dnf @25% (unfortunately)

bridget and gabe are not ok follows the events of the first book in the series. the kingdom is still recovering from the attempted coup, and things have never looked more dire for newly-crowned gabriel. traumatized, depressed, and desperately unfit for his role, he isn’t too popular among the common citizen. what spurs from that is the PR tour across the kingdom, and who knows what’ll come of that?

my personal opinion of this is that it feels wholly unnecessary. while the themes were tackled well as far as I read to, i found the pacing and storyline to not justify a full length novel. I think this would’ve been much better as a novella, where these themes could’ve been explored but not in such a slow-paced environment that it’s boring to read.

25% of the way through, and the plot had just gotten started. nothing made me want to keep going, and that was really sad for me, especially since I devoured the first book. I couldn’t see where the book was going and why we needed a whole full length novel. after a point, it got repetitive. and agree with another reviewer— nobody communicated!! I was going crazy.

tl;dr: a disappointment and unnecessary. would’ve been better as a novella.

junji ito is kind of who i wanna be when i grow up

a lot of lush images, drawings, and words. i loved the interconnectedness of it and it showed the community of jazz well. a little sad that the kansas city section didn’t seem really tied to kansas city and instead was more of a vague location thing— I’d love to learn more about the jazz history of my city! lots of references i didnt get. but that’s alright, i still had fun!

i can feel the vivacity of this series’ future installments already. however, it’s almost always impossible to have a “great”, well-rounded graphic novel when it comes in a package of a series. excited to read more!