Category: book reviews
Ito Junji – Tomie (Manga)
Tomie, Ito-san’s first manga, is one of the most shocking graphic novels ever created. It’s not only a study in the dangers of lust, it also uncovers the true nature of humanity and how, perhaps, the seven deadly sins are nothing more than a look at the ugliest and most distressing parts of human nature.
Jhonen Vasquez – Johnny the Homicidal Maniac
Author and illustrator extraordinaire, Jhonen Vasquez is one of those artists that, perhaps, shouldn’t ever be allowed in public. His understanding of human nature is so deep, it’s frightening. With Johnny, the Homicidal Maniac, Vasquez shows the crazed and demented side of humanity.
Ito Junji – Uzumaki (Manga)
Uzumaki tells the warped tale of Kurouzu-Cho, a fictional town on Dragonfly Lake. This tasty little bit of nastiness lets audiences into a world where everything is ruled by the spiral. Our shy hostess is the lovely Kirie Goshima, who tells us the story of the strange happenings that occurred in her small town.
Diana McLellan – The Girls – Sappho Goes to Hollywood
Author Diana McLellan – a writer for the Washington Post, hence… journalist? – states that Garbo and Dietrich met on set of The Joyless Street and that they had a fling that ended so bad that it would define the rest of their lives.
Yu Aoi – Uso.
Presented in a Yu-Aoi-faced hardcover book of six pop-up art pieces, Uso. — or Lie. — is just a simple pop-up book that highlights the team behind the project, instead of the idol.
Haruki Murakami – Sputnik Sweetheart
Otherwise known as SUPU-TONIKU no Koibito, Sputnik, mi Amor, or Sputnik Sweetheart, it tells the story of three people: the narrator, a primary school teacher who is in love with Sumire — a young woman trying to become a novelist — who falls in love with a married older woman named Myu, who is unable to love her back.
Haruki Murakami – Norwegian Wood (Tokio Blues)
Norwegian Wood (or Tokio Blues, in Spanish) tells the non-chronological story of Watanabe Toru, who remembers Naoko, the girlfriend of his best friend in high school, who ended up killing himself. It deals with the aftermath of the suicide and their lives pre- and post-suicide.
Enki Bilal – The Nikopol Trilogy
Set in 2023, this trilogy follows the return of Nikopol, who after spending 30 years orbiting the earth finds France under fascist rule after two nuclear wars. The result? It’s a cold, scary world out there with aliens, deformed human beings, and total chaos.
Benjamin Lacomb – Les Amants Papillon
Les Amants Papillons is an illustrated book loosely based on the famous Chinese (tragic) legend about two lovers that can’t be together.
