katharine_opal's reviews
485 reviews

Love on the Horizon 1 by Machi Yamashita

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emotional hopeful lighthearted medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

This was a very simple story, with a cute but simple concept. A pair of next door neighbors slowly fall in love with one another before getting together. There is also the entire thing of Nagi sleeping in the same bed with Yu while Yu is passed out drunk, and Nagi sneaking out before Yu ever wakes up which is...odd. But it's played as a cute romantic thing but I still think that's kind of weirdo behavior. There's also just nothing really to this story. It moves from pining to romance a bit too quickly for my taste. I just like a little bit more substance to characters or at least some more building of a relationship before it jumps to being in a committed relationship with [spice] scenes. The art was beautiful, and I did enjoy the character designs.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review
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String #1 by Paul Tobin

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adventurous funny mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

There were many things that I liked about this graphic novel. Yoon-Sook Namgung is a young Korean American woman with the ability to see "Strings". No, not the Red string of fate, but the Blue strings that show sexual partners and Black strings that show death. This concept was honestly a really interesting, and very cool play on the common "Red String of Fate" story trope. I also enjoyed the other characters, they were all fairly well-rounded and felt very real. However, the pacing is all over the place in this comic. Some scenes are just characters walking and talking, and my God there is just so much dialogue and the scenes just drag. The action scenes are intense, but always pretty short. The way events unfold in this story doesn't feel smooth at all. It's just "lots of talking then suddenly OMG THIS IS HAPPENING then oh well that's over". I think if the pacing was better this would have gotten a much better rating from me. I do have to say, I absolutely love the art style! The character designs, and the locations, all look so pretty in this art style.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review!
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I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman

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dark emotional mysterious reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

 Reading this made me feel a lot like how I felt when I read 2001 A Space Odyssey. Endlessly perplexed, but driven to keep reading because I just wanted to understand. I didn't understand everything, but I think I understood something by the very end.

The way this is written is like a stream of consciousnesses, but it works oddly well. I never found myself bored and managed to sprint through the book in only a few days. This book is very bleak, but it never pretends that it's not. No one knows why there are 39 women locked away in a cage, and you won't know either. 
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Strange Bedfellows by Ariel Slamet Ries

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adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring medium-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

5.0

This story was so goddamn good. After Oberon has a mental breakdown in the middle of a lecture at college, his life seems to be spiraling out of his control. He distances himself from his friends, drops out of college, and spends a lot of time dreaming. In his dreams, he starts dreaming of his high school crush, Kon, who went missing shortly after high school ended. Until Kon appears outside of those dreams as an apparition! Together, they slowly try to turn Oberon's life back around. This story was so interesting, and I adored both Oberon and Kon. They felt like real people and their struggles, though futuristic, were very relatable. Also, I really like how slang was written in this story. It feels like something kids of the future would use, but they also included "outdated" slang that older people use! It was a little detail that really helped add some reality to the story. The art was GORGOUES. I loved the art style so much, and the dream scenes were so pretty. I don't want to say too much about the story because it was so good. It's also a solar punk utopia style of a story that acknowledges the dystopia that it rose from. Please just go read it for yourself, it's worth it!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review!
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Soul Taker by Thomas E. Sniegoski, Jeannine Acheson

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adventurous dark tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

This story was incredibly fast-paced, and honestly had such interesting plot concepts! The last surviving member of an ancient species, an ancient Catholic order of crusaders, and an evil pharmacological company. The story has such interesting story concepts, and multiple characterizations I enjoyed. But...something about this story just fell flat for me. There were many individual concepts that were really cool to me, but when brought together, lessened their coolness. I think there was just too much going on at once? Having both the pharmacological company AND the Catholic crusaders trying to hunt her down at the same time made the story a bit hectic. This story also focused much harder on the Crusaders than the pharma company, so the evil company felt a bit like an afterthought. I feel like this story does have room to expand on itself, and maybe with another volume or two the plot will even out.  The art was interesting, very American classic. I did really enjoy the fact the main character is an older woman and looks like one! You don't really get to see older women in stories do all kinds of cool adventure stuff like this story has.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review!
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Veil, Vol. 2: Calming Noir by Kotteri

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hopeful lighthearted relaxing medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

This volume falls victim to the same issues that I had with the first. The story is told in very small snapshot-style scenes, with a lot of illustrations and a page or two of monologue between scenes. Now, the scenes themselves are lovely. Full of casual romantic intimacy (intimacy as in closeness not [spice]) and are so lovingly drawn. The art, yet again, is beautiful. I hope this series slowly leans a little more towards the story side instead of being 1/4 story and 3/4 illustration.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review!
Veil Volume 1: Temperature of Orange by Kotteri

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hopeful lighthearted reflective relaxing fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

An absolutely GORGEOUS manga. However, there isn't really much of a story? It's all told in very small snapshots, which admittedly in a vaguely linear fashion. About half of this manga is illustrations. The small pieces of story you get are very sweet, and are a slow burn to becoming a lovely romance. The entire energy of this manga is romantic. I wish the story was just a smidgen more concrete, but the art is so good I'm willing to forgive it a little bit. I'm so enamored with this couple, I want to know more! 

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review! 
I Want to Love You Till Your Dying Day 1 by Nachi Aono

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dark emotional tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

 I won't lie, the concept for this story reminded me of parts of Gunslinger Girl and Little Witch Academia. There isn't quite enough substance to the story (yet?) to be either of those things. The main character is a girl who really doesn't want to be a magical soldier and isn't very good at combat. After her roommate dies on the field, she gets paired with another girl who shows up one day covered in blood. This story has some potential, but it feels like it doesn't know what it wants to do with itself right now. I had seen some people raise concerns about the way healing works in this world. I'll admit, I didn't realize THAT was actually how healing worked until one of the adults said it. I thought the explanation of "Oh, they're not kissing, she's just healing her with mana and that's the most effective way" was meant to be a lame cover story to excuse the two girls who got caught kissing in the stairwell. But uh, no. kissing is how you heal someone in this story's world. You hear a teacher/nurse in the background of one scene say something along the lines of "Oh she got injured so badly I'm going to have to kiss her to fix it", which is...hm. The mental image of an adult macking on a 13-year-old is NOT something I want in my brain. I honestly just don't think the author thought it through since you never SEE an adult kissing any of the minors. You only see the girls with each other. But really, that should have been thought through a little bit better and realized that making "kissing = healing" could create some hairy situations. All that aside, the art is gorgeous. I really feel that the biggest thing it has going for it is the art.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review! 
2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke

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4.0

I finally read this because I wanted to read some sci-fi classics, and I have no idea what that even was. Not sure if spoilers matter when the book has been out for fifty-something years, but I won't say anything. The story is incredibly slow, with a good amount of world-building. It quickly veers off in the last few chapters and left me with a feeling of "what the h*ll just happened." I did like the world-building of the characters and technology in the 2001 segments, the rest felt like it dragged. But it's a classic, and should be read at least once.
All Systems Red by Martha Wells

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5.0