Uzumaki by Ito Junji

Pages (Paperback): 208 pages

Publisher: VIZ Media LLC; 2 edition

Released: October 16, 2007

Note: I'll be reviewing the entire series, which span between 3 books, but I'll be only posting the first book here.

Quick Thoughts: This is the third or fourth story I've read by Ito Junji. He has a way of taking simple concepts and making them into strange and crazy things. I also enjoy his artwork, when his characters go crazy you can really tell. Anywho, I've heard great things about Uzumaki so I decided to check it out!

Review: The story starts with Kirie Goshima finding her boyfriend's father staring at a snail shell. He's bewitched by it and doesn't even notice Kirie when she walks up to him. According to Shuichi Saito, Kirie's boyfriend, his father has been acting weird lately and doing this kind of thing a lot. He quit his job and spends all day looking at spirals, spirals, and more spirals. Shuichi mentions, in passing, that the town is contaminated with spirals. Kirie doesn’t believe him and when you first start to read the manga, you think he’s kind of crazy too, but as you continue reading, you start to see just how contaminated the town really is.

The spirals start to change Shuichi’s father and drives his mother crazy. People change into spirals, turn into snails, and well, you’ll just have to read the manga to know what else happens to those who are affected by the spiral. Just know that things will get even stranger and stranger for the inhabitants of Koruzo-Cho.

Final Thoughts: I think I love Uzumaki. Not spirals, because I don’t want to go crazy, but the manga is quite wonderful. Ito-san is one of the best horror manga writers in Japan and when you read Uzumaki you really see that. He takes such a simple concept of spirals and makes it into something so horrifying. And the way he ties everything together is quite smart too. The art is clean and crisp and you can tell that Ito-san took his time detailing everything.

My only complaint would be Kirie. I wish she actually listened to Shuichi and figured out that he was right. Kirie, despite warnings from Shuichi, keeps getting involved with spiral cases. Once she does, she always seeks out his help. I would think that after awhile, she’d start to understand where he is coming from. I do understand why she didn’t and once you get to the ending of the manga, you’ll understand as well. I just wish she did something.

Other than that, this is a fantastic manga! I still haven’t read everything by Ito-san yet, but so far, I think this might be his best work. Definitely check this out! This is one manga that you don’t want to miss!

Grade: 10 out of 10

Read the shorter version of this review at 5 Line Reviews

The Host by Stephenie Meyer

Pages (Paperback): 619 pages

Publisher: Little, Brown and Company

Released: May 6, 2008

Quick Thoughts: I've owned this book for awhile now, but didn't read it. I'm not sure why, perhaps it was the page count that always made me look at another book. Then I read Twilight, soon after I read the rest of the books in the series. After I finished them, I decided that I need to read The Host.

Review: Meet the Wanderer, an alien being that travels the planets, never settling for one place or another. Her race, called Souls, have survived by becoming parasite like creatures that take over their host's body. Now on earth, the Wanderer is placed inside a human named Melanie.

Normally, the souls completely take over, but when the Wanderer hears Melanie's thoughts, she knows something isn't right. The two can't stand each other and rightfully so. Melanie wants her mind and body back and the Wanderer wants her body to be free of it's former host.

That all changes when the Wanderer sees Melanie's life and realizes she can't inform her companions of Melanie's family. Despite herself, she's loves Melanie's brother, Jamie, and Melanie's love interest, Jared. So the two hatch a plan to leave the compound and seek them out.

Their arrival to the humans isn't a smooth one and it isn't easy for both of them to witness the brutality of their 'family.' But the more the Wanderer, now dubbed Wanda by the humans, stays with her new friends, the more she can't help but want to be a part of them. But will the two species be able to cohabitate together? Or will the war between them continue?

Final Thoughts: When I first started to read The Host, it reminded me of the manga, Parasyte by Iwaaki Hitoshi. Both have very simple ideas, but take it to a whole other level. Both stories deal with parasite like creatures invading their hosts, but messing up, causing the the human and alien to join forces. Parasyte is more about the psychological aspect of this, while The Host is more about the journey one alien takes to find themselves.

Wanderer is a fantastic character, completely different from Bella, Wanda is sympathetic, caring, and yet completely aware of herself. She knows she won't be accepted very easily and despite this, she continues trucking along so that others can acknowledge that she means no harm.

The love triangle, or should I say square? Was actually quite interesting to read. I personally dislike the use of love triangles in a story, because more often than not, the girl will string along both guys and be stupid about it. Plus, there is always cheating involved and I find it hard to respect a character like that. However with The Host, it made sense. Melanie is in love with Jared. Wanda loves Jared, due to Melanie's thoughts, but finds herself falling for Ian. It's not really a love triangle/square in the tradition sense, but it ends up being that way due to Wanda and Melanie sharing the same body.

The writing style was what blew me away though. It's the same, but completely different from how Meyer's wrote the Twilight series. I've read that she was targeting adults with this book and I guess that somehow made her novel jump out more. Her writing suits this kind of story and themes than it did with vampires. It's a shame though, because I want to read more of Meyer's adult novels now.

This is a real treat and I thoroughly enjoyed my time reading this. I need more Stephenie Meyer! :p

Grade: 10 out of 10

ps. Pick up Parasyte by Iwaaki Hitoshi, tis a fantastic manga and one that will make you think.

Was this a little too much, if so check out the smaller review at 5 Line Reviews

Prey by Thomas Emson

Pages (Hardcover): 469 pages

Publisher: Snowbooks Ltd.

Released: November 1, 2009

Quick Thoughts: Maneater was fun. Skarlet was noteworthy, and Prey is...

Review: Laura Greenacre has been hiding since the events from Maneater, keeping her distance from her non-werewolf aunt and her love, John Thorn. The Templetons are still trying to kill her and the authorities haven't given up searching for her.

Despite all this, a loyal group of regular joes remain supportive of Laura through the internet. Sharing their stories of how Laura saved them on that fateful day and keeping tabs on any werewolf sightings and hoping that one day they can see Laura again. Laura has her own mini fan club.

One person who isn't in the club is Ruth Templeton, who wants to kill Laura for murdering her family. Now, a werewolf herself, she's embraced her animal side and will not let anything get in her way of seeking her revenge. She finds a man, by the name of Wheeler Burns, to help her. Burns, along with his rich friends, bored of hunting animals have decided to up their game and hunt humans. Ruth decides to give them Laura and have a fun afternoon hunting the werewolf.


Final Thoughts: Wow, I was actually surprised by how much I liked this book compared to the last two. The addition of Burns was a great one. He's someone who you want to hate and want to see killed. Hunting humans for sport is sickening, but it made sense in the novel and it was interesting reading about him and his horrible involvements.

I loved the contrast between Laura and Ruth. Maneater was very much a story about Laura's revenge on the Templetons and the way Laura went about that was completely different to how Ruth tried to get back to Laura. Ruth was spiteful, mean, hateful, and did anything she could to get what she wanted, when she wanted it. While Laura was just going to go full force and guns blazing, Ruth would use her resources.

It was nice and despite myself, I looked forward to the chapters involving Ruth. She was definitely not a woman you could trust and if you failed, she would eat you. She was definitely the truest definition of a cougar.

As much as I love the character of Laura, I found myself more interested in Ruth, Burns, and Major Lev Dasaev. Laura is still a memorable character and she's great in this book, but Lev took over my favourite character spot in this novel. He's a wonderful character and incredibly sympathetic at that too. I wish we saw more of him, but I did like how he ended up becoming the hero in the end.

Prey wasn't something anticipated, Emson mentions that he didn't plan to write a sequel after Maneater, however, I'm glad he did. Everything that I loved about Maneater was intensified in Prey. Great characters, great premise, and tons of actions. Can't wait to read more from Emson!

Grade: 10 out of 10

Visit 5 Line Reviews, for the shorter version of this review.

Dreamland by Sarah Dessen

Pages (Paperback): 256 pages

Publisher: Speak

Released: May 11, 2004

Quick Thoughts: This is the first novel by Sarah Dessen that I read. I remember really wanting to read this one, because I love blue hues. If you haven't noticed yet, I'm incredibly shallow when it comes to book cover. When I heard what the book was about, I was interested. I read one book about abuse and while for the most part I liked it, the book didn't only talk about the victim.

Review:

"It was like he wanted to be mad, so he'd have an excuse to do what he did to me."

~ taken from page 168 of Dreamland

On the morning of her 16th birthday, Caitlin's sister, Cass, runs away, leaving behind a present and a note for her parents. She ran away with her boyfriend Adam, and now works in a Jerry Springer like show.

Her mother takes the disappearance the hardest, sulking and watching the show religiously, the moment it comes on the TV. During this time, Caitlin takes up cheerleading (it's something Cass wouldn't do) and meets Rogerson, a drug dealer, and super genius. The two hang out and pretty soon Caitlin start falls in love for the resident bad boy.

After a scene involving Rogerson's father when the two really become close and pretty soon Caitlin's whole life starts to revolve around Rogerson. It doesn't take long for Caitlin to start falling behind in school and failing almost every class, but as long as she's with Rogerson it doesn't seem so bad. Rogerson introduces her to sex, drugs, and sadly his fists as well.

Even though I knew it was coming, when the first punch happened it still surprised me. I think I even gasped when it happened. The abuse doesn't start until the middle of the book, which is something that I liked. Abuse doesn't usually start right away in a relationship. There is usually a time period when everything seems perfect and emotions start to develop. It's after this period that the abuse happens. The book follows the same sort of formula, which is why the abuse so shocking.

Final Thoughts: Dreamland is a depressing book, with a message about hope, but it's mostly depressing. But when it comes to abuse, I think it needs to be. It's heartbreaking and I was so emotionally invested in Caitlin that every time she came home with a new bruise and make an excuse for it, I wanted to find her, give her a hug, and tell her to wake up! It's frustrating to watch someone give up and let this happen to them, but watching how Caitlin falls made me understand why she stayed. The reasons why he hurt her was illogical and the reason she stayed with him was stupid, but it's realistic.

I loved this book, because it didn't shy away from abuse and how the victim deals with it. Dreamland is a brutally honest book that is chilling to read. It's also a book that I will never forget. This is a book that you definitely need to pick up!

Grade: 10 out of 10

For the shorter version of this review, visit 5 Line Reviews.