Books continue to exist, and therefore I’m buying and reading them. While a lot of my reading comes from the Seattle Public Library, I’m always down to support local bookstores. Around where I live, I recommend Elliott Bay Book Company, Third Place Books, and Kinokuniya (not a local store technically, but still one of my favorites for manga series and works in translation). Here’s a selection of what I’m enjoying now:
Kuzushiro, The Moon on a Rainy Night
I have the softest of spots for chaste, slow-burn yuri manga, and The Moon on a Rainy Night hits me right in the sweet spot (so much yearning!). But the real reason that I love this manga so much, and why I immediately purchase a new volume when I spot it on the shelves, is because one of the characters is Deaf. While former piano prodigy Kanon still has some hearing in one ear, she needs a hearing aid to be able to go to school and interact with the world. Her disability has isolated her, and it’s only when the bubbly Saki shows up in her life that she’s able to connect with friends her own age. As someone who deals with an invisible disability every day, I was astonished at how well Kuzushiro portrays the social aspects of disability. The responses that Kanon gets from fellow students in her class – “she’s only doing it for attention”, “she just wants special treatment”, “everyone lets her get away with everything”, “she’d be a lot better if she actually tried” – are exactly the sorts of comments that people in my adolescence, even into my adult life, so they hit particularly hard. I’m just hoping that these crazy kids can kiss soon, because it’s been seven volumes. I mean, I like a slow burn, but does it have to be this slow?
Inio Asano, Goodnight Punpun
I was familiar with Asano’s work from his haunting adolescent romance manga A Girl on the Shore, and after spotting this series at Kinokuniya, I decided to pick it up. It deals with a lot of the same subjects as A Girl on the Shore – the isolation of young people in disastrous family situations – but with a darkly comedic twist. I always enjoy stories that can go from laugh-out-loud funny to deeply emotionally affecting. I also love Asano’s art, which ranges from hyper-realistic backgrounds of run-down Japanese suburbs to the cartoony abstraction of the main character Punpun. Also, in case you’re wondering, at no point does anyone comment on the fact that Punpun is a bird.
Marta Skaði, Confessions of an Antichrist
More teenage outcasts in blackly comedic situations, although in this case they’re members of a black metal band with a lead singer who may legitimately be the Antichrist. I know for a fact that I would love second-wave Norwegian black metal, but every time I consider listening to Mayhem or Burzum, I remember Varg Vikernes’s politics and recoil in horror. (There’s a fair amount of black metal that I do enjoy, but anything from that scene is not my jam). The members of Baphomet’s Agony spend more time beating up fascists and religious bigots with comically oversized dildos, though, so that’s more in line with my overall worldview. And Confessions of an Antichrist contains enough sex, Satanism, and metal to make my withered, blackened heart grow several sizes. There’s even a touch of romantic angst. Apparently my choices in reading lately have a theme…
Alexandra Bracken, Silver in the Bone and The Mirror of Beasts
Speaking of tormented teenage romantic longing, this duology has that in spades. I had a lot of fun with the main character Tamsin’s banter with her rival-turned-lover Emrys over the course of these books, as well as the Arthurian and Welsh mythology that underpins the setting of the book. I love seeing Welsh myth brought into the modern era – it’s far less utilized than Irish legend – as you’ll see if/when my New Adult urban fantasy novel comes out. Maybe it’s time for me to reread the Prydain Chronicles again so I can scratch that itch…