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A review by isabellarobinson7
Yumi and the Nightmare Painter by Brandon Sanderson
4.0
So I made the mistake of reading Petrik Leo's review of this book before writing my own - his is, in short, perfect. His articulation is just flawless. In fact, I'm going to link his review here so that you can read his before mine. But I need to get to actually praising the book now, not Petrik's review, though both thoroughly deserve it.
Rating: 4 stars
In my writing of this review, I realised I actually don't have much to say about Yumi and the Nightmare Painter. Maybe that is simply because my brain is frazzled to within an inch of its life, or because (and this is probably the harshest thing I can say about this book) the story didn't really leave much of a lasting impact on me. I have been sitting on it for over two months, and still can't seem to come up with anything review-like to write. Well, I do have a couple of comments to make.
First, though, to those of you who have been living under an artistically stacked rock and don't know what this book is about, let me fill all two of you in. Yumi and the Nightmare Painter is Sanderson's third of the four Secret Projects he wrote during lockdown, and primarily came about through Sanderson's love of the game Final Fantasy X by Yoshinori Kitase, and manga Hikaru no Go written by Yumi Hotta and illustrated by Takeshi Obata. These two main influences, coupled with his wife's encouragement to include more romance in his books, resulted in these Japanese/Korean-style worlds. In this way, Yumi and the Nightmare Painter is an example of a white author writing about/inspired by another culture, a conversion the publication of R.F. Kuang's Yellowface has reignited recently.
I was actually impressed by Sanderson’s newbie bra knowledge. I kid you not, this middle-aged man, father of exactly zero daughters, somehow described exactly what wearing a bra for the first time feels like. I mean, he obviously did his research. Like jumping! It's such a random fact about bra-wearing, but jumping in a bra is in a whole other league from doing it unsupported. I know I probably don't need to put the quote here, but whatever, I want to:
The accuracy! We always get stuff about the lack of support boxers provide in the media, but I think we need more content about bras.
Ok, I'm watching the rugby (again) and am getting distracted. I think I've essentially said everything I want/have to say about Yumi. Let me finish this review the same way I did for Tress of the Emerald Sea, with a wonderful quote from Hoid:
I don't even want to imagine how that would feel.
Rating: 4 stars
In my writing of this review, I realised I actually don't have much to say about Yumi and the Nightmare Painter. Maybe that is simply because my brain is frazzled to within an inch of its life, or because (and this is probably the harshest thing I can say about this book) the story didn't really leave much of a lasting impact on me. I have been sitting on it for over two months, and still can't seem to come up with anything review-like to write. Well, I do have a couple of comments to make.
First, though, to those of you who have been living under an artistically stacked rock and don't know what this book is about, let me fill all two of you in. Yumi and the Nightmare Painter is Sanderson's third of the four Secret Projects he wrote during lockdown, and primarily came about through Sanderson's love of the game Final Fantasy X by Yoshinori Kitase, and manga Hikaru no Go written by Yumi Hotta and illustrated by Takeshi Obata. These two main influences, coupled with his wife's encouragement to include more romance in his books, resulted in these Japanese/Korean-style worlds. In this way, Yumi and the Nightmare Painter is an example of a white author writing about/inspired by another culture, a conversion the publication of R.F. Kuang's Yellowface has reignited recently.
I was actually impressed by Sanderson’s newbie bra knowledge. I kid you not, this middle-aged man, father of exactly zero daughters, somehow described exactly what wearing a bra for the first time feels like. I mean, he obviously did his research. Like jumping! It's such a random fact about bra-wearing, but jumping in a bra is in a whole other league from doing it unsupported. I know I probably don't need to put the quote here, but whatever, I want to:
The first undergarment made sense, but the bra... well, that was formidable. She could see how it was to be worn, but there were straps and a clip and... well, it took some work. She did pause while putting it on, marveling at the stretchiness of some of the cloth. How did they make it do that?
She got the thing on finally, though she had to put it on backward to get the clip fastened, then twist it around and fit herself into it. It felt kind of constrictive, and it outlined her form instead of flattening it as was normal. [...] Then she tried jumping. And...
That felt nice. Not that it was comfortable really, but it certainly prevented discomfort.
"Yumi?" Akane asked from outside. "You okay?"
"This bra," she said, jumping again, "is incredible."
"Never had one that fits right, eh?" Akane asked. "You'd be surprised the difference it makes."
The accuracy! We always get stuff about the lack of support boxers provide in the media, but I think we need more content about bras.
Ok, I'm watching the rugby (again) and am getting distracted. I think I've essentially said everything I want/have to say about Yumi. Let me finish this review the same way I did for Tress of the Emerald Sea, with a wonderful quote from Hoid:
“Like a man with diarrhoea in a sandpaper factory, sometimes all available options are less than ideal."
I don't even want to imagine how that would feel.