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4.37 AVERAGE
4.37 AVERAGE
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Made it all of 33 pages in before this book made me cry, good lord 😂😠this is so sweet and so sad
challenging
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I won this book as a FirstRead.
Yaichi lives with his daughter, Kana, in Japan. One day, Mike shows up at their door; Mike was married to Yaichi's dead twin brother. Mike wants to learn about his husband's past. Yaichi comes to learn that gay people are just like other people, and Kana is excited to have an uncle she never knew existed.
This was a cute story with beautifully drawn illustrations. I loved Kana and her straightforward outlook on life. The cultural differences between the Japanese and Canadians seemed huge at times.
Yaichi lives with his daughter, Kana, in Japan. One day, Mike shows up at their door; Mike was married to Yaichi's dead twin brother. Mike wants to learn about his husband's past. Yaichi comes to learn that gay people are just like other people, and Kana is excited to have an uncle she never knew existed.
This was a cute story with beautifully drawn illustrations. I loved Kana and her straightforward outlook on life. The cultural differences between the Japanese and Canadians seemed huge at times.
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This book was enlightening. It shows that people can learn from their mistakes and grow. Yaichi had a gay married brother. Mike Flanagan was his brother's husband and he comes from Canada to Japan, to see his husband's twin. When Kana (Yaichi's daughter) meets him, she is immediately drawn towards her uncle and expresses that he needs to stay with them. Over the course of a total of 3 weeks, Yaichi learns so much from Mike and how biased Japan still is.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Grief
Minor: Homophobia
My Brother’s Husband was my first Manga, so I was really looking forward to delving into it. Though it did take me a little bit to get used to, I enjoyed the format and the story.
So the story follows Yaichi, a single father raising his young daughter, Kana. So Yaichi and Kana’s lives suddenly change one day with the arrival at their doorstep of a hulking, lovable Canadian fellow named Mike Flanagan.
Mike tells Yaichi that he was married to Yaichi’s deceased twin brother Ryoji, whom I believe Yaichi hadn’t seen for around ten years. Mike, who is still relatively raw with grief, is kind of on a quest you could say, to explore Ryoji’s past. So he planned this trip to Japan and getting to know Ryoji’s family was the first step.
What follows is Yaichi slowly coming to terms with his feelings about his brother and his brother’s homosexuality, and we see his struggle as he tries so hard to accept something he doesn’t really understand.
There was tension between Yaichi and Mike initially, a lot of it subtle, which I felt the artist did an excellent job portraying. It portrayed relationships as messy and complicated — not as cut and dry as we may sometimes think. I got a good feeling for how difficult it was for Yaichi because he doesn’t quite know how to welcome Mike with an open heart.
Yaichi also has a quite a spirited young daughter who truly shines a light in every scene that she's in. She still trying to understand what homosexuality is and the sweet, innocent questions she asks as she attempts to understand are illuminating and heartwarming. She’s also quite taken with Mike and doesn’t hesitate for a moment to refer to him as family.
So while there are twinges of homophobia, this story’s more about acceptance and how difficult it might be to actually open your heart to someone or something different than us. It was so endearing how this loveable Canadian man ended up touching the lives of everyone around him.
In summary, My Brother’s Husband was absolutely delightful and a pleasure to read. I’m so glad that I read it. There is supposedly a part 2 coming out — which will be released in September of 2018 — that I’ll definitely be checking out.
So the story follows Yaichi, a single father raising his young daughter, Kana. So Yaichi and Kana’s lives suddenly change one day with the arrival at their doorstep of a hulking, lovable Canadian fellow named Mike Flanagan.
Mike tells Yaichi that he was married to Yaichi’s deceased twin brother Ryoji, whom I believe Yaichi hadn’t seen for around ten years. Mike, who is still relatively raw with grief, is kind of on a quest you could say, to explore Ryoji’s past. So he planned this trip to Japan and getting to know Ryoji’s family was the first step.
What follows is Yaichi slowly coming to terms with his feelings about his brother and his brother’s homosexuality, and we see his struggle as he tries so hard to accept something he doesn’t really understand.
There was tension between Yaichi and Mike initially, a lot of it subtle, which I felt the artist did an excellent job portraying. It portrayed relationships as messy and complicated — not as cut and dry as we may sometimes think. I got a good feeling for how difficult it was for Yaichi because he doesn’t quite know how to welcome Mike with an open heart.
Yaichi also has a quite a spirited young daughter who truly shines a light in every scene that she's in. She still trying to understand what homosexuality is and the sweet, innocent questions she asks as she attempts to understand are illuminating and heartwarming. She’s also quite taken with Mike and doesn’t hesitate for a moment to refer to him as family.
So while there are twinges of homophobia, this story’s more about acceptance and how difficult it might be to actually open your heart to someone or something different than us. It was so endearing how this loveable Canadian man ended up touching the lives of everyone around him.
In summary, My Brother’s Husband was absolutely delightful and a pleasure to read. I’m so glad that I read it. There is supposedly a part 2 coming out — which will be released in September of 2018 — that I’ll definitely be checking out.
emotional
funny
hopeful
fast-paced
3.5 stars, only because I feel like not quite enough happened (though a lot of great stuff did), but I get the feeling the story is going to develop into a full 4 stars or more.
I liked how the main character low-key (rather than melodramatically) confronted his and his society's prejudices or stereotypes and had to think his way through them, which he himself did not at all expect. I got the sense that he was really growing as a character, though not unrealistically abruptly. My only realy quibble is that all the adult male characters had a similar beefy-muscular build, and I would have preferred a few different builds for a more realistic visual feel. The ending implies a continuing storyline, and I look forward to seeing how the story and the characters develop.
I liked how the main character low-key (rather than melodramatically) confronted his and his society's prejudices or stereotypes and had to think his way through them, which he himself did not at all expect. I got the sense that he was really growing as a character, though not unrealistically abruptly. My only realy quibble is that all the adult male characters had a similar beefy-muscular build, and I would have preferred a few different builds for a more realistic visual feel. The ending implies a continuing storyline, and I look forward to seeing how the story and the characters develop.
Cried a little bit.
It’s beautiful in so many ways, with so much emotional intelligence. People (adults) are complex, prejudice is awful and harmful for EVERYONE and it distorts the truth. The truth that love should be really all that matters. Love with consent, love with respect, love. This book is just love.
Five starts and a happy tear (or lots of them).
It’s beautiful in so many ways, with so much emotional intelligence. People (adults) are complex, prejudice is awful and harmful for EVERYONE and it distorts the truth. The truth that love should be really all that matters. Love with consent, love with respect, love. This book is just love.
Five starts and a happy tear (or lots of them).