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.

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Ouran High School Host Club by Bisco Hatori

Title: Ouran High School Host Club
Mangaka: Bisco Hatori
Age Group: Teens
Series is: Complete with 18 volumes
Volume(s) Reviewing: 14-15
My Rating: 4.5/5

In volume 14, Hikaru finally confesses his feelings to Haruhi. Poor Haruhi, who has been so oblivious up until now, has no idea how to react to this situation. Later the plot spins off when she gets kidnapped while she and the host club were visiting the shrine for the New Year's!

The last time I reviewed the series was in December of 2008. Since then when there were only a few volumes out, the story lines and characters have developed so much ever since. Hatori's art style evolved ever since volume one so there would be a difference if you compare her style now and then. Tamaki and the twins I have noticed did change a lot in terms of their personalities. If you have read up to thus far, you would know that some of the Ouran characters became more complex over time in terms of their backgrounds and so on.

In this volume, Hikaru finally decides to be brave and tell Haruhi how he feels about her. This is a big step in his character especially and it is nice to see the clear difference between him and his brother. After Hikaru told Tamaki that he likes Haruhi, poor Tamaki gets into this confused state of mind. He then became a deep and philosophical person as he tried to sort out what he was really feeling inside.

We then get introduced to a new character named Megumi Kanoya, a girl who is practically twin to Haruhi in terms of appearance! Classy and gentle, Kanoya is similar to Tamaki because of their background history and is attached to the king of the Ouran Host Club. She is slightly bland in this volume so I wasn't paying attention to her as much.

I particularly enjoyed the side story at the end of volume 14 with Mori and his racoon and chicken pets. They are simply adorable. Too bad in real life they aren't that cute to actually own.

In volume 15, the host club decides that in order to get Tamaki out of his moody state, they host a race for the school!

Through the race, you get to see Kanoya's personality a lot better. I like her after this volume because she turned out to be very cute and has this funny personality. Tamaki did get out of his weird mood in this volume and turned out to misunderstood things a bit more than before!

Surprisingly up until now, the mangaka never mentioned about Hunny's and Mori's graduation since they are older than the rest of the club. So that is now thrown into the plot! This is pretty much hinting that the story will sometime ends soon in the future.

After reading up to volume 15, I really hope that in the last volume it would show where everyone would be in 5 or 10 years from now. That would be so amazing to see where our beloved characters end up at!

I definitely look forward to the next volume!

Review copies provided by Viz.

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1 comment:

Jenn (Books At Midnight) said...

Gah, I need to go, but just HAD to drop by when I saw this and go: OURAN HOST CLUBBBB!!! *fangirl squeal*