This month flew by! I read as much as I could but I had some really fun events this month so I didn’t read as much as I normally would have. I had my bff’s baby shower which was so much fun! We played a really gross baby food game which was hilarious. We also had our monthly game night where I painted my first mini! I did not play any games at game night, just painted. It took me three hours to paint two tiny minis, but I really enjoyed doing it! School is going good and I feel like I’m finally getting a grip on doing two classes and working full time and being able to read. With that being said, onto the books!
The first book that I want to talk about is Anon Pls. by DeuxMoi. This is about Cricket, who works as the assistant for a celebrity stylist. A very horrible celebrity stylist. If you’ve ever see The Devil Wears Prada you know exactly what I’m talking about. Cricket gets fed up one day when a celebrity sells clothes that they were sent instead of posting pictures in the clothes like she was supposed to. This leads Cricket to post on her anonymous Instagram account, DeuxMoi. And the post takes off. Soon Cricket is trying to hide who she works for while also getting and posting all the celebrity gossip she can get her hands on. Can she keep up with her job and her new found Instagram popularity?
I’m not gonna lie, this book was veryyyyy predictable. You could see the “twist” coming from a mile away. That being said, that doesn’t mean that I disliked this book. Far from it actually. This was a very character driven book, Cricket is the one that we focus the most on and though she makes a few mistakes, you still want to root for her to break away from her horrible boss and make it on her own. Would I recommend this to other people? It depends on what you’re looking for in a book. If you are wanting a fun, entertaining read that won’t make you think much, then this is the book for you. If not, I would pass on this one.
Next up we have a horror manga that was new to me called Be Very Afraid of Kanako Inuki! by Kanako Inuki. This is a six story collection by Japan’s Queen of Horror Manga and boy were they something. While I liked this collection it’s hard not to draw parallels to another famous horror manga author, Junji Ito. To be fair to both of them, I have read most of Junji Ito’s collections and only one of Kanako Inuki’s. I don’t feel like I can quite say who is the better of them because while they do both write horror manga, they are very different. Junji Ito’s stories can be downright gross with body horror abounding or they can be very cerebral and sometimes make my head hurt. These six stories that I read from Kanao Inuki were a great balance of both of these aspects. I really enjoyed not being grossed out with every story (looking at you Junji) and all six stories actually made me wince a little bit. These stories relied more on storytelling than the ick factor that is present in a lot of horror manga. Overall, a great collection and I will be seeking out more of this author’s works.
My favorite story was Fulfilled Wishes.
Numb to This: Memoir of a Mass Shooting by Kindra Neely. This graphic novel deals with something that I grew up with – school shootings. I was homeschooled my whole life and one of the reasons was the violence in schools – especially the schools where I grew up in Orlando. My mom was afraid that something would happen to me at school and I can’t say that I blame her. I vividly remember watching the coverage of Columbine as it was happening. Of course I was only eight at the time so I didn’t really understand the significance of what I was watching, but looking back on it, that was the first in a long, long list of school shootings that I would watch on the news growing up.
This book follows the author, Kindra Neely, as she deals with the aftermath of surviving a school shooting in 2015. I have a hard time saying that this is a fantastic book because of what she went through, but anyone that grew up in shadow of a tragedy such as this will understand that this book is fantastic and hopefully but so sad at the same time. It was a hard one to get through, but a book that I think everyone should read.
Shuna’s Journey by Hayao Miyazaki. If you are Miyazaki fan then you should definitely check out this gorgeous graphic novel. We follow Shuna, who leaves his village in search of a new food source. Absolutely, no spoilers here. I think that everyone should experience this gorgeous graphic novel ASAP. The pages could easily be framed and hung on your wall as art.
Twelve Percent Dread by Emily McGovern. I’ve followed Emily McGovern for awhile now. I first saw her Background Slytherin comics on Tumblr years ago and instantly fell in love with her fantastically simple art style. If you’ve ever read/watched The Circle by Dave Eggers then this graphic novel will be right up your alley. In it we follow, Katie, who still lives with her ex in a tiny room they rent from their landlord Jeremy. Katie is quickly running out of money and keeps bouncing from job to job until she lands a tutoring job at an incredibly fancy house for a wealthy women who owns some kind of tech startup business. Katie and the other characters all intertwine in fantastic ways and the ending is truly fantastic. If you’re burnout, can’t figure out what you want to do in life, or are just plain bored with everything, then this is the book for you.
The Night Eaters, Vol. 1: She Eats the Night by Marjorie M. Liu and Sana Takeda. This was so good!! I really loved this fantastically creepy horror comic from the creators of Monstress. In Night Eaters we follow twins Billy and Milly as they try to keep their restaurant afloat. Their parents come to town for a visit and their mom ends up making them help clean up the house next door – it was the scene of a murder. Demons and creepy dolls abound as they try to cleanse the house. Turns out there is more to Billy and Milly’s mom than they thought.
I realize that there is a lot of horror in this post but what can I say, I like what I like. This is a great addition to any horror lover’s to read list and I would highly recommend checking it out!
That is it for the month of February! Sorry this post is about two weeks late. Life caught up with me and there were a few family emergencies that decided to happen within the last few weeks. Everything is a little bit still up in the air but I think it’ll end up being alright. And next week is Spring Break! I’m very excited to have a week off of classes to catch up on housework and laundry (bleh). I hope you all have a great rest of the month!
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