Hoshi wa Utau by Natsuki Takaya

Hoshi wa Utau by Takaya Natsuki

Ongoing

Summary: Sakuya is a high school student with a dark past. During her birthday, a mysterious stranger comes to her house and brings her a present. Later she sees this stranger, Chihiro, and is enamored with him. Chihiro joins her high school and they become "friends", even though he treats her like a jerk. The story is centered around the Star Watching club that Sakuya runs with her friends.

Likes: It is really dark for a shojo manga. Even though it's riddled with teenage angst, almost to the point of being melodramatic, the story doesn't rely on its angst alone. This story explores a lot of themes such as abandonment and irresponsible adults whose children have to pay for their mistakes. Each character has there own dark secret and it's interesting to see when their pasts become a problem in the present story. Each story is different, yet they all have the same general theme of abandonment and mistreatment of children. Each of the characters is relatable somehow, despite their odd behaviors and quirks, the author makes us care about what is happening them and more importantly what happened in their pasts that makes them the people that they are when the current narrative is taking place. The artwork is beautiful and Sakuya is similar to Tohru in some ways, but very few of the characters are repeats of characters in Takaya's past works. This shows that she puts effort into making her characters unique.

Dislikes: The fragmented sentences make it hard to read and it's really repetitive at points. There is one character that bugs me, but I can't remember her name so I guess it doesn't matter.

Overall: This is something I don't mind reading continously. It's more grounded in reality than Takaya's other works, which is to be appreciated.

Thorn by Amy Mebberson

Thorn by Amy Mebberson

Summary: Rosie is a bratty and spoiled kindergarten with a dream to dominant the world. She goes around collecting friends (minions) and terrorizing her sister(nemesis).

Likes: This comic was constantly on my RSS feed and I loved to read what Rosie and her friends got into. The story is set in the 1950's and the artwork and the clothes reflect that. There are references to Charlie Brown and other characters from comics in the 50's. The artwork is cute, distinct, and very well done. The story arcs were life lessons for Rosie and Edie, but the lessons were heavy-handed and were often witty. There many laugh out loud moments in this sweet little comic.

Dislikes: I'm not one for bratty little kids. Edie was my favorite character.

Overall: I was really sad when this comic ended, but it was still a fun year and a half since I started reading the comic. The author is very talented and has already had a few comics published by TokyoPop and is working on a Finding Nemo project which is the reason for the abrupt ending of Thorn.

The Bermudez Triangle by Maureen Johnson

The Bermudez Triangle by Maureen Johnson

Date Started: July 28, 2009 Date Finished:July 28, 2009

Summary: Nina, Avery, and Melanie have been friends for a very long time. During the summer of junior year, Nina goes off to a precollege at Stanford University for ten weeks. During that time she meets Steve, an ecowarrior from Portland, Oregon who was raised by three generation of hippies. While she's away Mel realizes her feelings for the opposite sex and her affections have transfered to her friend, Avery. The two girls start dating. When Nina returns, she feels left out and ultimately walks in on her two friends making out in the fitting rooms. Now Nina is caught in the middle between her two friends, Avery who is confused about her sexuality and Melanie who is sure about her sexuality but is too afraid to come out to her single parent father and her distant and status obsessed mother.

Likes: I liked this story and the different conflicts between the characters. They story was believable and bittersweet. The characters were also real people in my opinion and didn't seem like cardboard cutouts for the most part. Sure they were types, Nina being the hardworking A+++ student, Avery the cynical wise ass,and Mel, the unexpected lesbian (but for some reason no one seemed surprised). Johnson has alot of types in her story, but she gives them defining characteristics that seem more than the average types.

Dislikes: Johnson is a huge fan of roadtrip stories. In my opinion, it's starting to get a little predictable. It's interesting but it's starting to become a trope that Johnson often refers to get characters together and work things out. It's a really annoying habit that I hope starts to get phased out of her other works (which my email just informed me are currently available for pick-up.) because there are other ways of getting characters to talk things out. Other than that major pet peeve, there doesn't seem to be anything else that bugged me. Some of the storylines never seemed to go anywhere and never got any closure, which also seems to be the case in some of Johnson's other works. Sometimes there just needs to be another chapter to sum up the state of how things may be. 

 

Overall: I liked this book. It's a different type of story than Johnson's other works and it explores the dynamics of friendship more closely than her other works as well. It has a good ending, but it still needs a little closure. Instead of an ending, it seems like it's a new beginning. It's an interesting way to read a story and it's a refreshing and satisfying ending for the most part.