2025 read #55: Come Tumbling Down by Seanan McGuire.

Come Tumbling Down by Seanan McGuire

206 pages

Published 2019

Read from August 19 to August 24

Rating: 3 out of 5

After some standalone entries, McGuire’s fifth Wayward Children book continues the tale of Jack and Jill from Down Among the Sticks and Bones and Every Heart a Doorway.

It’s a bit of a step backward from the delicately crafted tragedy of In an Absent Dream. We’re back at the Home for Wayward Children, which means a crowd of YA protagonists squeezing into each scene to trade quippy dialogue and gum up the pacing. (There are three iterations of “You died!” / “I got better” punchlines.) Still, Down is an occasionally lovely book full of heart, compassion, and memorable imagery.

Reading a book from the first flush of contemporary queer liberation is a heavy reminder of how far backward we’ve slid in a mere six years. I miss the world of 2019, the impression that the arc of history would bend toward justice and freedom. I miss the way fantasy authors had begun to pepper their stories with progressive messages and wise asides. A perceptive line about how some would be eager to immiserate children in order to ensure the world never changes hits different now that such ghouls have gained control over so much of the world, and plan to entomb us all in a nightmare built from antebellum fantasies. 

2025 read #50: In an Absent Dream by Seanan McGuire.

In an Absent Dream by Seanan McGuire

204 pages

Published 2019

Read from June 11 to June 17

Rating: 4 out of 5

The last of McGuire’s Wayward Children series I read was Beneath the Sugar Sky, way back in 2018. Back then, I found the books solid but perhaps just a tiny bit unsatisfying. Enough years have passed that my reading tastes have shifted; is it time for a revisit?

Like Tori Bovalino’s Not Good for Maidens, Dream is a modern riff on Christina Rossetti’s Goblin Market. Young Katherine Lundy loves books, rules, logic, and staying inconspicuous. When she happens upon a doorway to the strange and rule-ordered Market, where every exchange demands a “fair price,” she finds herself increasingly at home, even if accruing too much debt means turning into a bird.

The Wayward Children books (particularly the first one) fit within the 2010s fad for telling what happens to the heroes after the story ends. This comes through in Dream, with McGuire eliding through the big adventures against the Wasp Queen and the Bone Wraiths in favor of seeing the effect the trauma and loss have on young Lundy afterward.

Either this volume clicked with my current sensibilities, or I’ve simply become less nitpicky with middle age. From the standard fantasy trope of fair bargains, McGuire opens doors onto complicated questions of what we as people owe each other, what love and belonging can offer us, and the cost they extract.

2025 read #37: Children of the Whales: Volume 8 by Abi Umeda.

Children of the Whales: Volume 8 by Abi Umeda

Translated by JN Productions

194 pages

Published 2016 (English translation 2019)

Read from April 14 to April 15

Rating: 3 out of 5

Here we are at my library’s last volume of Children of the Whales. Mostly I’ve read this series to shamelessly bulk up my book numbers, which is something I had said I would avoid doing this year. Ah well. At least it’s been enjoyable, even if it didn’t grab me the way Delicious in Dungeon or Witch Hat Atelier did.

When Umeda’s writing hits, it’s stunning. Emotional vulnerability, the importance of community, sacrifice to preserve said community, guilt and absolution, all powerful themes.

But a lot of that graceful mood of grief gets lost under the weight of Umeda’s worldbuilding. I’m just not invested enough for flashbacks to two or three generations previously. And every volume introduces new terms and concepts. It gets to feel like noise after a while. (Though I’m sure a lot of my attitude is modern day anhedonia. I mean, just look outside. The monsters are winning.)

2025 read #36: Children of the Whales: Volume 7 by Abi Umeda.

Children of the Whales: Volume 7 by Abi Umeda

Translated by JN Productions

194 pages

Published 2016 (English translation 2018)

Read from April 12 to April 14

Rating: 3 out of 5

It’s difficult to write reviews of long-running manga when I read them back to back like this. I’m still interested enough to read through this series (or at least what my library has of it), but it’s starting to feel like background noise. (Most of that feeling is due to the state of my country, though, to be fair.)

This volume has a grab-bag quality. Each chapter is its own little standalone story, all of them contributing to an ever more elaborate tower of worldbuilding and backstory. Which is fine, I suppose, but it’s a lot of worldbuilding and backstory, so very much. The last chapter is a short story, published by itself years before, that doesn’t seem to have anything to do with Children of the Whales aside from commentary on authoritarianism and Umeda’s fixation on jesters and large women.

In case you had any doubts about the series’ overarching point of view, we hop back to the original generation of exiles on Fálaina, who prove to be rebels against the totalitarian control of a government that sucks away its people’s emotions. Said government is the ancestor of the Apátheia pursuing the Mud Whale in the story’s present day.

Maybe that’s why I keep reading this series: it serves as a gentle, emotional refutation of the sociopathy of authoritarianism.

2025 read #35: Children of the Whales: Volume 6 by Abi Umeda.

Children of the Whales: Volume 6 by Abi Umeda

Translated by JN Productions

192 pages

Published 2015 (English translation 2018)

Read April 12

Rating: 3 out of 5

After it is revealed that the nous of the Mud Whale consumes the lifespans of the marked in order to sustain itself on the sand sea, the unmarked decide to maintain the secret and steer the island toward a distant land, where perhaps they can abandon the Whale and extend the lives of those touched by magic. Along the way, this volume proceeds as a series of self-contained chapters, exploring strange locales and incidents of the voyage. But discontent brews among other factions on the island.

I should take a moment to praise the sumptuously detailed artwork Umeda uses to portray the use of magic or the empathic visions her characters experience. It’s absolutely gorgeous.

2025 read #34: Children of the Whales: Volume 5 by Abi Umeda.

Children of the Whales: Volume 5 by Abi Umeda

Translated by JN Productions

194 pages

Published 2015 (English translation 2018)

Read from April 11 to April 12

Rating: 3 out of 5

After the bloodshed, grief, and pathos of Volume 4, Volume 5 opens with a wacky episode of comic relief, as Sir Rochalízo, the first non-hostile outsider the people of the Mud Whale have ever seen, happens to arrive at bath time, and the mayor greets him in the buff. It’s giving beach episode.

Rochalízo ends up being a colonial-minded dickhead. But his presence inadvertently creates a significant change for the inhabitants of Fálaina, as the Mud Whale reveals the ability to steer itself. We also learn why the Whale’s marked — the people able to use the magic called thymia— die so young.

After the chaotic action of the last installment, it was nice to have more of a low-stakes hangout vibe. I still don’t know how deep I will read into the series, but for now, it’s an enjoyable way to pad out my book numbers.

2025 read #33: Children of the Whales: Volume 4 by Abi Umeda.

Children of the Whales: Volume 4 by Abi Umeda

Translated by JN Productions

193 pages

Published 2015 (English translation 2018)

Read April 11

Rating: 3 out of 5

It’s been about a month since I read Volume 3. Clearly that was enough time to leave me almost entirely lost when I picked up this installment. Umeda swerves between perspectives in a bloody action sequence as the apátheia, or harlequin soldiers, continue to raid the Mud Whale. Exposition gets doled out mid-battle. It’s difficult to make sense of it all.

The main vibe is one of intense, sometimes melodramatic emotion. Pretty much every character either dies in horrific, pointless violence, or survives to weep about them in the aftermath. It makes sense thematically. The central conflict is between the residents of the Mud Whale, who are free to feel their emotions, and the emotionally-drained apátheia, who view them with mingled disdain and disgust. The heightened emotional stakes are thus central to the story being told.

One could read any number of allegorical interpretations into this; in the contemporary world, it’s tempting to see it as empathetic, compassionate people hounded to the ends of the earth by the sociopathic adherents of patriarchal capitalism.

I think I’ll enjoy this series more if I read them closer together, and can keep better track of who any of these people are. I have four more volumes checked out from the library that I’ll likely use to pad out my reading numbers for this month. After that, our library doesn’t stock any of them, and I’m not sure if I’ll continue the series. It’s long, much longer than any other manga I’ve read.

2025 read #27: Dinosaur Sanctuary: Volume 6 by Itaru Kinoshita.

Dinosaur Sanctuary: Volume 6 by Itaru Kinoshita

Research consultant: Shin-ichi Fujiwara

Translated by John Neal

194 pages

Published 2024 (English translation published 2025)

Read from March 18 to March 19

Rating: 3 out of 5

Last time we visited Enoshima Dinoland, I was dealing with a family crisis, and was too depressed and demoralized to appreciate dinosaur theme park escapism. Since then, my country has lurched its way into full-blown fascism, and I’m probably too depressed and demoralized now to properly enjoy dinosaur theme park escapism.

In all honesty, I think the Dinosaur Sanctuary formula might be running out of juice, six volumes in. Which is impressive, considering the Jurassic Park franchise went downhill by book/movie number two. The mix of prehistoric zookeeping and light workplace drama remains charming, but each book is just more of the same, and at this point, even I, a lifelong dinosaur fanatic, am starting to feel satiated with this particular blend.

Part of my issue is with the characters. Even with the occasional dollop of backstory, the cast remains vaguely pleasant archetypes. I don’t feel more than a superficial connection to anyone beyond, perhaps, Suzume, our reader surrogate. It’s hard to invest in workplace drama without that attachment. And this volume felt especially light on dinosaurs, which only emphasizes how shallow the characters feel without them.

2025 read #25: Children of the Whales: Volume 3 by Abi Umeda.

Children of the Whales: Volume 3 by Abi Umeda

Translated by JN Productions

192 pages

Published 2014 (English translation published 2018)

Read March 14

Rating: 3 out of 5

Back at it again with Volume 3. (Hey, I checked out the first three tankōbon from my library, might as well speed right through them.) The Mud Whale safe for now from tampering, its residents spend this installment prepping and training against the return of the apátheia, or harlequin soldiers.

As so often seems to happen in these manga series (I’m looking at you, Frieren), Whales loosens up its tone and gravitas to indulge in more generic teen tropes, such as Lykos getting mobbed by some cool-girls we’ve never seen before in order to give her a makeover. It all absolutely makes sense in context, a sort of community bonding calm-before-the-storm to establish the characters and their home more fully.

All too soon comes the renewed attack from the enemy battleship Skyros. Much of this volume’s final third comprises battle sequences. Umeda’s artistic skill carries these sections. And of course the book ends in a cliffhanger, so I guess I’ll be off to the library at some point for the next few installments.

2025 read #24: Children of the Whales: Volume 2 by Abi Umeda.

Children of the Whales: Volume 2 by Abi Umeda

Translated by JN Productions

192 pages

Published 2014 (English translation published 2018)

Read March 14

Rating: 3 out of 5

Rolling right along into Volume 2. The first tankōbon ended with a sudden massacre at the hands of some sociopathic harlequin soldiers, which certainly is a vibe. The sentimental melancholy of the first couple chapters still shows through from time to time, especially in some lovely artwork in Chapter 7, “This World Is Beautiful Because…” However, much of this volume was action, as our heroes realize the elders would rather sink the Whale than face a return of the harlequins, and must gather allies and fight there way into the bowels of the island to stop the elders.

A theme has emerged of embracing and understanding one’s own emotions, in opposition to the emotionless husks warring across the outside world. This, plus the artwork, has kept me sufficiently interested to keep going.

2025 read #23: Children of the Whales: Volume 1 by Abi Umeda.

Children of the Whales: Volume 1 by Abi Umeda

Translated by JN Productions

193 pages

Published 2013 (English translation published 2017)

Read March 14

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

Still struggling to find manga that fills the Delicious in Dungeon / Witch Hat Atelier-shaped absence in my life, I happened upon this series in my library’s collection, and decided to give it a try.

Teenage Chakuro is the archivist for the people of the Mud Whale. Their entire society of some five hundred people scrounges a living on the back of the floating (possibly living) city, drifting through a seemingly boundless sea of sand that swallows anything else on its surface. Chakuro and his fellow Marked — users of emotion-fueled magic — live brief lives, rarely living beyond 30. The longer-lived Unmarked, who cannot wield magic, comprise the society’s leaders despite being much fewer in number. But the elders know more than they let on about the world beyond the Whale.

The worldbuilding is complex, and the pacing feels a bit off as a result, though Umeda never lets the exposition completely overwhelm the story. A melancholy urgency, an awareness of short lives and sudden death, suffuses Chakuro’s narration. Umeda’s artwork is gorgeous, particularly the establishing shots of the Mud Whale and the larger world around it.

Whales is no replacement for Delicious or Atelier, but it’s intriguing enough as its own thing. 

2024 read #139: Delicious in Dungeon: Volume 14 by Ryoko Kui.

Delicious in Dungeon: Volume 14 by Ryoko Kui

Translated by Taylor Engel

191 pages

Published 2023 (English translation published 2024)

Read November 9

Rating: 4.5 out of 5

Delicious in Dungeon: Volume 1 was the very first book I started reading after my partner R and I moved into our house, back in April. We had moved to New York in part to position ourselves for a potential return to Trumpenfascism, planning either for blue-state protections or for proximity to Canada, should that prove necessary. But as we settled here, and the Harris campaign became the can’t-possibly-miss-it choice for America’s future, those anxieties quieted. I dared to imagine a life of humble satisfaction and community joy instead of mere survival. Dungeon remained a fixture through all of that summer into fall, as I finished the first season of the anime and spaced out the manga.

I finished Dungeon in a different world, a darker and meaner and shallower world. This week, I sped through the last few volumes to wring out what comfort I could. I’ll miss it, going forward.

Volume 14 serves as a loving coda to the characters, quickly but thoroughly tying up loose ends and giving each of the central cast a lovely moment of farewell. Kui’s storytelling continues strong even in this victory lap, doling out just the right amount of closure for the characters and their story. After the unrelenting gallop of the final climax, I’m so happy Kui gave us this last little time with characters I’ll never forget.

2024 read #138: Delicious in Dungeon: Volume 13 by Ryoko Kui.

Delicious in Dungeon: Volume 13 by Ryoko Kui

Translated by Taylor Engel

175 pages

Published 2023 (English translation published 2024)

Read November 9

Rating: 4.5 out of 5

Continuing Kui’s unparalleled run with another incredible installment. Stunning art, gorgeous layouts, satisfying storytelling, thematic continuity, payoffs rooted in all the patient character work she put into this series — truly, what more could you want from the penultimate volume of this story? Absolutely wonderful.

2024 read #137: Delicious in Dungeon: Volume 12 by Ryoko Kui.

Delicious in Dungeon: Volume 12 by Ryoko Kui

Translated by Taylor Engel

239 pages

Published 2022 (English translation published 2023)

Read from November 8 to November 9

Rating: 4.5 out of 5

What began as a fun adventure with a clever hook — eating the monsters on our way through a dungeon! — has broadened and deepened into an exploration of desires, consent, grief, and what it means to be alive. Kui’s art and storytelling continue to be astonishingly dynamic, twists and developments conveyed in amazing compositions. At the heart of everything are the characters we’ve gotten attached to, even the secondary and tertiary characters from various factions, all of them drawn together in an extended climax that never feels overwhelming. And as always, the loving central emphasis on food, on cooking, on feeding one another as an act of care.

An excellent installment of a superlative manga. When I began it, I never imagined our world would be what it is here near the end, never expected the comfort I would find in these monstrous times. I’ll be so sad to reach Dungeon’s end.

2024 read #135: Delicious in Dungeon: Volume 11 by Ryoko Kui.

Delicious in Dungeon: Volume 11 by Ryoko Kui

Translated by Taylor Engel

215 pages

Published 2021 (English translation published 2022)

Read from November 6 to November 7

Rating: 4.5 out of 5

The last 36 hours have felt like two weeks. I'm exhausted, in mourning, filled with fury. I've lived through so much despair, clawed my way back to grim determination, over and over again. And hardly any time has gone by.

This is another excellent installment of Delicious in Dungeon. Kui's compositional skills are simply astonishing as we hurtle toward the climax of the Winged Lion arc, and with it, the climax of the series. We get some of the best storyboarding and artwork of the series here, and some big plot developments that are well-executed and pay off on all the character groundwork. It’s really good.

2024 read #134: Delicious in Dungeon: Volume 10 by Ryoko Kui.

Delicious in Dungeon: Volume 10 by Ryoko Kui

Translated by Taylor Engel

223 pages

Published 2021 (English translation published 2022)

Read from November 5 to November 6

Rating: 4.5 out of 5

What are we even doing here?

Joy is inherently antifascist. We have to keep taking care of ourselves. Etc. etc. All important words, but in the moment, they feel like the tritest of truisms. I don’t feel the point of anything right now. I don’t feel much of anything beyond despair, rage, grief, fear. Futility.

That’s precisely what the fashies want. So I try to keep hope (and myself) alive. They voted knowing they won’t get anything tangible out of their dear leader beyond spite for the people they hate. So I try to spite them back, by living. By finding my own joy. But it’s so difficult, and I’m so tired.

I’ve been trying to distract myself from the horrifying outcome of the election, but it’s impossible. Focusing on even my favorite manga for more than a page or two at a time is a chore. Inevitably, I find myself crying, or numb, unable to concentrate.

What the fuck are we doing here?

Look at me, I read another volume of Delicious in Dungeon. Yay. Go me.

It’s an excellent installment in an excellent series. There are dungeon bunnies and necromancy and cooking and character development and foreboding tension in the plot. There’s heartbreak and a cliffhanger. Kui exceeds even her high standards for artwork and storytelling. I cried. The book is good.

But none of this feels important anymore. Not the reading, not the blogging. I’ve always maintained this blog for me — no one else reads it, aside from the fucking plagiarism bots that scrape every word left unprotected on this dying web. I keep going because I don’t know what else to do.

I keep going, because otherwise, I stop.

2024 read #133: Delicious in Dungeon: Volume 9 by Ryoko Kui.

Delicious in Dungeon: Volume 9 by Ryoko Kui

Translated by Taylor Engel

207 pages

Published 2020 (English translation published 2021)

Read from November 4 to November 5

Rating: 4.5 out of 5

Another fucking election coming up. Time to distract myself as best I can, by checking out every single remaining volume of Delicious in Dungeon from my local library. Truly the most 2024 way I could compartmentalize my anxieties.

I had been looking forward to the succubus arc — who doesn't love a sexy monster? But in Ryoko Kui's hands, not only do we get sexy monsters, we get an astonishingly well-constructed arc with emotional stakes, ending with my favorite character moment ever for Izutsumi.

Perhaps it's just the contrast with the pretty but flat art of Tsukasa Abe in Frieren, but Kui's art is absolutely phenomenal in this volume. Her storyboarding and storytelling, too, are at their finest here. We learn more about the dungeon, and that all might not be what it seems with everything we had learned before. Top notch stuff.

2024 read #132: Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End Volume 7 by Kanehito Yamada and Tsukasa Abe.

Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End Volume 7, story by Kanehito Yamada and art by Tsukasa Abe

Translated by Misa ‘Japanese Ammo’

187 pages

Published 2022 (English translation published 2023)

Read November 3

Rating: 3 out of 5

This is my library’s last volume of Frieren, so it’ll be the last one I’ll be able to read for some time.

After the extensive arc for the magic examination, this tankōbon brings us back to the series’ more typical episodic structure. We wrap up loose ends with the other mages, head back out into the northern wilds, help a village or two, and find a hot spring. It’s an understated entry, but I’m fond enough of the characters that it didn’t feel at all like a waste of time. It’s as good a stopping place as any.

I do think the series has won me over enough that I do want to continue it, whenever that might be in the cards.

2024 read #131: Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End Volume 6 by Kanehito Yanada and Tsukasa Abe.

Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End Volume 6, story by Kanehito Yamada and art by Tsukasa Abe

Translated by Misa ‘Japanese Ammo’

189 pages

Published 2021 (English translation published 2022)

Read from November 2 to November 3

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

Any disgruntlement that the magical exam storyline continues from Volume 5 (and in fact comprises all of Volume 6, as well) is mollified by the fact that the second test is an extended dungeon raid. Yamada hits an excellent balance of action, character moments, and clever dungeon encounters, setting this volume a nudge above the rest of the series so far.

I’ve been wavering about whether to continue this series or not; this volume lands me solidly in the “continue” column. Which is almost unfortunate, because my county library only has copies of Frieren up through Volume 7. Just one more book after this one, and I’m stuck having to buy them if I want to keep going.

2024 read #130: Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End Volume 5 by Kanehito Yamada and Tsukasa Abe.

Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End Volume 5, story by Kanehito Yamada and art by Tsukasa Abe

Translated by Misa ‘Japanese Ammo’

188 pages

Published 2021 (English translation published 2022)

Read November 2

Rating: 3 out of 5

From the start, the most intriguing element in Frieren was the light touch of melancholy and loss that pervaded its story. Frieren, a seemingly immortal elf, didn’t realize how much her adventuring friends had meant to her until almost all of them had passed away. The idea of drifting through time, watching the world change and those you love wither away, is an obvious outcome of the standard post-Tolkien fantasy setting, yet not one I’ve seen explored that often. Even if I had middling opinions regarding individual volumes, Frieren as an overall story arc had promise.

Jump ahead to Volume 5, and Frieren’s side quests have brought her to a magical qualification exam, randomly assigned to a team with two young mages — one tightly buttoned up, one in hot pants — who can’t stop bickering long enough to perform their sorcerous tasks. It inevitably leads to a bunch of mages with main character syndrome settling into a battle royale. It feels so forgettably generic, so bog-standard for fantasy manga, so… Harry Potter. (Shudder.)

It’s especially frustrating when you recall I only began reading this series to fill the Delicious in Dungeon-shaped absence in my heart. Now that is a worthwhile manga series. Frieren? I get less and less convinced that I’ll make it to the end with each new book.

The magic exam storyline takes up this entire tankōbon, and continues into the next. While I felt it didn’t fit the series’ vibe (or at least wasn’t the vibe I wanted from it), I did get into it, sorta, eventually. Populating a battle royale with brand new characters is a difficult task. Abe’s art contributes many dynamic character designs for the rival mages; easily half a dozen of them look cool enough to star in manga of their own. I’d certainly read an entire series of Übel flirtatiously fighting with everyone.

There are even some scraps of character development and backstory for our dear Frieren, squeezed in between all the mayhem. That appeals to me more than the magical violence.