This took me a lot longer to get around to than I expected it to, but I wanted to make sure and post something before my next semester starts up. I read so many great books by Asian authors this past year. This is what I read and enjoyed in the second half of the year. If you want to check out what I read in the first half of the year, you can read about those books here.
Manga
Home Office Romance is a cozy, sweet story about two neighbours who come to know each other during the lockdowns when one of them begins to work from home, and the other is unable to travel for work as she normally does. The story is a standalone novel that appears to be loosely based on the author’s own experience. It is cute and soft and very relatable. I really enjoyed reading this story and it actually made me much more interested in checking out Sweat and Soap.
The Spellbook Library is a new series which follows two young apprentices who earn coveted places training in the spellbook library where magic books are created and kept after being used to capture magical creatures called spellbeasts. The main character, Yan, was once saved from a spellbeast by a spellbook librarian which launched him on his journey to follow in their footsteps. On his way to the entrance exam, Yan befriends a mysterious initiate named Tohru. Together they face the challenges of the library and work towards their goals. I love the magic system and the artwork in this series. I hope to see it as an anime someday.
Rasetsu is a wild story about a teenage girl attacked by a powerful demon. The demon vows to return and claim her on her 20th birthday. She is taken in and helped to heal by the owner of a magical agency which fights demon possessions and hauntings. Rasetsu has immense spiritual power and that is what attracted the demon to her in the first place. She learns how to control the power in order to aid the team in fighting demons. In between battles, Rasetsu eats a lot of cake and searches for a boyfriend, as the demon told her that only if she finds her true love first will she be protected from his return.
I really enjoyed this short series, but I had to glaze over some of the age differences which is a lot less difficult when reading a manga and everyone looks sort of generically young and beautiful.
Kaina of the Great Snow Sea is a really interesting sci-fi/fantasy story about a snow-covered land where the people are dying out from a lack of water. You have to just ignore the fact that they have fire enough to melt the snow and just go with it. Maybe we’ll learn later that the snow isn’t the same in their world as it is in our’s. Kaina is the only young person in a village of elderly folk, and one day Kaina encounters a person from the world below the snow canopy and everything changes for the both of them.
I just discovered that there is an anime of this story, so now I’m going to have to check that out too.
Science Fiction & Fantasy
Road to Ruin is a debut novel by Hana Lee which is set in a dystopian future where city kingdoms are separated from each other by desert wastelands filled with dangerous creatures and energy storms. In this world, magebike couriers are the only ones who brave the wastelands to bring information from one city to another. Our main character is a courier who has spent several years bringing letters between two lovers, both of whom she has fallen in love with. When the freedom of one of the lovers is threatened, Jin-lu risks everything to try and save her and bring the lovers together. I absolutely love the world-building in this book and hope that we will revisit it with future installments.
Jackie and the Magical Guys is a graphic novel by Laotian actress Amy Linsamouth. The story features a girl named Jackie who is sent back in time to a modern setting in order to prevent a disaster from occurring. Armed with a magical girl serum, Jackie’s mission is to find four fierce women who she can turn into super warriors who will protect the future from being overrun by magical beasts. But instead of girls, Jackie finds guys; and these guys aren’t warriors, they’re just random high school students. And now those boys are humanity’s last great, gender-swapped chance at survival.
Seattle Slayers is a fun series set in a future dystopian world where the city of Seattle and it’s surrounding environs have been separated from the rest of the world in a sort of magical dimension bubble. Within that bubble there are vampires, shapeshifters, and all manner of other fantastical beasts. Back in the “real” world, Roxy’s mom is slowly dying of a magical illness. So Roxy heads into the bubble armed with her father’s hammers to try and enlist with his old employers, the Seattle Slayers.
This is an earlier series written by Julia Vee and Ken Bebelle who’s books Ebony Gate and Blood Jade I have written about before. I really love their writing and can’t wait to get ahold of the fourth book in this series.
The Teller of Small Fortunes is a cozy fantasy novel by debut author Julie Leong. It tells the story of a young woman who travels the countryside in her wagon, making a living by telling fortunes for others. After a tragedy in her past, Tao now only tells small fortunes that can bring comfort or spur on decisions but can’t really change the course of the future. Along her travels, Tao meets two mercenaries who are searching for a lost daughter. They join together and gather other friends along the way. This is a relatively low stakes story focused on friendships and family.
Before the coffee gets cold is a magical slice of life story about a café where one can travel back in time to a specific moment and stay there only until their cup of coffee cools down. Multiple stories are told through the eyes and experiences of different customers and staff members. Through these stories, we see how just a moment in time can change how we see ourselves, our lives, and our dreams for the future. There is a reason why this series has become much beloved around the world.
I didn’t mention it here, but I also read Dallergut Dream Department Store which was a quirky fantasy story. Since it was my birthday pick last year, there is a whole podcast episode that you can check out if you’re interested. This year I am going to try and get back to writing more regular reviews of the books I’ve been reading. Let me know if there are any books that you would really like to talk about. If you’re in our Discord group, come to the book chat channel and let me know if you have any recommendations.
Natalia