Category: Book Talk

[Webtoon Wednesday] Lies Become You

Stitch
(this trailer is hilarious because it’s not actually that accurate to the plot!)

Title: Lies Become You

Author/Story: Seoru (original novel) and Winter (the adapted story)

Artist: C.MU, Danbi, and Soo

Rating: Slightly Mature (some steamy moments, but this is R15)

Genre: romantic fantasy, magic, elementals, betrayal, Egyptian-inspired setting, romance, marriage of convenience, contract relationship, politics, historical

Hosted On: Manta Comics

Official Link(s): English

Official Summary:

Once an enemy, now a husband?

Femme fatale Veronica is sentenced to death for obsessing over the prince. With her life now in danger, she boards a ship to escape, unaware that it belongs to her archnemesis, the alluring Prince Halid. He agrees to help her, but only on the condition that she pretends to be his wife!

My Thoughts:

In the introduction to Edward Said’s Culture and Imperialism, he notes that he “looked especially at cultural forms like the novel, which I believe were immensely important in the formation of imperial attitudes, references, and experiences”. He goes on to say that:

“I do not mean that only the novel was important, but that I consider it the aesthetic object whose connection to the expanding societies of Britain and France is particularly interesting to study. The prototypical modern realistic novel is Robinson Crusoe, and certainly not accidentally it is about a European who creates a fiefdom for himself on a distant non European Island.”

I have wanted to cite Edward Said in an analysis of Lies Become You from the second that I saw the first chapter of this Korean webtoon and noped out of it last year.

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[Manga Monday] Godchild

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Title: Godchild

Creator: Kaori Yuki

Demographic: Shojo

Themes: historical fiction, European setting, crime and punishment, murder mysteries, supernatural, incest, romance, horror, fairytales, mad science, and tragedy

Status: Complete and fully translated

Published By: VIZ (North America), Hakusensha (Japan)

LINK

Official Summary:

Deep in the heart of 19th Century London, a young nobleman named Cain walks the shadowy cobblestone streets of the aristocratic society in which he was born. Forced to become an Earl upon the untimely death of his father, Cain assumes the role of head of the Hargreaves, a noble family with a dark past. With Riff, his faithful manservant, and Mary Weather, his 10-year-old adopted sister, Cain investigates the mysterious crimes that seem to follow him wherever he goes.

Thinky Thoughts

The sequel to the original Earl Cain series (first published in 1991), Kaori Yuki’s Godchild is one of the single most formative pieces of media in my life. Honestly, between this and Angel Sanctuary, Kaori Yuki’s body of work has actually shaped a huge portion of my interests and personality. Even my early writing as a tadpole owes to her brilliant worldbuilding, capable writing, and gorgeous art. 

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[Webtoon Wednesday] Monochrome Rumor

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Title: Monochrome Rumor

Author/Story: Chiyul (original novel) and NORANG

Artist: Momoko

Rating: Slightly Mature (for themes of exploitation and abuse, side stories on Ridibooks for the novel are R19)

Genre: contemporary romance, thriller/mystery, BL, second chance at life, celebrities, found family, crime/criminals

Hosted On: Tappytoon

Official Link(s): English

Official Summary:

After being involved in a car accident together, Hajin is asked by Sihyeon to take care of Sihyeon’s younger sister after his death. Hajin never expected that to mean he would wake up in the hospital in Sihyeon’s body instead of his own. Even worse, Sihyeon was an infamous idol who would do anything for money, had multiple sponsors, and was apparently about to abandon the boy band he was a part of to sign a new contract with a larger agency. At first, Hajin believes the public’s negative opinion about Sihyeon, but the more he learns about Sihyeon’s miserable circumstances, the more enraged he becomes. Determined to get revenge in Sihyeon’s stead, Hajin decides to reach out to an old acquaintance for help. However, the deeper he goes into his revenge plot, the more people he becomes entangled with…

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[Webtoon Wednesday] Not-Sew-Wicked Stepmom

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Title: Not-Sew-Wicked Stepmom

Author/Story: Yir (who wrote the original novel)

Artist: Gu-Raeng Mo

Rating: All-Ages (but with some jokes/plot points about sex and references to CSA in Sabrian’s backstory)

Genre: Transmigration, Shoujo, Romance, Childcare novel, fairytale retelling, fantasy

Hosted On: Tapas

Official Link(s): English

Official Summary:

Fairytale stepmothers are notoriously wicked. But after a children’s clothing designer is reborn as young Princess Blanche’s stepmom, she’s determined to break the mold and shower her daughter with love. Now she just has to convince the girl’s cold-hearted father to do the same. In her quest to make a happier home for Blanche, Abigail begins to uncover secrets and schemes within the palace. Will devious forces tear the Freidkins apart, or can Abigail stitch them back into a family?

My Thoughts:

Here’s some unexpected Stitch Lore ™ for you: I actually ranked Snow White at the bottom of my favorite fairytales… up until I read the first volume of this series’ novelization a couple years ago. I read the first volume and went “wait… maybe Snow White deserves rights”.

I love this webtoon. Deeply.

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Stitch Reads Smolder (Anita Blake #29) – Chapters 11-13

Stitch

Note: I did use dictation software for part of this so if there any errors well… even with me going through and editing… I am sure I missed the opportunity to correct things.

Returning to the Anitaverse, our convenient witness has gone off to give a formal statement about what she saw and experienced with the vampire on fire. While the young woman does not seem to think anything is amiss, Anita makes it clear in her internal monologue that this is just the first step on analyzing and unpacking whether or not she was responsible for a murder.

One of the things I find really interesting that shows up in this chapter, is the use of texting on the page. Part of this book when Anita texted one of her loved ones, her internal monologue is what carried that information to us. We got the details of the texts but not the words themselves. In this book, in this chapter specifically, we actually see the text messages on page with Anita texting back and forth with Ethan, one of her guards and possibly lovers.

It’s a little thing that isn’t even new — texting on the page is used to convey emotion and narrative without using direct dialogue in a bunch of novels I’ve been reading across the past decade and a popular YA series was built around texting –but it almost gives me hope for Hamilton bringing the series into the 21st century proper. Anita is a character who used a pager well past the point where people used pagers.

I was in high school, having never seen a pager in my life, but Anita was still getting pages to come to the different crime scenes in Saint Louis. Any update is a good update here, because like I said last time one of the big issues with the Anita Blake series for me is that it really lacks a sense of time and place.

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[Manga Monday] Don’t Blush, Sekime-San!

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Title: Don’t Blush, Sekime-san!

Creator: Shigure Tokita

Demographic: Seinen

Themes: first love, contemporary, high school romance, romcom, classmates

Status: Completed and Fully Translated

Published By: Shueisha

LINK

Official Summary:

His girlfriend is super popular, but he’s the only one who sees her turn bright-red! A rom-com about a boy and his over-embarrassed girlfriend!

Thinky Thoughts

Don’t Blush, Sekime-San! sits at the same table as Komi Can’t Communicate and The Dangers in My Heart. All three series are those contemporary male fantasies where a short semi-loser and a tall girl that’s just a little weird (or a lot weird, in Anna Yamada’s case in the third series) wind up in a warm relationship after some trouble. The difference between the three series is that Don’t Blush, Sekime-San!… isn’t about an easily overlooked guy or a loser. (I say this with warmth because I like Tadano from Komi and Dangers stars a Junpei Yoshino-looking little freak that I adore.)

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Manga Monday: The Apothecary Diaries

Stitch

Title: The Apothecary Diaries

Creator: Natsu Hyūga (original novels), Itsuki Nanao (adaptation), Nekokurage (art/illustrations)

Demographic: Seinen

Themes: palace intrigue, historical fiction, (very early) romance, casefic/mysteries, medical drama, NO romance

Status: Ongoing (11 volumes, Japanese; 8 volumes, English)

Published By: Square Enix

LINK

Official Summary:

Maomao, a young woman trained in the art of herbal medicine, is forced to work as a lowly servant in the inner palace. Though she yearns for life outside its perfumed halls, she isn’t long for a life of drudgery! Using her wits to break a “curse” afflicting the imperial heirs, Maomao attracts the attentions of the handsome eunuch Jinshi and is promoted to attendant food taster. But Jinshi has other plans for the erstwhile apothecary, and soon Maomao is back to brewing potions and solving mysteries?

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[Webtoon Wednesday] Lout of Count’s Family

Stitch

Title: Lout of Count’s Family

Author/Story: Byeol Narae (adaptation) and Yu Ryeo Han (original novel)

Artist:  PAN4

Rating: All Ages

Genre: isekai/transmigration, fantasy, found family, strong male lead, NO romance

Hosted On: TappyToon

Official Link(s): English

Official Summary:

Kim Roksu has one life motto: “Let’s not get beat up.” But after dozing off somewhere midway through the novel “Birth of a Hero,” he wakes up as Cale Henituse – one of the minor villains in the novel who gets the beating of a lifetime from soon-to-be hero Choi Han. Only time will tell how much longer he has before that dreadful encounter. Can Kim Roksu change the course of this story so he can enjoy a long and lavish life free of the soon-to-be hero?

My Thoughts:

TikTok has been really good for getting me into new series… and really bad for my budget.

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[Webtoon Wednesday] How to Win My Husband Over

Stitch

Title: How to Win My Husband Over

Author/Story: Spice&Kitty

Artist: Siru

Rating: Mature

Genre: transmigration/isekai, romance, drama, abuse recovery, villainess, romantic historical fantasy

Hosted On: Tapas

Official Link(s): English

Official Summary:

I thought I’d finally escaped my hellish life when I died in an airplane crash, but I fell into another nightmare when I awoke as Rudbeckia de Borgia, a minor villain from a historical novel destined to die at the hands of her husband, Iske van Omerta. Surviving with the dysfunctional Borgia family is hard enough, but now I have to marry the man who will kill me! Still, it’s okay, I just have to convince Iske, his family, and all his countrymen that I’m completely harmless! How hard can that be?

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Manga Monday: This Vampire Won’t Give Up!

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Title: This Vampire Won’t Give Up!

Creator: Madoka Kitaji

Demographic: Josei

Themes: contemporary romance, supernatural, (light) smut, workplace romance, vampires, werewolves, fluff

Status: 5 Volumes Fully Translated/Published

Published By: Kodansha

LINK:KODANSHA

Official Summary:

Minami has awful luck with men—she falls for their looks only to find that they’re the worst of the worst. So when she finds out that her next work assignment involves a good-looking, rude-off-the-bat man, she feels just fine about kissing any feelings for him goodbye…that is, until she finds out he’s the son of the author of her favorite childhood picture book series, Bride of the Vampire. But the rude son soon changes his tune, and Minami doesn’t have long before she discovers the secret his gorgeous lips hide…

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[Webtoon Wednesday] Love So Pure

Stitch

Title: Love So Pure

Author/Artist: Plan B (a team!)

Rating: Adult

Genre: slice of life, drama, found family, contemporary, queer themes, trauma, crime/punishment, gangs

Hosted On: Tapas

Official Link(s): English

Official Summary:

It’s easy to get laid when you’re a pretty, sassy bartender working at a popular gay bar. This lifestyle suits Jihyun just fine since he loves casual hookups without any intimacy… That is until he meets Yohan—his big, scary-looking classmate who’s actually a pure-hearted sweetie. Can Yohan’s simple love help commitment-phobic Jihyun heal from the traumas of his past?

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Manga Monday: Love Me For Who I Am

Stitch

Title: Love Me For Who I Am/Fukakai na Boku no Subete o

Creator: Kata Konayama/Tozaki Ei

Demographic: Seinen

Themes: LGBTQ+, romance, high school, drama, found family, comedy, slice of life

Status: Fully Translated/Completed

Published By: Seven Seas

LINK

Official Summary:

An LGBT+ manga about finding friendship and common ground at an untraditional maid café!

Mogumo is a cute but lonely high school student who just wants a few loving friends. Fellow student Iwaoka Tetsu invites Mogumo to work at his family’s café for “cross-dressing boys,” but he makes an incorrect assumption: Mogumo is non-binary and doesn’t identify as a boy or a girl. However, Mogumo soon finds out that the café is run by LGBT+ folks of all stripes, all with their own reasons for congregating there. This touching manga explores gender, gender presentation, and sexuality from many different angles, including the ways people are pushed to conform in a world that doesn’t understand them…until the world begins to learn, one person at a time.

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[Webtoon Wednesday] Steel Under Silk

Stitch

Title: Steel Under Silk

Author/Artist: snob

Rating: Adult (and later chapters are uncensored)

Genre: Historical, Drama, Erotica, Romance, Enemies to Lovers, Revenge, Dark

Hosted On: Lezhin

Official Link(s): English

Official Summary:

Yeonjo used to have it all: a highly respected family, a kind brother, and a comfortable life. Now, with his father executed for high treason, his last kin dead, and damned to a lifetime of slavery, Yeonjo has nothing to lose. All that is left is vengeance, and his chance comes when the new governor assigned to the region is none other than Kwon Hee-ryang, the man who destroyed everything Yeonjo loved. Now, Yeonjo will do everything to get his revenge…even if it means getting in bed with his greatest enemy. Hiding a blade behind his beautiful smile, like silk hiding steel, Yeonjo waits for his moment to strike. But things are not going to be so easy…

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[Webtoon Wednesday] Betrayal of Dignity

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Title: Betrayal of Dignity

Author: Kimpa (novel)

Adaptation/Artist: Manta’s Production Team (It’s literally a paragraph)

Rating: Mature with low spice

Genre: Historical, Palace Intrigue, Romance, Marriage of (In)Convenience, Drama, Angst

Hosted On: Manta Comics

Official Link(s): English

Official Summary:

Would you sacrifice your honor to marry a Duke?

In order to save her family from ruin, Chloe Verdier must find a groom for her sister, Alice. She soon runs into the handsome but arrogant Duke Tisse who makes a proposal that could save them. When Alice flees with a mysterious man, Chloe must seek out the Duke in the biggest gamble of her life.

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