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katharine_opal's reviews
491 reviews
The Moth Keeper by K. O'Neill
5.0
Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review!
What a heartwarming story! I have never read any of K. O'neill's other stories, but I'm in love with their art style! It has a soft and whimsical feeling to it, something people who enjoy Ghibli movies would also enjoy. I love the characters, and I love seeing how the animal people reflect some of the traits of their real-life animal counterparts. The world is an interesting blend of magic and reality. The story has lovely messages about finding one's purpose in the larger community, the importance of community as a whole, and figuring out what you want in life. I don't want to say too much for fear of spoiling the plot. But what a lovely read!
What a heartwarming story! I have never read any of K. O'neill's other stories, but I'm in love with their art style! It has a soft and whimsical feeling to it, something people who enjoy Ghibli movies would also enjoy. I love the characters, and I love seeing how the animal people reflect some of the traits of their real-life animal counterparts. The world is an interesting blend of magic and reality. The story has lovely messages about finding one's purpose in the larger community, the importance of community as a whole, and figuring out what you want in life. I don't want to say too much for fear of spoiling the plot. But what a lovely read!
Hollow by Branden Boyer-White, Shannon Watters
5.0
Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review!
This story was so fun! This feel of this story reminded me a lot of Hocus Pocus or Halloweentown. It has a great blend of spookiness while also remaining pretty low stakes. A perfect Halloween season read! The art style in this graphic novel is fantastic, I love how everything is drawn. The cast is wonderfully diverse and full of very fun characters. The main trio themselves have such a fun dynamic with each other. Also, the writer clearly did their research! Without spoiling the story, there is something a side character talks about, that made me realize she's a practitioner of the craft! How lovely! It's so rare to see pagans' or practitioners' magical practices accurately depicted in stories! It's a small thing, but it made me really happy. The story itself feels well-paced to me, nothing is too rushed. The romance plot, felt a bit sidelined, but it's honestly not a make-or-break thing. I'm just delighted there is LGBT romance at all! All in all, this is a fun modern retelling of the original "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow". A perfect graphic novel to curl up and read on a chilly autumn day!
This story was so fun! This feel of this story reminded me a lot of Hocus Pocus or Halloweentown. It has a great blend of spookiness while also remaining pretty low stakes. A perfect Halloween season read! The art style in this graphic novel is fantastic, I love how everything is drawn. The cast is wonderfully diverse and full of very fun characters. The main trio themselves have such a fun dynamic with each other. Also, the writer clearly did their research! Without spoiling the story, there is something a side character talks about, that made me realize she's a practitioner of the craft! How lovely! It's so rare to see pagans' or practitioners' magical practices accurately depicted in stories! It's a small thing, but it made me really happy. The story itself feels well-paced to me, nothing is too rushed. The romance plot, felt a bit sidelined, but it's honestly not a make-or-break thing. I'm just delighted there is LGBT romance at all! All in all, this is a fun modern retelling of the original "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow". A perfect graphic novel to curl up and read on a chilly autumn day!
The Anime Chef Cookbook: 75 Iconic Dishes from Your Favorite Anime by Nadine Estero
5.0
Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review!
What a lovely cookbook! There is plenty of variety in the recipes, from full meals to appetizers, to desserts, to drinks! I liked how every recipe has a blurb and a little information bubble telling you what anime the recipe is from, right down to the season and episode! I like that every recipe also tells you how long it will take to make, both in prep time and actual cooking time. I also like that it tells you how many people it serves. The illustrations are beautiful! The whole layout of the cookbook is very nicely done and is set in a way that makes it very easy to read. A wonderful cookbook that would be fun for any anime fan who also loves to cook to have.
What a lovely cookbook! There is plenty of variety in the recipes, from full meals to appetizers, to desserts, to drinks! I liked how every recipe has a blurb and a little information bubble telling you what anime the recipe is from, right down to the season and episode! I like that every recipe also tells you how long it will take to make, both in prep time and actual cooking time. I also like that it tells you how many people it serves. The illustrations are beautiful! The whole layout of the cookbook is very nicely done and is set in a way that makes it very easy to read. A wonderful cookbook that would be fun for any anime fan who also loves to cook to have.
Zombie Makeout Club Vol. 1: Deathwish by Peter Richardson
2.0
Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review!
This was a massive miss for me. The story seemed almost non-existent and was all over the place. Maybe because it's the first volume and it's doing introductions to the characters, but it does a poor job of it. This story also has a TON of gore, and it all appears to be very gratuitous. This entire volume seems to be only focused on aesthetics and how much gore can fit in it, and is sorely lacking in the storytelling department. I know only bare-bones facts about a few characters, but I'm left mostly confused about who is who, and what everyone's motives are. The only thing it has going for it is a good art style. It's not my favorite, but it is good from a technical sense.
This was a massive miss for me. The story seemed almost non-existent and was all over the place. Maybe because it's the first volume and it's doing introductions to the characters, but it does a poor job of it. This story also has a TON of gore, and it all appears to be very gratuitous. This entire volume seems to be only focused on aesthetics and how much gore can fit in it, and is sorely lacking in the storytelling department. I know only bare-bones facts about a few characters, but I'm left mostly confused about who is who, and what everyone's motives are. The only thing it has going for it is a good art style. It's not my favorite, but it is good from a technical sense.
Hi, I'm a Witch, and My Crush Wants Me to Make a Love Potion, Vol. 1 by Kamada, Eiko Mutsuhana
4.0
Technically a 3.5 rating! I did like this first volume, and I think it has a lot of potential. Not too much happens in this volume, but it sets up the backstory and introduces some mystery for some characters. Rose, learned her skills as a professional witch from her Grandmother, who has passed and left Rose to manage her hermitage on her own. A client shows up one day, looking for a love potion. Said client is Sir Harij, a knight whom Rose has had a quiet and secret crush on for several years. I am interested in the magic system for this world and the guidelines that witches have to follow! Again, this volume is mostly set up so not too much happens. There is good potential for romance in this series, and I look forward to seeing it!
Crossplay Love: Otaku X Punk Vol. 1 by Toru
4.0
What a fun concept! I'm always a sucker for secret identities and love squares, so this is a fun story for me. Shuumei sees a girl working at a maid cafe, and falls head over heels for her. Except, he's too scared to go into the maid cafe, both out of embarrassment and for fear of looking like a creep. So he decides to dress up as a girl to visit the maid cafe, because it's not creepy when girls go to maid cafes, right? I'm not going to lie, this massive leap in his logic is honestly hilarious to me. It's very much, only a teenager would come up with this kind of idea. Shuumei, now dressed as "Mei", gets to formally meet and interact with the girl he has a crush on, Hana! But unbeknownst to him, Hana is actually Hanae! Hanae dresses as a girl to boost his confidence and to "recreate" his persona and works in the cafe while dressing as a girl. Hanae, whilst working at Hana, meets Mei, who he immediately falls head over heels for. This story honestly has fun playing around with concepts of gender, and the concepts of LGBT love. If not for this secret identity story, it would honestly read exactly like a common high school shojo romance. This first volume doesn't have a lot of meat plot-wise, but again, it's volume one. It's mostly doing the setup and introducing characters for later. This romantic comedy series has plenty of potential that I'm super excited to read! I look forward to the next volumes!
남주를 주웠더니 남편이 생겨버렸다 [Namjureul Juweossdeoni Nampyeon-i Saenggyeobeoryeossda] by Choam
3.0
(This rating is for the manga adaption, not the light novel!)
This manga is okay. It's alright if you don't want anything with a strong plot and want some fluffy romance moments and the FL being cute with kids. There are several plotlines going, but I feel like they get forgotten about until they can be picked up again for *the drama* but none are really interconnected into any "plot". I keep reading cause the slowly budding romance between the female lead and the Duke is kind of cute. I'm always a sucker for "their strong personalities clash at first until they slowly fall for each other" and "They like each other, they're just idiots about it" type of stories. Otherwise, the "plot" is extremely basic and like all the other isekai-style stories in this genre. The female lead dies in her world and gets reincarnated into her favorite book, and she's reborn into the bratty Villainess. Decides to change the plotline so she can live a happy line instead of the original bad ending the villainess has in the book. I've read this exact plotline a million times at this point. The story is fine when you just want something light; don't expect anything deeper than surface level.
This manga is okay. It's alright if you don't want anything with a strong plot and want some fluffy romance moments and the FL being cute with kids. There are several plotlines going, but I feel like they get forgotten about until they can be picked up again for *the drama* but none are really interconnected into any "plot". I keep reading cause the slowly budding romance between the female lead and the Duke is kind of cute. I'm always a sucker for "their strong personalities clash at first until they slowly fall for each other" and "They like each other, they're just idiots about it" type of stories. Otherwise, the "plot" is extremely basic and like all the other isekai-style stories in this genre. The female lead dies in her world and gets reincarnated into her favorite book, and she's reborn into the bratty Villainess. Decides to change the plotline so she can live a happy line instead of the original bad ending the villainess has in the book. I've read this exact plotline a million times at this point. The story is fine when you just want something light; don't expect anything deeper than surface level.
Wild: Or So I Was Born To Be by Cristian Castelo
2.0
Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review!
I was interested in reading this because it's about a high school girl joining a roller derby team! I was thinking this would be sort of like Whip It, but set in the 1970's. It very much is not like that movie. This book fell flat for me. The plot is all over the place, and a bit hard to follow. I'm still unsure if this book is supposed to be reality-based or fantastical. The introductory scene confused me quite a bit, and I'm still not sure if it's supposed to be a flashback or a dream. Both? There were many scenes where I thought it was just Wild imagining the entire thing, until other characters comment on it, and I realized that nope, it's reality. The world of Wild is just that weird. It doesn't help that Wild, the main protagonist DOES have an imaginary version of her roller derby hero that she talks to and gets advice from sometimes. As far as I can tell, Wild's version of Rosie is imaginary. (Also, I can tell from the jump, the plot twist with Rosie is that it's her Mom or someone her Mom knew) The scenes of the roller derby fights were really hard to follow. I'm pretty sure a derby match doesn't allow for two players to monologue for THAT much while standing right in the middle of the track. The way the scenes are drawn makes a lot of the plot hard to follow. There were moments when I couldn't tell the order in which the panels were meant to be read since it was drawn in a chaotic way. The art style of the overall book is just chaotic in general. The style seems to change from panel to panel Everything is drawn in some sort of shade of orange, so it made everything start to blend together visually. Page flow was non-existent. Some of the fonts used in this book were so stylized that they were impossible to read. Also, what's up with there very rarely being any backgrounds? I didn't really care for this, and I see it's the first volume in a series. I really have no interest in picking up the second volume.
I was interested in reading this because it's about a high school girl joining a roller derby team! I was thinking this would be sort of like Whip It, but set in the 1970's. It very much is not like that movie. This book fell flat for me. The plot is all over the place, and a bit hard to follow. I'm still unsure if this book is supposed to be reality-based or fantastical. The introductory scene confused me quite a bit, and I'm still not sure if it's supposed to be a flashback or a dream. Both? There were many scenes where I thought it was just Wild imagining the entire thing, until other characters comment on it, and I realized that nope, it's reality. The world of Wild is just that weird. It doesn't help that Wild, the main protagonist DOES have an imaginary version of her roller derby hero that she talks to and gets advice from sometimes. As far as I can tell, Wild's version of Rosie is imaginary. (Also, I can tell from the jump, the plot twist with Rosie is that it's her Mom or someone her Mom knew) The scenes of the roller derby fights were really hard to follow. I'm pretty sure a derby match doesn't allow for two players to monologue for THAT much while standing right in the middle of the track. The way the scenes are drawn makes a lot of the plot hard to follow. There were moments when I couldn't tell the order in which the panels were meant to be read since it was drawn in a chaotic way. The art style of the overall book is just chaotic in general. The style seems to change from panel to panel Everything is drawn in some sort of shade of orange, so it made everything start to blend together visually. Page flow was non-existent. Some of the fonts used in this book were so stylized that they were impossible to read. Also, what's up with there very rarely being any backgrounds? I didn't really care for this, and I see it's the first volume in a series. I really have no interest in picking up the second volume.
Dungeons & Dragons: Ravenloft–Orphan of Agony Isle by Casey Gilly
4.0
Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review!
(Rating is 4.5!) I just want to preface this with the fact that I know pretty much NOTHING about any Dungeon and Dragons stories, and I know nothing about Ravenloft. Which I think is a campaign or something? Really, I know nothing. This felt like a very Frankenstein-inspired novel but set in a Dungeons and Dragons universe. Miranda, is a mystery girl covered in wounds with no memory of who she was before waking up in Dr. Viktra's lab. Miranda wonders who she was before and why Viktra is bothering to help her at all. Some of Dr. Viktra's and Miranda's interactions are pretty bizarre to me. Dr. Viktra flies into a rage for one second and then instantly goes calm again. Miranda tries to stand up to Dr. Viktra, only to instantly chicken out and go "Forgive me for my indolence!". Like...huh? Those interactions are minor and only happen a few times, but enough for me to notice. The overarching storyline that slowly has Miranda find out how and why she came to be in Dr. Viktra's lab was pretty good. Each chapter has a very small side story, before switching back to the main plot line. I think those side stories are actually interconnected with the main plotline, but I didn't really understand that until about the third chapter. I'm still not one hundred percent they are interconnected, but I assume. The art style is so good! Some of the page spreads are absolutely gorgeous, and the color schemes are beautiful. The page flow is good, and I never got confused about what was happening or who said what dialogue. There's also a good balance of dialogue and action, never too much of one or the other. I dunno, if this is going to just be a stand-alone novel or if there, will be more, but I hope so! I would love to see a novel fully focused on Miranda and a certain side character introduced in this novel.
(Rating is 4.5!) I just want to preface this with the fact that I know pretty much NOTHING about any Dungeon and Dragons stories, and I know nothing about Ravenloft. Which I think is a campaign or something? Really, I know nothing. This felt like a very Frankenstein-inspired novel but set in a Dungeons and Dragons universe. Miranda, is a mystery girl covered in wounds with no memory of who she was before waking up in Dr. Viktra's lab. Miranda wonders who she was before and why Viktra is bothering to help her at all. Some of Dr. Viktra's and Miranda's interactions are pretty bizarre to me. Dr. Viktra flies into a rage for one second and then instantly goes calm again. Miranda tries to stand up to Dr. Viktra, only to instantly chicken out and go "Forgive me for my indolence!". Like...huh? Those interactions are minor and only happen a few times, but enough for me to notice. The overarching storyline that slowly has Miranda find out how and why she came to be in Dr. Viktra's lab was pretty good. Each chapter has a very small side story, before switching back to the main plot line. I think those side stories are actually interconnected with the main plotline, but I didn't really understand that until about the third chapter. I'm still not one hundred percent they are interconnected, but I assume. The art style is so good! Some of the page spreads are absolutely gorgeous, and the color schemes are beautiful. The page flow is good, and I never got confused about what was happening or who said what dialogue. There's also a good balance of dialogue and action, never too much of one or the other. I dunno, if this is going to just be a stand-alone novel or if there, will be more, but I hope so! I would love to see a novel fully focused on Miranda and a certain side character introduced in this novel.
Dega by Dan McDaid
4.0
Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review!
This entire volume left me with the exact same feeling that the last part of 2001: A Space Odyssey gave me. "What the hell did I just read?" This volume is short and incredibly fast-paced. The world-building is thrust upon you, but the small amount of world-building you get is excellent. The plot is fairly confusing; it feels like I started a much longer book in the middle and finished while just a few chapters from the end. The end of the volume is either a massive cliffhanger or just a mysterious ending. It has very much eldritch horror or Lovecraftian style sci-fi vibes to it. I do really like the art style, it's gritty and messy, but it adds to the ambiance of the story. It reminds me of older comic styles, that were completely drawn with ink pens. The switches from full color to black and white, to partial color did throw me off. But I think it was just a stylistic choice. I liked what little bit I got, enough that I'm interested in seeking out a second volume if that will be a thing.
This entire volume left me with the exact same feeling that the last part of 2001: A Space Odyssey gave me. "What the hell did I just read?" This volume is short and incredibly fast-paced. The world-building is thrust upon you, but the small amount of world-building you get is excellent. The plot is fairly confusing; it feels like I started a much longer book in the middle and finished while just a few chapters from the end. The end of the volume is either a massive cliffhanger or just a mysterious ending. It has very much eldritch horror or Lovecraftian style sci-fi vibes to it. I do really like the art style, it's gritty and messy, but it adds to the ambiance of the story. It reminds me of older comic styles, that were completely drawn with ink pens. The switches from full color to black and white, to partial color did throw me off. But I think it was just a stylistic choice. I liked what little bit I got, enough that I'm interested in seeking out a second volume if that will be a thing.