All about the books we love

Gokushufudo: The Way of House Husband 1 by Kousuke Oono

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Honestly more like a 2.5 for me. I rated it up because it's award winning for its humor. I didn't find it the least bit funny. The humor, I suppose, is from the idea that the Immortal Dragon, the top enforcer of the Yakuza who broke up ten rival gangs, has traded that for cleaning house and cooking for his go-getter wife. I think I'm meant to find it funny that a) he's so clueless b) he keeps running into Yakuza who know him and want him dead or to return to the fold c) he does all this wearing a stupid apron. Yeah not funny to me I guess but humor is subjective.

Artwise it's excellent so another reason to rate it up. The story is really lacking though. His wife is a non-entity really. We only see her briefly. Did he give up the Yakuza life for her? Did she marry a bad boy in spite of the possible social ostracization? She has to know what he was what with all his full body tattooing in the Yakuza style. Why did he chose to be a house husband? So many dangling plot points crucial to characterization and they're left dangling.

The 'chapters' are very short (again this might have been a weekly comic so that could be why) None of them are very memorable which is why a week after reading I can't put a single one of them into the review other than the sychophant who wants him to return to the life of crime.

I got this from the library. They have more but I don't see me reading more.



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Chainsaw Man, Vol. 1: Dog And Chainsaw by Tatsuki Fujimoto

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I am pleasantly surprised to find I really liked this but I know why, the boy with the tragic backstory IS my trope and boy does Denji have that in spades. The story opens with him having just sold a kidney to help pay down his dead father's debt to the crime syndicate (having previously sold an eye and a testicle). Homeless, he dreams of having jam on bread, that's how destitute he is.

He's sent to kill a devil (demons in this world are known to the citizens) with the help of his pet devil, Pochita who is an absolutely adorable mix of a small dog and a chainsaw (yes I actually typed that sentence!) and things go horribly wrong. Denji is transformed into the titular chainsaw man (and yes just like the cover art suggests his head and arms can now become chainsaws)

He is picked up by Miss Makima and her team of devil hunters. She has put together an experimental team including a guy who hates Denji and wants him gone (because Denji is absolutely hero worshiping Makima) and a fiend, a young woman named Power.

I like the character dynamics. The story has potential beyond it's action heavy sequences. Denji's more innocent I want to hug a girl before I die thoughts do turn into I wanna touch boobs by the middle of the book. I hope that goes away before long because that will get really old really fast. The scene where he gets to eat real food for the first time (opposed to trash pickings one assumes) was sweet. The art is fantastic.

Definitely moving forward with this one.




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Spy×Family, Vol. 1 by Tatsuya Endo

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Half the people I know insisted I needed to read this one and while I enjoyed it I don't think I loved it as much as they did. Don't get me wrong, the art is great and there is a plot heavy story that I liked. I'm a sucker for found family (and much less so for fake relationships which this is heavy on) so I'm not sure why I wasn't wowed.

Loid Forager aka the spy code name Twilight is a premiere spy in a pseudo-European country that has nationalism gone rampant and suspect people everywhere (like being unmarried at 30 which is a plot point for Yor). He has to infiltrate an elite academy and to do so he needs a child to attend the school and a wife because this place is snobbery run wild, only the most traditional and wealthy can go here.

To that end, Loid finds a daughter in the orphanage, a girl who has been returned many times, Anya who has her own tragic backstory to match Loid's war-torn one. Her secret is she's a telepath and that's how she gets by in school (she hates to study). Loid is always one step from returning her to try with another kid and she knows it because she can read his mind.

Enter Yor who seems somehow hopelessly socially awkward and naive and yet is somehow a master assassin for whom we do not know. Yor is tormented at work because she's nearly 30 and unmarried and fears losing her position which is a good cover for her assassin work.

She crosses paths with Loid and Anya and the rest as they say is history. The volume ends with the first step of Loid's plan being realized. Honestly Loid and Anya are my type of characters so again, not entirely sure why I didn't fall hard for this. That said I did enjoy it and I will be reading more of it.



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Sacrifice by Kathleen Heady

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I won this one in a GR giveaway which did not influence my review in any way. I got this thinking it was a mystery but it was more suspense as the main characters don't really investigate the crime. Nara (Afro-Caribbean/British) and her husband, Alex, have been sent to Spain by the museum they work for to recover the journals of a British artist/freedom fighter who lost her life in the Spanish Civil War. Her journals have surfaced in a church in a remote village.

Before the priest can turn them over, he’s murdered. Nara and Alex are of course concerned about it and want to find the journals which makes sense. They don’t feel the need to find the murderer, happy to leave that to the police which is actually unusual for an amateur sleuth story.

Mixed into this is a separate series of point of view characters, a lady smuggler who wants out. Apparently the town has been into smuggling since the war.

Naturally, the story lines dovetail. The characters are interesting. Nara trying to reconnect with her father and half sister was good too. It is character driven and that’s always a fun thing. I was a little disappointed in the resolution of the priest’s murder story line. That said I’d read more of this series.



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