Notice for Review Requests

I receive review requests weekly. However, my personal schedule is hectic and I no longer review actively. (I also manage another blog called The Toronto Cafe and Food Blog). I do read every request sent but I apologize in advance that I do not reply to them all.

If I do take on a request, I will forewarn that it may take some time before I can review it. I am now looking to review adult fiction and self-help books instead of young adult fiction because I have grown out of it. If you are to request a review for either adult fiction or self-help, I will more likely to give it a shot.

In the meantime, Stop, Drop, and Read! serves as an archive book review blog. When I have the time, I may post a review. Thank you for understanding.

Friday, October 10, 2008

Loveless by Yun Kouga

Title: Loveless
Mangaka: Yun Kouga
Age Group: Older Teens
# of Pages: Approx. 200
# of Volumes: 15
My Rating: 1/5

In the world where there are a mix of humans and human-like creatures with cat ears and cat tails, there is plenty of magic and mystery in the air. Ritsuka's older brother, Seimei, was recently murdered for unknown reasons. He transfers school to try to cope to a new environment and is also trying to deal with a split personality disorder. Soubi, supposedly Seimei's servant in the past, came to aid Ritsuka on their search to find the murderers. Will Ritsuka ever find out the reason for Seimei's horrible death?

This book gives me a headache as much as much as Haruka, even worse! I can make some sort of sense with Haruka but this manga is utterly confusing! First, the author doesn't give a good explanation of the setting. Then, characters pop out of nowhere and start doing magic! Who are they and when in the world did magic become part of the theme? At least explain what they are doing! Not only that, but the fact of Soubi and Ritsuka being servant and master creeps me out. Like, imagine a stranger you barely know that suddenly comes into your life and go "I love you" a hundred times a week. What the...? Don't get me wrong, I love shonen-ai (light boyxboy love) and yaoi (um, the hardcore stuff...) but the fact of the huge age difference gives me the urks. Let's get this straight, Ritsuka here is twelve years old, do you hear me? Twelve!! And the worse part, Soubi is in frikkin college!! How I can die in shameful agony as a yaoi fangirl. I usually read yaoi with my characters at least in high school and older. I hate age gaps but as long as the younger one is usually in high school and max at a ten years difference, I don't mind. So, don't even bother picking this up as much as a yaoi fangirl/boy you may be. This is crap. Finito.

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4 comments:

the story siren said...

i've always wanted to read manga, but i would never know where to start. you have any suggestions on some good ones!

Anonymous said...

Y'know, as much as I hate shouta (and I DO, oh god, so much), I find Loveless to be much more complicated and less...immediately viscerally wrong and simplistic than the Ritsuka/Soubi relationship first comes across. I say this just because having read further, I think it's jumping the gun to dismiss it as crap, not because I think behaving the way Soubi DOES toward 12 year old Ritsuka in the first volume is excusable.

It's explained quite a long time later though--including the thoroughly messed up dynamics at work, including but not limited to the fact that Soubi's not actually interested in Ritsuka (which doesn't make his behavior any less inappropriate but even THAT'S explored in context)--though if you'd rather not sit through more of the squickiness to find out, that's understandable. The author really draws it out, I mean we're STILL trying to figure out why Seimei is being such a bastard to the people who love him -_-

Diana Dang said...

@vejiicakes: Haha, I don't think I can stand reading Loveless for so many volumes. I only read it because the first two volumes were in the library. I read through it, trying to figure out about it. Seeing how little the summary at the back of the manga is, I bet Tokyopop is as confused as the next person in the beginning.

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