledge about sexuality or herbology; the importance of storytelling in fostering community, purpose, strength and morality. It was wonderful and weirdly familiar, soothing, the way Nature and Faith were given equal weight.

All praise aside, though, I knocked off another half of a point because I felt the plot suffered in a few places in favor of symbolism or motif. Tierney "plays dead" or acts submissive for too long, never standing up to lead a revolution of any sort. And the book seems to end with her passing all her problems to her daughter, and maybe dying in childbirth? Bit odd to reach the end of a book and realize this is about the prophecy of The Chosen One, the mother of The Chosen One, and not about the revolution itself? A study of womanhood, but not a cry to arms. More of a whisper for hugs, maybe, and some chamomile tea, if you can spare it, pass it on? I wanted more. It's beautiful the way it is, but I was hungry for juuuust a liiiittle more.