Review: Jojo's Bizarre Adventure: Part 4 -- Diamond is Unbreakable, Volume 4 (by Hirohiko Araki)

My Rating:  3 stars

I’ve never been a huge manga reader, but my nephew enjoys it, so I decided to check out some of the series he’s been into lately.  One of those series is JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, which was originally published in Japan as part of the Shonen Jump magazine series from 1987 through the early 2000s.  There are 8 parts to the series (which apparently continues to be an ongoing series still popular in Japan), though only the first 4 parts have been released in English here in the United States.  The story revolves around members of the Joestar family, each of whom possesses some type of supernatural ability in the form of a “Stand” that they use to battle a variety of enemies, leading up to defeat of a main villain at the end of each part.

When I was browsing Edelweiss earlier this month, I noticed that part 4 -- which is being released in February 2020 by Viz Media (the manga series’ English-language distributor in North America) -- was already available for request, so I figured this would be a good chance to both check out the series and have some quality reading time with my nephew.  Of course, my nephew was excited at the opportunity to finally read the manga version, even though he already knew the entire story due to watching all the video adaptations of the manga that have apparently been out for quite some time already.  This knowledge would actually come in handy, as we soon discovered that the version being published was chapters 57 to 75 of part 4, which is only around 20 chapters out of a total 174 chapters that part 4 is comprised of – so basically, we started reading this somewhere in the middle of one part of the series (volume 4 of part 4 to be exact).  Without any prior context or knowledge of the series, it probably was not a good idea to start smack dab in the middle like we did, as I ended up completely lost for the first 10 chapters or so – it got a little better halfway through, but much of that was because my nephew explained the story to me as we read and also gave me the background context to each of the characters (when I said earlier that he knew the entire story, I definitely wasn’t exaggerating, lol). 

We did end up getting through the entire volume and my nephew loved it of course, but I wasn’t as keen on it, mostly because this is the type of manga series where the story continues on from one volume to the next, so unless you start at the very beginning (or you’re already familiar with the story like my nephew was), it’s really hard not to muddle through.  I also thought it was way too long -- nearly 400 pages! – though to be fair, as mentioned earlier, I don’t read a lot of manga, so perhaps that is normal length nowadays.  I’m also not a fan of the genre (supernatural fantasy), which I’m pretty sure is the main reason why I found it so difficult to follow the story.  In any case -- with all that said, I decided to rate this 3 stars, as the issue was with me rather than the book itself, plus my nephew did enjoy it even if I didn’t, so I figured this is the fairest way to go.  As for future volumes, I haven’t decided whether I will request the next one when it comes out – it depends on whether my nephew will still be into the series or not by that time, since his interests change constantly from one month to the next.  If he’s still into it, then definitely, I will continue to request and read future volumes with him, though I will be sure to read up on the backstory and the characters first so the experience can be less arduous the next time around!

Received ARC from Viz Media via Edelweiss.

Review: Such a Fun Age (by Kiley Reid)

My Rating: 4 stars

 

I actually finished this book a few days ago but held off on writing the review because I was busy, for one (the past week has been chaotic for me both at home and at work), and two, I needed some time to gather my thoughts and figure out how best to approach this one.  It’s not often that I come across a book that, on the surface, reads like a simple, straight-forward story where a few dozen pages in, I feel like the plot is going to head in a predictable direction, but then things get turned completely upside down and by the time I finish reading, I realize that the story is much more layered and complex than I initially thought.

The story is told from the viewpoints of the 2 main characters:  Emira Tucker and Alix Chamberlain.  Emira is a 25-year-old African American woman who is college-educated but still trying to figure out what she wants to do with her life, so she takes up part-time babysitting for Alix and Peter Chamberlain, a privileged white family living in an affluent neighborhood in Philadelphia.  One night, Alix calls up Emira with a favor – to take her two-year-old daughter Briar to the neighborhood grocery store for a bit while she and her husband deal with an emergency at home.   While walking around the grocery store with Briar, Emira is suddenly confronted by a security guard who accuses her of kidnapping Briar and threatens to have her detained.  Amidst the verbal back-and-forth between Emira and the security guard, a handful of onlookers gather and a young man records the entire incident on his phone.  Thought the misunderstanding is cleared up fairly quickly, Emira is humiliated, upset, and visibly shaken.  When Alix finds out about the incident, she is outraged and determined to make things right.  From there, a series of events is set into motion that threatens to upend both Emira’s and Alix’s lives forever.

This is a book I found very readable, one that pulled me in from the first page and kept me engaged, even during some of the “slower” parts where nothing much seemed to happen.  The story was well-written, timely, and relatable, with characters that were not just well-developed, but also portrayed in a way that was realistic yet respectful and empathetic.  This type of balance is not easy to achieve, especially with a story like this one that has a “social commentary” bent to it in its exploration of topics such as race, privilege, class, etc.  I appreciated the fact that the author Kiley Reid took a completely different approach from most of the books out there that address racism and bias – she took the story in a non-traditional direction that was totally not what I expected, but in a good way.  I also liked how, despite the serious and oftentimes contentious subject matter that Reid deals with here, it’s not done in a heavy-handed way, and most important of all (to me at least), there is no “preachiness” to the story in that it doesn’t attempt to steer the reader in one direction or another.  Life is complicated, as are the various relationships that make up the landscape of our lives, and more often than not, the lines between right and wrong can become blurred and not easily distinguishable – this is a story that reflects these complexities but does so in a way that is subtle and therefore is more effective in its message.

This is a book I definitely recommend, one that everyone should read, especially given the state of affairs in our country currently, and with the issues of race versus privilege being at the forefront of so many discussions nowadays.   For me personally, this book gave me much to think about – I only wish I had read this one more slowly, as there were some nuances that I feel deserved some pause to reflect upon.  This book definitely deserves the buzz it has been getting so far and by the looks of it, with the many angles that can be explored and discussed, this will likely be a hot-button read for many book clubs in the coming year as well!

Received ARC from G.P. Putnam’s Sons via Edelweiss.