cyanide_latte's reviews
1609 reviews

Are You Alice?, Vol. 12 by Ikumi Katagiri

emotional hopeful sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

My heart, it is on the floor, overwhelmed and in pieces.

Are You Alice?, Vol. 11 by Ikumi Katagiri

dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Talk about another emotional gut-punch. We get even more about the White Rabbit and his motivations, his inner conflicts, and the impact he has versus the one he hopes to have as this volume takes us barrelling on towards the climax. I wish I had a cozy cup of hot cocoa while reading this, I feel like it's needed by the time you get here if you choose to read this series.

Are You Alice?, Vol. 10 by Ikumi Katagiri

dark emotional tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

This volume serves as a very detailed backstory for the Cheshire Cat primarily, and it got me right in the heart. Everything about that hurts, and it does a decent job of explaining his role in everything up to this point. Very emotional, and very powerfully written! I'm looking forward to finishing this series!

Murenga by Nyasha Mugavazi, Jason Lamy, Andrea Cancian

adventurous mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

This was a very intriguing and fascinating start to this story! I really hope I'll get to learn when the next volume is going to be launched, I want to see where this goes!

Disney Twisted-Wonderland, Vol. 4: The Manga: Book of Heartslabyul by Yana Toboso, Wakana Hazuki

emotional hopeful sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Honestly I can't say enough good about this manga adaptation. I really highly recommend it; the way that it has been adapted and the story beats handled is fantastic. The art here especially hits extra hard (in a good way) when reading Riddle's backstory, and the emotions are so well translated. I adore this. I'm so happy I picked it up, and I sincerely hope we continue to get the rest of the game adapted into manga form and translated into English.

The Quill and the Vial by Bree Moore

adventurous mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I found this book via a Kickstarter campaign and was intrigued by the synopsis enough to back it. I finally read through it and I'm glad I did. It has a fascinating world and world-building, interesting characters, and the vibes of a cozy mystery with a fantasy backdrop. I do feel like there were elements of plot threads that were resolved too quickly and/or not brought up again, but I hope perhaps the second book will come back around to those things. My only major frustration was the way character interaction between our main character and her love interest tends to go for the first 3/4ths of the book. It's a lot of one step forward, one step back sort of progress, with the same issues coming up repeatedly. Thankfully that does seem to drop after a certain point. The pacing of this story is much quicker than I expected, so be aware of that in the event you might be looking for a drawn-out plot.

Wotakoi: Love Is Hard for Otaku 2 by Fujita

funny lighthearted relaxing medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This second volume is just as much fun as the first. Wotakoi really is one of those series that I feel like you have to be an adult to appreciate, and it really helps to have points of interest in common with the characters we follow. I do also love the way this volume juggles the other stories it's telling along with following Hirotaka and Narumi's very gradual relationship evolution, as well as introducing us now to the possibility of Nao finding his own potential romance with Ko! I really have fun with these characters and how lighthearted this series is; I need to take more time to keep going through it. Really is a nice change of pace in the middle of everything else I'm reading.

Delicious in Dungeon, Vol. 5 by Ryoko Kui

adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

The pacing feels a little wonky in this volume, but beyond that, it's very hard to complain. I'd call this one "The volume of Several Important Meetings", because that about sums up some of the crucial high points of this installment in particular. Beyond that I'd really say that this is one of those series that has to be experienced firsthand. I think there's more value in it that way.

Caraval by Stephanie Garber
Did not finish book. Stopped at 4%.

DND @ 4%. Wow. Wow. Just wow. I'd not heard good things about this book or this trilogy at all, but I had wanted to give it a shot because I had been hearing some people say that in order to best appreciate the series Once Upon a Broken Heart, you would probably be better off making sure that you read the Caraval trilogy beforehand, as it contains some context for things that do show up in OUaBH. Buuuut it really didn't take much for me to determine I'm not going to be able to get through this. I think I'm going to take my chances with OUaBH and just dive right into it. Hopefully the other things I've been hearing about Garber's writing improving in that series are true.

Liar, Liar, Head on Fire by Vera Strange

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

WELL. OKAY THEN.

While this book isn't bad, I am going to say here is where I DNF this series as a whole.

None of these have any endings where the kids are allowed to technically survive. Like, the Disney team knows that's allowed even in a Goosebumps knockoff series about kids FAFOing with villains, right? We would all love to see our fave villains win now and then, but none of these kids have really been allowed to grow and then survive. That...IS an option, actually. They can grow, they can survive, and THEN THEY CAN BE HAUNTED BY THEIR EXPERIENCES AND CHOICES. IT'D BE NICE TO SEE THAT NOW AND AGAIN, YOU KNOW. Horror isn't simply about "you FAFO, you regret it, you start to grow as a person, and then you die/cease to exist in some horrible way", and yet that's kinda what this series is. Nothing against the author, as my guess is she's under contract and has to write things a certain way for this series, and she very clearly writes well. But wow is this just getting monotonous and depressing. Shame, I had higher hopes for this series than this.