misosoupcup's reviews
470 reviews

Ouran High School Host Club, Vol. 8 by Bisco Hatori

really enjoyed this one. this volume contained a lot of favorite moments and episodes from the anime adaptation!

Ouran High School Host Club, Vol. 7 by Bisco Hatori

bit of a mixed bag for me. i love that this included some chapters to flesh out more of the background of the characters. the hiitachin twins was strong, throwing kyoya at the mall with haruhi created some great comedic moments as well as letting us know that kyoya does have a heart even though he pretends he doesn't. 

the main chunk of this volume focuses on hunny and his younger brother yasuchika. we also meet mori's younger brother satoshi. the brothers of each family are exact opposites, and the haninozuka-morinozuka pairs are opposites which gave me some laughs.

really did not GAF about the robelia girls, and i also didn't like that side story about the egotists or whatever. i don't like the romanticization of teacher/student relationships

Ouran High School Host Club, Vol. 6 by Bisco Hatori

fave moment is near the end when they're trying to cook soup for that old man and get distracted trying out the "common folk" recipes which ends up with kyoya calling his secretary or something to find the man who first claimed that tuna topped with mayonaise and soy sauce will taste like giant tuna, and have him banned from japan because they think haruhi has been deceived.

Ouran High School Host Club, Vol. 5 by Bisco Hatori

4.0

Ngl hikaru and kaoru's baby character arc is one of my fave episodes from the anime, so i was excited to read this volume. My favorite host is also mori bc he is SILENT and MINDS HIS OWN BUSINESS most the time so i also really liked his extra at the end.

Displacement by Kiku Hughes

emotional informative sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.75

yeah i'm not really sure what to say about this book. this very much mirrored by own struggles as a yonsei JA trying to understand my own family's history of incarceration. i am a big fan of octavia butler's Kindred, and kiku hughes does a great job of taking inspiration and adjusting it to fit the needs and goals of her young adult graphic novel. the symbolism of the whole "displacements" is a much clearer allegory for generational trauma.

there were multiple times, in which i was tearing up. the book is an amalgamation of history, memoirs, and personal accounts and i just think it was very effective at making history something personal.

Frankenstein by Junji Ito

5.0

some other works/collections of junji ito's manga feels juvenile to me but the recent ones i have read really make me understand why he is so lauded as a master of horror just beyond his art. his adaptation of frankenstein was stellar (coming from a person who hasn't read mary shelley). i think he really struck that good balance of depicting frankenstein's monster as horrific but sympathetic. and because i haven't read the original work, i was really surprised by its deeper themes.

the strange tales of oshikiri was also pretty good in my opinion. junji ito plays a lot with body horror and alternate dimensions and each story builds off the last, so what started as short story that depicted body horror, becomes embroiled into a bigger series of events that really fleshes out the world he created, it's rules, and characters.

i didn't really care for the doll funeral, or face firmly in place, but the collection ended nicely with two short stories about junji ito's dog.

Cursed Bunny by Bora Chung

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense

4.75

Really nice short story collection. The book blurb describes this as genre defying, which i can see when you look at the entire collection hollistically as the short stories ebb and flow from horror, to urban myths/folktales/cautionary tales, fantasy, and sci-fi but I would say that all of the stories when read separately tend to stick to their respective genres.

Unfortunately, there isn't much analysis that I can find online about Cursed Bunny, except when it comes to the three titles, The Head, The Embodiement, and of course the titular Cursed Bunny. I really had to do a close reading of each one and also scoured youtube for any interviews with bora chung and anton hur to try and see their authorial/translator intent. 

1. The Head is about a woman who discovers a head composed of all the things that she has dropped in the toilet (feces, toilet paper, urine im presuming, and hair). The Head desires that the woman continue to give her material in order for her to become a complete human being. There is a surreal and absurdist element to this story and the proceeding story The Embodiement. My interpretation:
   At the climax, the head becomes fully formed after many years of the women trying desperately to stop it from growing. Much of the description of the younger self emphasizes her beauty and health, which ties the two beings together. The Head/the younger self now embodies the woman/the old self's untapped potential as Chung makes it clear that the woman does not live a meaningful life. Her younger self rebels and flushes the old self down the toilet. The Head first calls the woman "Mother" and the woman is quite unnerved. The Head symbolizes a child, but perhaps an unwanted child as the woman despises it and tries her best to sabotage it's growth. Throughout the story, the woman is put under stress because The Head keeps following her: she quits her job, and thus relies on her husband to bring income to the house. She is not particularly attached to either her husband or her actual daughter as she is too preoccupied with the head. Before the climax, the woman now old, realizes the meaninglessness of her life as she peers at her reflection, 'gazes' at the tv (a passive verb) suggesting no intention in her life, and feels that there is a 'little odd space' in her heart. My conclusion is that Chung is exploring how Korean women pushed into more conventional roles as a wife, mother, and house wife is unfulfilling, and demonstrates this through the tension between the woman and the head.
2. The Embodiement. In a Kafkaesque and absurd style, a woman gets pregnant without having sex. The story begins with the woman having an irregular and long period. She is prescribed birth control, but takes it for too long and becomes pregnant. The doctors tells her that she must find a husband to seed the egg, and be its father or else the baby will develop strangely.
   At the climax, the woman who has not successfully found a husband gives birth to a giant blood clot. She is blamed for her own pregnancy and the reason why the baby ended up as that. My personal interpretation is that the blood clot baby is a physical manifestation of the trauma that women have to endure in medicine, as she was not treated correctly. There are also real life parallels to how women who have been sexually assaulted and/or raped are treated in society. They are blamed for their own trauma by people in both the public and private sphere by their doctors, family members, strangers, and even the media as the woman has other strange and nightmareish encounters when trying to find a husband. I think there could also be a reading of how the reproductive labor of women is exploited in capitalist societies as the 82 year old chaebol tries to coerce her to be his wife/concubine in order to keep his empire afloat. Overall, the character's treat this experience as normal (thus the Kafka comparison) lending a strange reader experience in which we feel like victims being gaslit in a horrific and confusing event.
3. Cursed Bunny. This is one of the more straightforward stories on top of being more discussed compared to some of the others so i'm just gonna stay silent on this one.
4. The Frozen Finger. A woman is blinded by a car accident and forgets her memories. Another voice tries to lead her out of the car to find help. Before getting out she momentarily searches for her ring, and the voice finds it for her before they start their walk.
   The woman because she is in a scary situation follows the voice, and becomes increasingly worried as the voice begins to gaslight her. The story ends in a loop as she momentarily gains her sight back to see that the accident was caused by her past self colliding into her body. I found a great article from the translator Anton Hur. According to him the ring is an allegory of the patriarchal and heteronormative construst of marriage that leads to gaslighting, violence and abuse towards women. In his words, "patriarchy is an institution, institutions are systems, and systems are cyclical—they repeat themselves." On the translated title, The Frozen Finger in which he states that the finger in question is a phallic symbol of the patriarchy (aka. a penis), the woman is repeatedly killed by the finger(s) by a man who takes away her power through initial politeness which transitions into dread as he begins to spin lies to confuse the woman. The man is most likely Teacher Kim (the husband and cheater), and according to Hur the narrator is Teacher Choi who was married to him. However, I think it could be either Teacher Choi (wife) or Teacher Lee (the woman he was having an affair with) as he later reveals (or just states to try and confuse her) that shortly after Teacher Choi discovered the affair she committed suicide. It is possible that Lee and Kim were attending Choi's funeral and thus got in the accident. IDK this really confused me, but i guess whoever it is, it doesn't really matter as the message is the same.
5. Snare. A fairytale made for adults cautioning the reader against greed. Fairytale framing in children's stories helps create safety in the narrative even when describing horrific acts (think of the Grimm Brothers). I have found the story to be reminiscent of the European fairytale The Goose that Laid the Golden Egg and Aespo's fable King Midas and the Golden Touch.
   The man loses his family because he cares more about the accumulation of his wealth than the well being of his family, which starts with the abuse of the fox until he kills it. He marries his wife and they have twins, a boy and girl. The boy is discovered to have the same magical properties as the fix who bleeds gold, but he must consume the blood of his sister in order for it to be gold. The son along with his father is allowed to abuse his sister by biting and drinking her blood, and eventually raping her when they get older. (It seems that the daughter like the son has inherited an unearthly gift/curse from the fox which is her beauty). The man's grandson is a literal "golden boy" who has inherited his mother's beauty and his father's feralness as he is found eating the body of a man he has killed. There isn't really an analysis as I found this one quite straightforward.
6. Goodbye, My Love. Its like a combination of Ex Machina and Her. Themes
   Consumer capitalism, cultural fears around AI/robots whether be because it sits in an uncanny valley of machination and projected humanity, fears about surveillance and privacy, the cultural practice of disposing of women once they become "too old"
7. Scars. Longest story in the book. I agree with a lot of other people who think this is the weakest link in the book. I initially really liked this one and I still do, but upon close inspection yeah, the collection would probably be stronger if it was snipped. Folktale vibes.
   Anton Hur said the subtext in the original Korean version is a story about sexual abuse. I also kind of agree with this reading as he tried to bring out the subtext more explicitly in his translation. Specifically for me a couple of lines. For instance, the sorcerer who created this ritual in the first place states that the best sacrifice is a prepubescent child. The boy/narrator's marrow is sucked out of him every month (?) by a giant bird referred to as "It", that plunges it beak into a new part of his body mostly on his spine starting near his pelvis to his neck, leaving the boy in pain each time and in some instances unable to walk. He escapes for a bit, only to be purchased and coerced to participate in a fighting ring (perhaps an allegory for sex trafficking??) before returning back to the bird who tries to "climb on his back" and proceeds to rip the boy's new tunic and trousers before It is killed.
8. Home Sweet Home. Urban legend vibes. I wasn't particularly interested in this one. Themes:
   Gentrification? The reality of trying to live outside of capitalism (the husband)
9. Ruler of the Winds and Sands. Fantasy, no explanation as this one is also fairly straight forward.
10. Reunion. A lot of people's favorite. I also think this one is pretty straightforward. Also my fingers hurt SOOOO much. Very melancholic and quite somber. I agree with Anton Hur when he says that it is a relief to finish a sad story and return to your life which will continue differently.

The Forbidden Notebook by Alba de Céspedes

tense slow-paced

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

4.0

Valeria Cossati’s impulse to keep a diary leads not so much to the knowledge of good and evil as it does to self-knowledge, advocated by Socrates and serving as a cornerstone of philosophical inquiry ever since. In Valeria’s case, it also leads to solitude, alienation, guilt, and painful lucidity.

not entirely sure how i feel about this one folks. valeria is such a rich complex character, while she is much older than me and i do not believe i have the same trajectory towards the lifestyle she has chosen, i still found myself attached and sympathetic to her even though there were moments that frustrated me.

because she has been consumed in domestic housework for most of her life, her diary is a practice of  self-discovery and knowledge that she has given herself as it was previously inaccessible to her. through this practice she has found that her life is not as perfect as she thought it was when given a moment and the tools to reflect, but when given a small choice to liberate herself (in a dubious manner i will admit) she denies it to herself and throughout the story struggles between liberation and reinforcing patriarchy in the private sphere of her home (as symbolically represented through her uneven treatment of her grown children riccardo and mirella).

a lot of tension in the first half of this book is built through her guilty conscience as valeria is desperately afraid of the consequences if her diary, recording her private thoughts, were to be discovered by her family and thus upon discovering that valeria has thoughts and opinions that question the very foundations of her family and her role in it. unfortunately, the second half kind of lulled for me as much of the conflict is very internal, and valeria is not very active in her own narrative until we near the end.

idk idk.

Athena's Child by Hannah Lynn

fast-paced

4.0

Never really thought the genre niche of feminist retellings of classic greek mythology would be my thing, but i am warmly baffled by Athena's Child. 

Medusa's story is heart wrenching as we watch the god's really put her through the wringer throughout the novel. When they decide to let her pass on in peace of course its with irony as we all know what happens. Of course i was expecting that this book would make me side with its female protagonist but wowie, Medusa really did NAWT FUCKING DESERVE THAT. Really enjoyed this version's take on perseus in which he is basically a naive and chaotic mama's boy.

Ended quite abruptly, and i wish there was more follow through on perseus ending his quest and returning home to save his mother.  It moved quite quickly in places i would have loved some more? But also glad this book didn't veer off into places it didn't need to go, overall great read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape and Sexual assault

Heaven by Mieko Kawakami

3.5

Surprised i even finished this