Manga Review: Boku dake ga Inai Machi 1 (Erased #1) by Kei Sanbe

Kadokawa Shoten
Published Jan 26, 2013

Satoru Fujinuma wants to make it as a manga artist but doesn’t know how to deal with people and relationships. So on top of his art, he works as a part-time pizza delivery boy. Looking from the outside in, Satoru is an average male but he has a special ability called “rerun” that allows him to see things before they happen and potently right a wrong. 

But when one of these incidents opens a long forgotten memory, Satoru average life takes a turn.

I sat on this review for a while. I had to sit and let everything I read process. I know what you’re thinking this must have been a terrible book. No, it wasn’t. It actually was one of the best manga’s I have read that wasn’t a high school romance.

It was complicated, emotional in a if I had a child type of way, it was a novel and I loved almost every minute of it.

I say almost because it started off pretty slow and I didn’t really like how it was ended. The issue with the ending is it didn’t provide the fulfillment that the main character had the ending he deserved. It just ended; not with questions but it simply ended. I still don’t know how I feel about that.

In between the slow beginning and the eh ending, the story was great. It had me at the edge of the seat with each page. Satoru doesn’t have much a personality; he isn’t the most depth person and if it wasn’t for his power he would just be a jerk that doesn’t know how to deal with society. But I don’t mind this because the author did an amazing job with the story. It wasn’t about him. It was about the surrounding characters and their lives. He was a feature; do not get me wrong an important feature (he being the hero and all) but a feature compared to those around him. I loved how the author did this. It focused on the story but it wasn’t short of character development.

Its a complicated story that moved fast but not too fast that you felt that something was missing. There was no predictability. When you realized what was going to happened it was already happening. Completely loved it.

The artwork was great as well because it was far from cliche. Everyone looked different, there wasn’t a subliminal sexual innuendo, and the characters had emotions; varying emotion. They felt human. The story felt real as if it happened before or it could happened.

There is an anime for this series but it isn’t complete. I recommend reading it because you will be upset with the way the anime stops.

Overall,

4 Pickles

 

Impatiently Waiting For: The Great Hunt by Wendy Higgins

HarperTeen
To Be Published March 8, 2016
416 Pages

Kill the beast. Win the girl.

A strange beast stirs fear in the kingdom of Lochlanach, terrorizing towns with its brutality and hunger. In an act of desperation, a proclamation is sent to all of Eurona—kill the creature and win the ultimate prize: the daughter of King Lochson’s hand in marriage.

Princess Aerity understands her duty to the kingdom though it pains her to imagine marrying a stranger. It would be foolish to set her sights on any particular man in the great hunt, but when a brooding local hunter, Paxton Seabolt, catches her attention, there’s no denying the unspoken lure between them…or his mysterious resentment.

Paxton is not keen on marriage. Nor does he care much for spoiled royals and their arcane laws. He’s determined to keep his focus on the task at hand—ridding the kingdom of the beast and protecting his family—yet Princess Aerity continues to challenge his notions with her unpredictability and charm. But as past secrets collide with present desires, dire choices threaten everything Paxton holds dear.

Inspired by the Grimm Brothers’ tale, “The Singing Bone,” New York Times bestselling author Wendy Higgins delivers a dark fantasy filled with rugged hunters, romantic tension, outlawed magic, and a princess willing to risk all to save her people. -Goodreads

Confessions

I have no intentions of seeing “The Fault in Our Stars” movie or even reading the book *Kanye Shrug*

Quick Five© with Anya Allyn

Quick Five© with Anya Allyn

Name: Anya Allyn

Who is Anya? An adventurous mother of four that lives by the sea, walks in the forest and writes horror.

Books: Dollhouse Series 1-4

Where to Buy? Amazon, Itunes, Barnes & Nobles

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Psychological thrillers get the blood pumping and no one knows that

Courtesty of Anya Allyn

more than author of the Dollhouse Series Anya Allyn.  Interviewed by Tania Lasenburg, Anya explains the importance of horror and what its like to self publish.

Enjoy the Quick Five© with Anya Allyn below:

What made you decide to be a writer? Was this your first choice in a career or did you happen to fall into it?

I worked for seven years as a Features’ Editor before starting to write fiction. I’ve been writing stories since I could hold a crayon though – in very detailed pictures before I learned to write :)

Why did you want to write Young Adult? Was it the appeal that YA is about inch different from Adult fiction?

 Young Adult fiction appeals because that period in your life is a time of so many possibilities and where so many things are new. It’s a time of excitement and change, of leaving childhood behind, and also of discovering who you are as a person. It can also be a time of difficult transitions. For an author, those things are great to write about, especially if your book is set over a length of time – because your character is growing and changing so rapidly.

Self Published
Published 2012
373 Pages

Your books the “Dollhouse series” is considered horror, was there anything that influenced you to make a horror book?

Dollhouse is a psychological or ‘quiet’ horror, as I’m not a fan of violent horror. I think horror is an important genre. It helps you to experience something very scary and know that you got through it – because life throws lots of scary things at you and it’s good to know that you can get through those things, too. It’s a very individual thing though – some people may be so frightened by a book or movie that it affects them adversely, and those people may be better off not watching or reading horror.

Describe your process of being a self published author. What are the pros and cons of being a self published author?

I wrote Dollhouse as a short story and thought I’d try putting it on Amazon. But the story grew so much that it became a book, and now four books – I loved the story and the characters and wanted to tell everything that was forming inside my head. People come to self-publishing in all different ways – some have been previously traditionally published, some come in with a business plan and others just want to write!

The pros of self-publishing are control over your work, control over the book covers, and for some self-publishers they’ve been able to create a viable income that has even enabled them to give up their day job. The cons are the upfront costs; having to do everything yourself and trying to discover the best information and people that you need to put your best work together. The people you need include editors, cover designers and formatters.

Finally, is there anything you would do differently regarding your writing?

I think I just want to try lots of different things, and to do all that I want to do, I need to increase my input. Writing is like a muscle that develops – you do get better and quicker as time goes on. I love learning about the craft of writing, and I can’t see that ever changing!

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Anya Allyn loves new followers so follow these links:

Twitter

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Website

If you are interested in having your book reviewed or having a Quick Five© with Tania, please email her at wordpress174@gmail.com

 

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