Manga: Baccano 2

Baccano Vol 2
Rating: 5/5
Buy or Borrow: Buy
Source: Copy courtesy of the publisher! 

NEW YORK, 1930

Three years after the Phantom Father incident, Firo is about to get a promotion within the Martillo Family. But the intricate web of fate has other plans in store for him as the elixir of immortality nears its completion, setting off a chain of events that brings together gangsters, alchemists, and everyone in between!

Let the crazy ruckus continue! 

I completely and utterly loved the first volume of Baccano, and it threw me some curve balls with the supernatural twist and got me plenty intrigued with the mysteries. As we start this volume we're hit with a time jump of three years from the end of last volume, which I thought was an interesting development and again....I wasn't expecting it! 

We're now in 1930, post stock market crash! The full colour page immediately grabbed my attention and I was so ready to dive in to this volume...plus it's chunkier than the previous one which had me all excited too! 

Firo gets promoted to Executive in the Camorra, something I was expecting to see him struggle towards throughout the coming volumes, and I'm intrigued to see what path this will take as it keeps blind siding me every single volume! 

Edward, an Inspector and seeming nemesis of Firo and co appears at the start, along with two new characters. Miriam and Isaac...and I can't even. They're all "We're gonna rob people. We need to keep a low profile." and then being kind of idiotic and bumbly and then trying to be all tough and scary. They're kinda funny and mostly harmless...I think. I actually quite like them, I think! I'm hoping they'll be a permanent fixture. They took us quite the interesting journey as we got to know them and finally figured out what their motivation is, bless them. 

We also meet Dallas, who's a new bad guy going against the Gandors and the Mafia in general by the looks of it. I was actually feeling quite bad for him at one point but by the end of the volume I was like "okay dude...dig your own grave, I'm out". I think he'll be sticking around for a little while, so I'm basically assuming that the new characters introduced in this volume are our permanent cast for the coming volumes after the time jump. I'm kind of looking at Volume 1 as a prologue at this stage! 

Ennis....I felt kind of sad for her. I didn't actually realise she was a she until Firo pointed it out. All thanks to the deceptive art work! She provided a shock twist with who and what she is! She works for Szilard, who's returned to the city after three years...duh. The liquor of immortality is nearly complete, or rather...is complete until disaster strikes. Curious as I am about Maiza...he cracks me up and I love his interactions and relationship with Firo! 

We get plenty more background on Szilard and Maiza and what went down on that ship in 1711. Alchemists and alchemy, which I was so not expecting from a manga that I thought was all about the mafia! There's some interesting information/lore on how it all works, and I'm a sucker for the details in this series! 

I love the Gandors, Luck in particular! Their friendship with Firo is cute and hilarious at the same time, and I like how they switch their personalities depending on the occasion. I'm so excited we're getting to see them in this volume as I wasn't sure if things may have changed in the three year gap! Although things aren't looking good for them at the end of the volume! 

The historical detail, including slang in the dialogue is genuinely amazing and I'm living for all the various different kind of details in this volume, both historical and otherwise! My one gripe is...where  is Claire?! 

As we head towards the end of the volume, things really start to kick off and to quote the volume....the stage is set! There's certainly going to be a lot of chaos coming up, and I'm excited to see all of these various different, yet interesting characters all working together or against each other or whatever! Upon completing this volume...it becomes clear that we should treat vol 1 as a prologue, introducing us to the characters, while this volume really kicks off the story! 

Manga: Angels of Death 2

Angels of Death Vol 2
Rating: 5/5
Buy or Borrow: Buy
Source: Copy courtesy of the publisher! 

As amnesiac Ray and cutthroat killer Zack try to break out of the basement, they finally arrive at the graveyard that is Floor B4. There, a boy who's become quite taken with Ray has been lying in wait... 

So, I completely and utterly fell in love with this series from volume 1, and I'm trying to work out how to play the game on my Macbook, so I've been eagerly waiting the next volume and I pretty much devoured it straight away! 

I really want to like Zack and I low-key ship he and Ray, I'm not going to lie. This volume gives us some background on Zack and his past which I've ben curious about since the previous volume and I wasn't entirely expecting to get such a chunk of backstory so soon. He's almost heroic at one point in this volume....in his own, creepy, serial killer kinda way. Bless him. 

Ray and her lack of emotions is genuinely fascinating to me, and I have so many questions about her and her past and why she is the way she is, and who she is and so on. I was hoping for some clues or tidbits this volume but nope! Zack is taking his pact with her pretty seriously, much to my surprise, and it seems she is too. To be honest, if this goes the romance route it's gonna be one weird romance but I'm so ready for it! 

The murderer of the volume is Edward Mason, the creator of the grave stones and he seems to know Zack, presumably from them living in this complex together. It was actually pretty funny. Eddie is one of those creepy kid characters that make you dislike kids a little bit. He's also been taking fashion advice from Jack Skellington. I mean...it's a sack but it looks kinda like a pumpkin. I actually empathised with him at the start, before he went full crazy. Because I could see where he was coming from. 

That's the thing about these characters, you kinda like them or empathise with them before they flip their switch and reveal the killers they are. In Rachel's case you feel for her and you're curious about her but there's also something off about her and that feeling grows in this volume. Much as I ship she and Zack, they're kind of unsettling both separately and together. In Zack's case...it's mentioned again that while he's a serial killer, and you find out his past and two of his victims, (I mean fair play, you can't say they didn't have it coming) you hear again how he's failed to kill anyone in the building and I genuinely think/hope that there's more to him, that he might not be who we think he is. I'm hoping he'll surprise us! 

I love the detail given to the characters at the end of each volume, and in the volume itself. So with Eddie for example, he's really fleshed out, considering you only get him for one volume, and you really get to understand him as a character. It's really well done, it makes them more than just throwaway characters for one volume. 

This volume focuses on the one floor, B4, and it's a speedy journey through it, Zack and Ray come to more of an understanding, and then we get a glimpse of our next killer who looks like yet another vastly different one to the others we've seen so far! 

Once again, the art is oddly cute, considering the murderers and serial killers, like Eddie is hella creepy moving in the dark and appearing and disappearing, and his whole grave thing...but his mask is just so damn cute! It's odd to feel tension reading certain scenes in this and it being because of a cute pumpkin/sack headed kid. I don't think I'll ever get bored of this series, there's so many interesting aspects to it, and the characters and their development are really well done! 

Review: The Belles

The Belles
Rating: 5/5
Buy or Borrow: Buy
Source: Copy courtesy of the publisher! 

Camellia Beauregard is a Belle. In the opulent world of Orléans, Belles are revered, for they control Beauty, and Beauty is a commodity coveted above all else. In Orléans, the people are born gray, they are born damned, and only with the help of a Belle and her talents can they transform and be made beautiful.

But it’s not enough for Camellia to be just a Belle. She wants to be the favorite—the Belle chosen by the Queen of Orléans to live in the royal palace, to tend to the royal family and their court, to be recognized as the most talented Belle in the land. But once Camellia and her Belle sisters arrive at court, it becomes clear that being the favorite is not everything she always dreamed it would be. Behind the gilded palace walls live dark secrets, and Camellia soon learns that the very essence of her existence is a lie—that her powers are far greater, and could be more dangerous, than she ever imagined. And when the queen asks Camellia to risk her own life and help the ailing princess by using Belle powers in unintended ways, Camellia now faces an impossible decision. 

With the future of Orléans and its people at stake, Camellia must decide—save herself and her sisters and the way of the Belles—or resuscitate the princess, risk her own life, and change the ways of her world forever. 

Guys...you need to read this book, it was freaking awesome! I wasn't entirely sure if it was a standalone or not but after the ending, there's no doubt and I'm excited for the next book...I need it like, yesterday! I also wasn't entirely sure what to expect from this book but it actually blew me away.  

The Belles is intriguing from the start and I found the descriptions to me vivid and bright. The settings all sound very beautiful and colourful and bright...but there's a darkness seeping in along with the feeling that something isn't quite right at the palace and the tea house and so on. It's literally like looking at a colourful, beautiful exterior and then scratching it a little bit and seeing the dank, dark underbelly. There's little tidbits dropped throughout that have you thinking "hang on a minute..." and giving you a sense of foreboding as you try to work out what's going on. Literally nothing is as it seems, situations...characters, none of it. 

I have to say, I really loved our MC, Camille, she was imaginative, and bored of being told what to do. She questions things and makes her own decisions....she's inquisitive and I loved her for it. She see's something's wrong and she doesn't just ignore it and go about her day, she investigates. Bree I really loved, I was a bit wary of her at first but it became clear she's loyal to Camille and I liked the relationship between the two. Camille and her sister Belles had a brilliant dynamic and relationship amongst them, even if Amber was being a brat a few times and I wasn't sure I liked her...I eventually warmed to her. I'd have loved to have seen some more of the relationship between all of them, but I'm hoping in the next book we get to see more of Amber and Edel and get to know them more!

Remy....I ship he and Camille so bad and I'm not sure if I'm supposed to but I was all set to dislike the grumpy pants....and then I just ended up loving him. Bless him, he tried so hard to try and be friendlier and you got to know more about him and it's impossible not to end up liking him. Although he does give you pause towards the end! As for Auguste....he's charming. Which made me suspicious from the start. I wanted to trust him, I really did, but I couldn't quite bring myself to because I always felt there was something slightly off about him. 

This book was somewhat of a hard read for me, as someone who's struggled with their appearance since I was a teenager, and often wished for the things in this book, you know...being able to effortlessly change how you appear and so on. This book shows what's wrong with that. It makes you question it. It makes you see that it wouldn't be a good thing, it shows you what could go wrong and Camille herself just wants people to love themselves and that's what she wants to achieve with her gift, it was actually a really lovely message for the book, if not a hard one to accept. 

It genuinely did not take me long to get fully sucked in to this book, there are so many snakes throughout I was never sure who could be trusted, and there's a completely psychotic Princess. Sorry not sorry, but she genuinely is a psycho. I'd say I love to hate her, but really I just hate her, she's awful. There where so many fun, imaginative little details thrown in, I have to say, it really let my imagination run wild as I pictured the world. The pace was good anyway but towards the end it really picked up and then plot twists get thrown at you one after the other and one event triggers others until the book finishes with a bang. Like seriously....I'm gonna be needing more and I'm gonna be impatient while I wait. 

Manga: Graineliers 2

Graineliers Vol 2
Rating: 4/5
Buy or Borrow: Buy
Source: Copy courtesy of the publisher! 

Luca and Abel have been rounded up to work on the construction of a government research facility, but it's actually a trap to identify carriers! The National Grainelier Special Education and Research Institute chair, Nicolas, has laced the water with an herbicide that's harmless to humans but disastrous to seed carriers. With suspicion hanging heavy over the young men, will Luca's secret be discovered? 

As we open the volume, Luca's secret is dangerously close to being discovered and while he's not fully outed, I guess you could say, he's still pretty much discovered. He and Abel are separated and Luca is heading towards Headquarters with Nicolas and his guard...until something goes wrong. 

There's a fun twist about Nicolas that's going to prove to be veeerrryyy interesting, considering what it implies and the other bits of information we get from some other sources throughout the volume. Things aren't entirely what they seem, and I'm excited to watch it play out and see what he can help Luca with. 

Hugues continues to be mysterious as the volume starts and he clearly knows more than he lets on. As the volume progresses, he turns in to one of the more interesting characters. He's a part of Insecte, the opposition to the Graineliers and something of a terrorist group and he invites Abel to join, which is something I didn't entirely see coming. I'm really enjoying how the world is getting embellished upon and built up more and more with each volume, with new elements being brought in. 

Abel certainly has a decision to make and I'm intrigued to see what he chooses. 

Graineliers is certainly fast paced, and I'm actually enjoying how it's moving things along because it does so without sacrificing world building or backstory, which this volume proves as we get more backstory on the world and how the seeds work, as well as having some blanks about the characters filled in. Things are presented differently in this volume as secrets come to light. 

Abel and Luca are on different paths now and I'm excited to see how they'll grow and change in coming volumes. Plus there's still the mystery of Luca and what seed he has and his father and so on, all to be untangled and revealed. I still can't quite decide if I like Nicolas, and I guess it'll depend on how the next volume or two plays out! This volume in short...is certainly full of surprises! 

Review: The City of Brass

The City of Brass
Rating: 2.5/5
Buy or Borrow: Buy
Source: Copy courtesy of the publisher! 

Nahri has never believed in magic. Certainly, she has power; on the streets of 18th century Cairo, she’s a con woman of unsurpassed talent. But she knows better than anyone that the trade she uses to get by—palm readings, zars, healings—are all tricks, sleights of hand, learned skills; a means to the delightful end of swindling Ottoman nobles. 

But when Nahri accidentally summons an equally sly, darkly mysterious djinn warrior to her side during one of her cons, she’s forced to accept that the magical world she thought only existed in childhood stories is real. For the warrior tells her a new tale: across hot, windswept sands teeming with creatures of fire, and rivers where the mythical marid sleep; past ruins of once-magnificent human metropolises, and mountains where the circling hawks are not what they seem, lies Daevabad, the legendary city of brass?a city to which Nahri is irrevocably bound. 

In that city, behind gilded brass walls laced with enchantments, behind the six gates of the six djinn tribes, old resentments are simmering. And when Nahri decides to enter this world, she learns that true power is fierce and brutal. That magic cannot shield her from the dangerous web of court politics. That even the cleverest of schemes can have deadly consequences. 

After all, there is a reason they say be careful what you wish for . . .

Okaaaaay so everyone loves this book and I've been told multiple times how amazing it is, and I finally got a chance to read it after being super busy. However, I'm kind of still not sure how I feel about it. My main issue with the book is that I spent three quarters or so of it kind of bored. Don't get me wrong, I thought the world building was brilliant, but I don't think we needed to spend quite so much time on it, because for me, it really affected the pace and I found myself kind of mildly bored and waiting for things to happen. I also got a little bit confused a few times too which made it difficult for me, the ending was mind blowing though! 

I love anything to do with Egypt or folklore in general, and this book sounded badass, djinn....a con artist MC.....this had been on my radar since last year! I thought the book was richly written, and like I said, the world building was brilliant. But it took me a while to get in to the book, and I spent most of the time reading waiting for things to finally happen, which they did towards the end of the book. By that point I felt like it came maybe a little too late, there was just too much for most of the book where nothing was really happening, our MC doesn't even hit the city until probably half way through. Like the beginning seemed promising and I thought it was going to be fast paced...but it slowed right down and while I loved the writing and the world building...the pace was an issue. 

Don't get me wrong, when everything kicks off at the end it was exactly what I'd been hoping for. Epic battle scenes, with rich writing and detail and information thrown in...but it took so long to get there that I couldn't quite appreciate it. I feel like it would have been better if some of the information had been thrown in here and there rather than all shoved in to the front half of the book. I very nearly gave up on this book because of the slow pace, and the confusion I felt when it came to the rules and inner workings of Daevabad. 

I find myself saying this phrase again but....don't get me wrong, I love it when a book has a meaty amount of political intrigue to sink my teeth in to, it pulls me in and gets me hooked on the book and even puts me on edge at points depending on the book. But when it came to this book, yes, the political intrigue drew me in to an extent, and at points I was feeling quite tense...but I was also very confused for a chunk of the book and even after reading the information at the end of the book I still don't feel like I have everything straightened out. 

There was just too much information and I couldn't sort through it all, it was overwhelming and I felt like a lot of it was all going over my head. I just couldn't wrap my head around most of it. I have to say, I feel incredibly dumb because I still don't know what the difference between some of the factions are and what their problem is exactly and who was working with who against who and why, it made me feel quite fed up to be honest which was disappointing to me. In short....and I never thought I'd be saying this, the world building, while brilliant, was just so damn complex it swiftly crossed over in to confusing and I just couldn't straighten out who was what....Djinn? Daeva? I have no clue. 

As for the characters, I found myself oscillating between liking them and disliking them. Nahri I initially started out liking, she's the kind of MC I love and cheer for, she had attitude, she was a con artist who survived on her wits and was kind of a badass because she was so independent. She did what needed to be done and she was smart, plus she could heal people. My issue with her was that she swiftly went down hill, she irked me more than once and I wanted to smack her a time or two but by the end of the book I felt like she became like every other MC I've ever been disappointed with, you know the ones? The ones that make stupid decisions for no good reason and become a little bit useless and irritating, and it was such a disappointment for me because she was so promising in the beginning.

Nahri is one of our view points, the other is Ali, and I was never entirely sure I liked him. Mostly because I was confused about who was on who's side and why and who the bad guys where supposed to be. I liked him in the beginning....but then I disliked him a bit because he was a wee bit stupid and gullible at points, and then I started to like him again in time for him to jump on Nahri's "Stupid decisions" bandwagon and then that was it for me. I was just so frustrated and done. Plus there where hints of a love triangle and I'm really not here for that. 

Dara was another source of mixed feelings for me, he was mysterious and I was intrigued by him and his past and as we got tidbits of what had happened to him and what he'd done I really felt for him, but he reached a point when I was kind of done with him because he became so arrogant and was kind of a d***. Like I get his view point, I really do, but at this point Ali was pretty much the only character I cared about and then Dara came in and started acting like an arrogant prat and I just couldn't get over it. By the end of the book I really didn't like him, and I didn't particularly like Nahri for going along with him. I didn't particularly care for their romance either. 

I loved the legend and myth that went in to the book, and the writing was vivid, towards the end of the book I did get pulled in by all the plot twists that kept changing my perception of things and the action and the treachery and plotting, and I was kind of devastated by the end of the book...and then the prologue? The prologue was epic. Unfortunately it's a bit of a slog to get there, as you have to wade through over 300 or more pages of info dumping that goes from being manageably complex to swiftly making you confused AF, which kind of overshadowed the whole reading experience for me. I don't know...maybe I'm just dumb, but like I said...I'm still not entirely sure what was going on with the different tribes and so on. Alongside the info dumping the only other thing really happening is the flirting between Dara and Nahri and I was too busy being confused to really focus on it, or care much for it. 

I don't think I've ever been sadder to give a bad review to a book to be honest, because I was just so excited for it and eager to read it and it ended up being such a struggle for me. 

Manga: Aoharu x Machinegun 9

Aoharu x Machinegun Vol 9
Rating: 4/5
Buy or Borrow: Buy
Source: Copy courtesy of the publisher! 

"I lost everything...I don't have anything left in this world..." 

Toy Gun Gun and Star White team up for the counter battle against 11 DOGs. While fighting alongside Midori as a two-man cell, a glimpse up at the sky brings memories rushing back to Matsuoka. 

This volume opens interestingly as we get an in depth look at Matsuoka's past and his relationship with Midori, and how it all went wrong...sort of. I have plenty of questions along the same line as Matsuoka, but we get to see how he got involved in the survival games and so on. 

Speaking of Matsuoka, he finally manages to get a grip on himself, which I've been shrieking at him to do since last volume. It's been interesting watching his little break down and how he pulls himself out of it and overcomes it. But it looks like he and Midori won't be friends ever again despite working together in this volume. 

This volume finishes off the battle with 11 Dogs, but it plants seeds for some interesting developments next volume. Yukimura has a strange memo in his hand at one point which I'm guessing is a plot set up for the next volume?! Or possibly the future. But you know...I need to know NOW! 

And damn....this volume ends on such a cliffhanger like....FINALLY the reveal is nigh, and I've been waiting for it for ages because how can Matsuoka be so dumb, but the volume's like "nah mate, wait until next volume" like.....I HAVE BEEN WAITING PATIENTLY FOR 9 VOLUMES FOR THIS ALREADY DAMMIT, I NEED IT NOW! I'm so ready for next volume, because things are certainly going to change and there's going to be some drama after this volume that set some things up and filled in some important backstory for us! It really does have an excellent plot pace!