It’s been a while since I’ve update the blog and there were a lot of reasons for that, but I’m finally back before the end of the year!
Yona of the Dawn/ Akatsuki no Yona by Mizuho Kusanagi| Manga
I absolutely loved the anime when it came out back in 2014 and was so disappointed to not get another season (it was like 12 Kingdoms all over again, sigh). Yona is one of those stories/shows that is absolutely up my alley in terms of all the things I like — comedy, action, strong female lead and characters, strong male characters, interesting plot with mystery and intrigue, complex villain, interesting world building, fantasy, dragons, romance, yay! SO it took almost 7 months but I’ve mostly got all the english releases and man, the story is very fulfilling, the comedy has me laughing out loud and I loooove the character development for everyone. The manga-ka is definitely taking their time with character development and it makes Yona’s journey more believable. I’ve only made it up to vol 21 so far, but I definitely love it. Yona of the Dawn is essentially a story about a mythical prophecy of the reborn Crimson Dragon King reuniting the kingdom of Kohka and the 4 dragon warriors. Yona is the sheltered princess of Kohka and has an amazing life until tragedy strikes and she’s forced to experience the world outside of the palace and the consequences of her father King Il’s decisions and policies for the kingdom. Seriously, this is a great story about maturing, about responsibility, about friendships and family, hurt (emotional and physical), never giving up and so much more. It’s ( to me) a great story.
Unicorn Shifter Academy by JR Thorn | Audiobook
I listened to this book while on a long drive and…and…man. Let me tell you, I had ZERO understanding of what was going on, lol. The story starts strong and has this main character named Bonny that I actually LIKED for the first chapter. She made sense, there was some world building going on and then suddenly — everything went 100% off the rails. This story has bones that work but the author really got caught up in the sexual/erotic part of basically one girl/entire school of horny guys trope. I did not want to hear mounds of exposition about multiple character’s cocks swelling at the very sight of the main character. The author took what was basically a really interesting person and jsut…forgot about everything interesting about her once they got to the magical unicorn part. I don’t think it really works to be introduced to a male character who is full of mysterious intrigue and literally start talking about his junk twitching in his pants and how odd that was and etc, etc. Considering he’s a supernatural creature and we don’t know a lot about the world at that point, I just felt like it really ruined the story for me. Bonny has a couple of fun friends and the author basically didn’t know what to do with them– they never had a role that was integral to the story except in the verrrry beginning. They were also far more interesting than the male characters at the Unicorn Academy ( ok, slight lie, some of them were very interesting) BUT we don’t get to know them! They are there for random moments. Also Bonny does become a Mary Sue. She just becomes SO POWERFUL and all the boys want her. What’s worse, this book just ends in the middle of the story. I don’t know if I just got a glitch or something but the audiobook just says “this is the end of the book, thank you for reading” and NOTHING was resolved. I don’t even know. BuhasKFASKHFJKsadkfksdj,. So many golden nuggets of interesting plot and then nothing. lol.
Dune by Frank Herbert | Audiobook
Ok, so I already love Dune and have loved it since my dad showed me the David K Lynch 1980s movie version when I was a wee child. I read the book like 20 years ago. I LOVED the new movie, so I thought it was time to reread the book and also read the follow on books for more of the story. The audiobook did not disappoint — I loved the radioplay aspects of the production — they had multiple voice actors, excellent narrators, sound effects, mood music and it just was really a great experience. As always, the setup of Duke Leto and the Atreides heading to Arrakis is so well done ( it’s basically my favorite part of the whole story?) And as always, Paul pisses me off half the time LOL, ugh teenagers with god complexes, hahaha. But one thing I caught moreso this time than I have any other time was Frank Herbert’s …..ethnic people fascination *cue ten billion eye rolls*. The mythology of the Fremen and Arrakis is so obviously middle eastern inspired, but there’s also this part that pushed me a little out of the story where it felt like Herbert was both fascinated and considered the Fremen as somewhat backwards. Now it works because it’s a story told from the perspective of outsiders who thought themselves better and smarter and more advanced, but as Black woman in America where my culture/ideas/expertise/etc is appropriated but I myself am often considered as “lesser”, it just hit with more “oooooof” this time. Herbert uses middle eastern sounding made up language(I know it’s not all arabic derived), a lot of ethnic sounding calls, etc. I understand the peoples of the Dune worldbuilding in general are far flung decedents of Earth and I understand the time in which this book was written. But still. I wish it was less a typical power play of white people with ethnic people, so to speak. Yes I recognize the awe at which everyone looks at the Fremen, I just felt a little weird at the sort of ethnic romanticism. I’m allowed to have feelings about it lol. Another thing is that Paul is also white Jesus. Paul has always been not my favorite character (he’s so….whiney lol, but has all this power and stupidly doesn’t talk to people when he’s freaking out) — it’s actually why I want to read the follow on books to better understand his whole Messiah thing. To be fair, I think that some of my feelings have to do with the acting of the audiobook. I never heard the Fremen with the types of accents the voice actors gave them. I never heard the concepts of the Fremen with the inflections and tonality as I did with the audiobook. The movies are middle of the road in terms of accents. I don’t recall anything extremely ethnic sounding, which is probably very purposeful. That might explain why it hit different for me this time. THAT SAID I STILL LOVE THE WORMS AND THE WHOLE HARKKONEN ASS KICKING BECAUSE THOSE GUYS DESERVE IT. I also forgot how much I haaaaaaaaate Hawat. HATE HIM SO MUCH, he’s such a jerk. Anyway, yes, I’m going to at least get through the next few books because I never did before. Herbert does create an amazing world and it is absolutely FASCINATING. I absolutely recommend it to anyone who likes Sci/Fi Fantasy.
A Botanist’s Guide to Parties and Poisons by Kate Khavari | Audiobook
This is one that I’m in the middle of. The story just took a turn that I didn’t expect, so I’m wondering what the motives of the main character actually are. This is totally a murder mystery style story set in the early century timeframe when science was just burgeoning and people did expeditions to South America/ the Amazon and so forth. Additionally women were allowed to be in this field and at university, etc, so as an engineer with a science degree, I do have to not yell at poor scientific methodology LOL. But I genuinely am enjoying the story, the narrator is a good one. Still have another 3 hours in the book, so more thoughts later.
