Author: Devin

Manga Review: Orange: The Complete Collection (Parts 1 and 2) by Ichigo Takano

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Back in April I picked up the first half of the Orange manga series as I spotted it in Barnes & Noble and it sounded highly interesting, and now that I’ve read both books in the complete Orange collection series I can certainly say I was pleased by this manga and am looking forward to watching the anime adaptation that is currently airing in Japan.

On the first day of 11th grade Naho receives a letter that is supposedly from her 10 years in the future. She’s skeptical at first, but because it outlines what will happen on certain days, it’s obvious that the letter is no joke and indeed the real deal. The letter states that a new transfer student, Kakeru, needs saving from what will happen in the future if she doesn’t intervene, and if she fails she will carry this burden the rest of her life.

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Honey So Sweet by Amu Meguro

Manga Review: Honey So Sweet, Volumes 1 & 2 by Amu Meguro

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I don’t really remember how I stumbled across the Honey So Sweet manga series, but when I did I was like “hey this sounds cute, let me see if my library has it! *checks* hey they do, let me go get it!”. Thus I did. Viz is currently in the process of publishing all six volumes, with a new one coming out every three months. The third volume was released at the start of July, which I am currently awaiting for my library to get a copy of for me.

So far, with two of the six volumes read, I’m really enjoying it. It’s fun watching (well, reading…) Kogure and Onsie go from not knowing anything about the other person aside from rumors to being in love with each other. Just like the story itself, the artwork is great too.

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Nijigahara Holograph by Inio Asano

Manga Review: Nijigahara Holograph by Inio Asano

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Back in April when I was visiting my girlfriend who lives in Michigan, we went on one of our usual Barnes and Noble trips. There I purchased two mangas: the first half of Orange, and Goodnight Punpun by Inio Asano. I later searched my library’s catalogue to see if they had any more of Inio Asano’s works, and they did – Nijigahara Holograph. I went ahead and put a request on it.

I really enjoy Inio’s art style, it’s really unique and detailed. You can tell a lot of time is spent putting thought into how each panel should look. I haven’t read all of Goodnight Punpun yet, but that one I’m enjoying so far. As for Nijigahara Holograph, I just found it nothing but confusing and even once finishing it I really did not have much of a grasp of what I had even read.

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Train Man by Machiko Ocha

Manga Review: Train Man by Machiko Ocha

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When I was at my local library a couple months ago I was looking at their (relatively small) manga collection, when a certain title caught my eye: Train Man. To anyone else this title would mean absolutely nothing to them, but to me it does: my first ever online username was Trainman1405, a name I still go by sometimes even to this day. I picked it up off the shelf, sat down in a chair at a nearby table, and began reading it since my mom was doing shopping at the nearby Costco before she came to pick me up. I was planning on checking it out from the library if my mom came to pick me up before I finished it, but by pure luck I finished a couple minutes before she arrived.

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Dead and Breakfast by Kimberly G. Giarratano - A Cayo Hueso Mystery Book 1

Review: Dead and Breakfast by Kimberly G. Giarratano (A Cayo Hueso Mystery Book 1)

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It’s been a while since I’ve published a book review — about five and a half months. I’ve been in a bit of an unannounced hiatus mixed with a large reading slump, so I’ve been taking a break from book blogging to focus on other things. While I’m still not done with my break, I was recently asked by Kimberly Giarratano if I wanted to review her new YA mystery Dead and Breakfast. Seeing how much I loved her book Grunge Gods and Graveyards as well as her One Night Is All You Need short story, it was a no brainer that I’d be open to doing it! I still need to get around to reading The Lady In Blue by her, but I’ll get to that some other time…

If it isn’t obvious already, Kimberly loves to write young adult stories involving the paranormal. Dead and Breakfast, as you might be able to interpret from the title, is no different. Just like her other stories this one is also all about the paranormal, plus just like One Night Is All You Need the story takes place in Florida, albeit with different characters.

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The Dead Girls of Hysteria Hall by Katie Alender

Review: The Dead Girls of Hysteria Hall by Katie Alender

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Ever since I discovered “A Haunting” on Discovery Channel back when I was in middle school the paranormal has fascinated me. Sure, The Dead Girls of Hysteria Hall may be a work of fiction, but that doesn’t mean anything. I enjoy reading about the paranormal, whether fact or fake, and because this book has to do with the paranormal it really interested me.

Delia, who is 16, is labeled as a “troubled teen” after she and her friends worked out a plan to fly to Daytona with her friends without their parents knowing. Except there’s two things: one, she doesn’t really want to go, and two, she ended up getting caught whilst at the airport after her parents caught wind of it. Oh, and her boyfriend broke up with her over text.

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The Shadow of Seth by Tom Llewellyn

Review: The Shadow of Seth by Tom Llewellyn

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She left. It was the last time I’d ever see her alive.

Growing up I read a lot of Hardy Boy books, I was always checking them out from the library and buying my own at Borders. I may have moved on to adult thrillers, however I found reading The Shadow of Seth to be refreshing, as it’s the middle ground between mystery books for children and mystery books for adults.

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