nmcannon's reviews
1301 reviews

Death and the Devil: The Novellas by L.J. Hayward

emotional fast-paced

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

3.0

I played Maybe: Interactive Stories' adaptation of these novellas, which combined it with the sequel novel. You can find my review of Why the Devil Stalks Death here: https://app.thestorygraph.com/reviews/9f86b55b-cc9c-43a6-a1d2-ac68b1f8d89d

Certain Dark Things by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

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emotional mysterious tense medium-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

4.75

After loving Mexican Gothic, I was eager to sink my teeth into more of Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s work. A vampire neo-noir hits MANY of my buttons, and I devoured Certain Dark Things in twenty-four hours.

Mexico City is a thriving cultural hub–for rich humans. Outside the sealed city walls, vampires and God knows what else roam the rainforests and scrubland valleys. Or so they say. Atl’s vampire family was living in peace until the human forces attacked, and now this rich heiress is on the run for her life. Injured and hoping to lose her pursuers, she smuggles herself into Mexico City and meets Domingo, a young, cheerful trash-collector. With his know-how of the city’s underbelly (and body full of blood), Atl stands a chance…but is she willing to trust Domingo, and pay the price of being known?

Do you ever just [clenches fist] find a book that is so good, on a craft level? Certain Dark Things has good pacing, compelling characters, genre-perfect mood, interesting world-building, and a realistic romance between Atl and Domingo. Moreno-Garcia indulges in Mexican folklore and vampiric and noir tropes with a tasteful seriousness. I was about glued to the audiobook. Domingo is the member of the poorest of the poor, but it’s that upbringing that makes him such a kind human and asset to Atl. My only real critique is the ending.

While I understand the noir trope is that the lovers separate (usually with the femme fatale dying), Atl leaving Domingo behind seemed abrupt and out of character. Atl spends the whole book learning to trust Domingo and unlearning her classist assumptions about him. Then, suddenly, she cites that their life spans are too different and leaves him behind, saying he’ll have a better life as a human. It’s like a back-track on her whole character arc, for the sake of checking the trope box. A garbage collector’s lifespan is not long, especially after Domingo burned nearly every bridge to save Atl. He wants to go with Atl. Yeah, his life was fulfilling before, but he wants his life to be fulfilled in a different way. Why is she denying his choice, after a novel spent recognizing him as a person?

Certain Dark Things is a fantastical neo-noir vampire tale. Though the ending seemed a cop-out, I highly recommend it to anyone who likes those genres.

Naomi by Jun'ichirō Tanizaki

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funny lighthearted reflective slow-paced

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

4.0

YES, I am here because of Bungo Stray Dogs, leave me alone.

Salaryman Jōjo is a man obsessed with the West and Western culture. He longs to be stylish and handsome, but fears his “too Japanese,” masculine looks will never fit his inner ideal. One day he stops by his favorite café, and a new waitress, Naomi, serves his coffee. Jōjo sees traditional white features in her face and envisions a life in which they indulge in modern pleasures of movies, fashion, and theaters. He makes his dream a reality, taking Naomi in as his bride and purchasing a house where they can play out their exoticized racial fantasies. Under Jōjo’s dubious tutelage, Naomi matures into an educated woman who turns the tables on her husband.

Naomi is exactly as advertised. A twenty-eight year old idiotic, pretentious man takes in a fifteen year old girl, so he can treat her as a pet and dress-up doll. I’m not sure what the Japanese word for this is, but he’s like a reverse weeaboo? He, and later Naomi, are obsessed with the West, with whiteness. Tanizaki lambasts Jōjo ruthlessly, and the man more than deserves it. I was greatly reminded of a version of My Fair Lady wherein Eliza puts Higgins’ head on a pike. While the novel is from Jōjo’s point of view, you can peek through his blind spots to witness Naomi come into her own. She marvels at the quixotic mix of new freedom and restraint Jōjo’s middle class life grants her. It was immensely rewarding to watch her build her Charisma/Manipulation stat and get what she wants.

While reading, I kept returning to a certain passage of Jōjo’s narration. Jōjo says that men enjoy being deceived by women. According to him, men are always, actually in control, and they only let women think they’re manipulating them. This type of misogynistic thinking (in the novel and irl) has no basis in reality, obviously, but served an interesting function in the novel. One example would be Naomi and Jōjo’s chess matches. In the beginning, Naomi is unfamiliar with chess, and Jōjo wins every match. She protests, and Jōjo makes mistakes so she can win the subsequent matches. As the games continue, Naomi wins even when Jōjo makes no mistakes. Jōjo thinks magic has occurred, or that he’s become senile with age. What has actually happened is Naomi became good at chess. Naomi takes advantage of Jōjo’s sexist thinking to build her skills.

Naomi is a great novel and a great character. It was fascinating to watch a guy fail to be a father, teacher, romantic partner, hobbyist, and compassionate human being. It was even more fascinating to watch a young woman rise in social power and prominence in a society set against her.

Walk on Water by Jang Mokdan

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emotional hopeful 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

3.75

Walk on Water is a manhwa finished in 2018 and adapted to a visual novel for Maybe: Interactive Stories in 2021. I’ve read and played both. The narrative’s first half is an utter delight, and the second half trips on a banana peel and hits a wall.

After a horrible accident, Ed Talbot is buried in medical debt. His work as a bodyguard barely pays off the interest, so when a coworker mentions a sex cam side-gig, his ears perk up. Online research leads him to McQueen Entertainment, a producer of gay erotic films. Under the stage name “Tommy,” he quickly rises to prominence, going from solo films to bottoming on camera. Ed tells himself he’s heterosexual, that’s he’s only gay-for-pay, but is that true when the looks from Glenn McQueen, the company’s CEO, keep turning his legs to jelly?

The original manhwa had two seasons on TappyToon, and there’s a sharp divide between the halves. The first half is a very sex- and porn- positive coming of age in one’s 20s. I ate it up. As an erotica starring sex workers, there’s plenty of canoodling, but the pair don’t solely explore each other’s bodies. With all the tenderness they can muster, they explore each other’s nuances and pasts. Ed and Creed (Glenn’s irl name) are so sweet! I believe in their love. The manhwa has a fascinating use of negative space, using the blankness between panels to offer solace and space to contemplate. The visual novel amped up Creed’s angry Ice King possibilities and made Ed less mature and more bratty. I can guess why that was done–those are popular tropes–but it led me to not enjoy the adaptation as much as the original.

The second half walks back on many of the positive themes of the first. The porn industry is condemned as inherently flawed and that it will corrupt everyone, no matter how well-intentioned to start. It’s to the point that I wonder if there was editorial and/or TappyToon interference. Concurrent to this sudden shame is the revelation of Creed’s “sin”–the thing that twisted him up inside and is preventing a happily ever after.

The “sin” is that there was an under-negotiated scene. This lack of negotiation is framed as entirely Creed’s fault, while the other actor (who signed the paperwork saying that this script and scene was okay) is a pure angel whose whole life was ruined. Grow up. Much more interesting and compelling was Creed’s struggle with religious homophobia and coming to terms with faith, even if it means leaving institutional religion behind.

Though the second half lowered my star rating, I adore Creed and Ed’s romance. The line “Your love makes me feel I could walk on water” makes me swoon every time. If you’re looking for a gay sex worker romance, I recommend Walk on Water, but limit your expectations for the ending.

Content Warnings