marlowe1: (Serenity)
111.Chainsaw Man 2 by Tatsuki Fujimoto - I know where this one is going and I know that the main draw is how the dude with the chainsaws coming from his head and hands chops up demons, but the true joy of this book is watching Denji break down barriers and establish relationships with the people around him. He's no longer the loner walking around with his pet demon. He's become friends with Power because she tried to feed him to a bat demon. But she did it to save her cat so it's understandable. And Power wears falsies, which is a funny detail only because she is always drawn like Marilyn Monroe in a suit and horns. I don't remember if that was a plot point of the show but that scene where Denji finally gets to touch a boob is supposed to be awkward and uncomfortable because it's that combination of teenage sexuality (must fuck everyone now) and the emotional parts (Oh wait, I actually want to have the intimacy that sex represents). And at this point, Power is a disaster (and pretty damn gross with the whole not bathing and not flushing personality) but she's also the best friend Denji has (and he's a disaster as well).

I know where this is going so it's even more sweet in its fragility. Also the book ends with them in that hotel where they are trapped on the one floor and one of the demon hunters really wants to feed Denji to the demon that offered to let them go in exchange for letting him eat Denji.

112. Weathering with You by Makoto Shinkai - "I want you more than blue skies" - fucking hell that line always gets to me. This is the light novel adaptation of the movie. I think the movie came first but he was writing the book at the same time he was wroking on the movie and then came the manga? It's all very confusing. I actually didn't know that this was a book when I put it on hold but hey, I like the story and I like Shinkai's romantic nature even if almost all of his stories have a set pattern (Act 1: Funny magic thing, Act 2: Tragic implications, Act 3: fuck that tragedy, we're going to undo them for love). And this one follows the pattern, but no matter how much I want to not get taken, I do have all the feels.

I think I already wrote about this one, but different than Your Name or the new one with the chair, this one has some real problems with the ending as she is supposed to be the weather sacrifice. When she decides not to sacrifice herself (because her boyfriend chases her into the sky and begs her to come back) the rains come and half of Tokyo is underwater by the end.

One caveat to the book instead of the manga. It does give some more insight but not much and it's very confusing as he keeps changing first person perspective without telling you who is speaking.
marlowe1: (Teddy Bear)
59. The Woman Who Rides Like a Man by Tamora Pierce - This was the weakest book in the quadrology. It is still pretty good though and I was impressed. Alanna in the desert among the desert people could have turned into white savior, but thankfully everyone in the tribes were multi-layered and not just waiting around for Alanna. Alanna's entry into the tribes as the tribes is based on her skills that she worked on and the fortune to get rid of some ancient demons that tend to nibble at the edges of these books. I rather love how Pierce doesn't feel the need to explain everything that is going on in the world so there is just enough to tantalize without going into long narrative digressions.

The part that gets to me is the end of the book where she has learned and taught all that she needed to learn and teach with the tribes and gets to the point where she finds out that Roger is back. It's all a lot of cliffhanger plotting which can be forgiven since anyone who is reading the third book in a four book series can reasonably be expected to want to buy the fourth book.

60. Lioness Rampant - When I talked about how much I liked Protector of the Small, one of the reasons people cited for liking the Alanna series more was the fact that Alanna was a lot more energetic and sexual. They thought that the character of Protector of the Small was too good while Alanna had flaws. Alanna also had a string of boyfriends. With respect to the Alanna fans, I did not like the fact that Alanna was stuck into another love triangle. The Prince is now a king and there's a lot of idiot plotting going on in the capital, but first Alanna takes off with a ninja warrior to find a magic icon. Having giving away that Roger is back from book 2 and that George is fighting rival gang leaders so all the adventure into the war torn and then the magic mountain feels like a distraction, even as she is collecting the people required for the ending.

Anyhow the last part is kind of anticlimatic. Alanna comes back, finds out that Roger is back from the dead and then wonders why her brother Alan is looking sick. THere are plots but they are fairly straightforward. The part of the book that bothers me the most is the fact that Roger has to be brought back from the dead for tension but then no one kills him or throws him in jail because the old king was just too sad or something. So again Alanna has to take care of him while he springs his plan.

Both of these books were fun reads and they were tightly plotted but the flaws seem more apparent the more I remember them.

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Tim Lieder

December 2023

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