Graphic Novel Review: Red River

Japanese Title: 天は赤い河のほとり, Sora wa Akai Kawa no Hotori
Also Known As: Anatolia Story
Manga-ka: Chie Shinohara
Volumes: 28 total
Genres: historical, fantasy, romance
English Publisher: Viz
Link: Amazon Listmania List

Synopsis: Red River is about a fifteen-year old Japanese girl named Yuri Suzuki, who is magically transported to Hattusa, the capital of the Hittite Empire in Anatolia. She was summoned by Queen Nakia who means to use Yuri as a human sacrifice. Yuri's blood is the key element needed in placing a curse upon the princes of the land so that they will perish, leaving Nakia's son as the sole heir to the throne. As the story progress, however, Yuri not only repeatedly manages to escape Nakia's scheming, she also becomes revered as a saint and incarnation of the goddess Ishtar and falls in love with crown prince Kail. (from wikipedia)

Review: For myself this is a definite change of pace from the other works I knew Shinohara from originally. I have read many of her shorter works of horror manga, but it wasn't until Anatolia Story that I was introduced to her historical fantasy romances as well.

This is an older manga, dating from the early to mid-90's, and the stylistic changes of the last decade are glaringly obvious. Despite this however Shinohara draws such action in her scenes that the numerous battle sequences (Ishtar is the Goddess of War and as the incarnation of Ishtar Yuri is expected to lead the troops. Also Kail isn't the sit at home type of Prince) come alive.

Unfortunately Yuri spends a good deal of time for the first quarter of the series bemoaning her fate, alternately wanting to be with Kail and not, and in general not getting on with the world she finds herself stuck in. She spends another quarter toppling back and forth between wishing to go home with all her might and wanting to stay with Kail and has spent this third quarter leading into the final quarter finally getting her head on straight.

The story is bogged down by repetition; the same three issues keep coming up: Nakia's treachery and evil, Yuri and Kail's romantic woes and finally the affairs of state. Add to that the fact that its 28 volumes long...you have to have patience. Honestly the parts with fighting go by the quickest and take up a lot of the later volumes and after a while its amusing to see what tricks Nakia will try to pull and how she gets out of being executed.

Shinohara's art is very pretty--fairly typical shoujo style, very pretty girls and very slim bodied guys and she goes all out for the costumes and jewelry. Yuri in particular has several dresses I would die to own. Warning however there is violence and nudity so this is better for an older teen then a younger teen.

Book Review: Evermore

**Young Adult Challenge Book 2009**

Title: Evermore
Series: The Immortals Book 1
Author(s): Alyson Noel
Genre: Young adult, romance, paranormal
Publisher/Year: St. Martin's Griffin/2009
-Webpage: Author Alyson Noel
-Blog: Tales from the Real OC (Really!)


Synopsis: Since a horrible accident claimed the lives of her family, sixteen-year-old Ever can see auras, hear people’s thoughts, and know a person’s life story by touch. Going out of her way to shield herself from human contact to suppress her abilities has branded her as a freak at her new high school—but everything changes when she meets Damen Auguste…

Ever sees Damen and feels an instant recognition. He is gorgeous, exotic and wealthy, and he holds many secrets. Damen is able to make things appear and disappear, he always seems to know what she’s thinking—and he’s the only one who can silence the noise and the random energy in her head. She doesn’t know who he really is—or what he is. Damen equal parts light and darkness, and he belongs to an enchanted new world where no one ever dies.

Review: To be fair I thought this was another teen vampire romance. I have heard about this book for a number of months (since October at least) from other bloggers, though I've avoided reviews so that I didn't have any preconceptions, and I can understand why. Even though this is aimed for a teen market, the author doesn't dumb down the concepts or 'reality' of anyone's situation. Damen is far from perfect (despite how he presents himself) and Ever is clearly damaged more then she wishes to acknowledge.

But then so is everyone else around them. From Ever's best friends Haven (who attends anonymous addict meetings of all sorts to get the attention and love she can't from her self-absorbed family) and Miles (Mr. Gay and Proud of it theater man) to the social bullies (Stacia Miller, the leader, Miss Teen Perfection with more dirty laundry then a laundry mat), no one is perfect. And for Ever that is less of a reassuring concept and more of a distress because she can't even pretend that they might be.

I was relieved to see that Ever wasn't the sort to just be a push over when it came to Damen either. He messes up, a lot, and makes a scramble of things, a lot, and Ever calls him on it. Unfortunately for him he suffers the misconception of thinking that Ever is perfect--he acknowledges the trauma of the past and her inability to move on from it, but he holds this static image of her in his head that doesn't evolve until closer to the end when things become apparent that he overlooked.

The only complaint I have is with Haven. From an outsider's perspective she doesn't seem like a good friend at all. Or rather she's fine as long as Ever remains an anti-social misfit hiding inside an oversized hoodie, but when Ever makes strides towards coming out of the bubble she becomes catty, jealous and angry. As if its a betrayal of some sort. I felt bad for Ever because it was obvious she wanted to make Haven happy, but by being herself it just made Haven angry.