Title: Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata
Author: Death Note: Black Edition Volume VI
Type: Fiction
Page Count/Review Word Count: 426
Rating 4/5
I’m almost at the end now, and I’m pleased to report that it’s picked back up a little bit and I enjoyed this one more than the last. It’s still not quite as good as it was when it first started out, but it’s still good enough and it’s definitely worth reading, especially if you’ve made it this far.
I think part of the reason that I enjoyed this was that you could tell that we were getting near the end game and so the stakes felt a little higher. The authors have also shown by this point that they don’t mind killing major characters when it serves the story, which leaves you as the reader feeling like pretty much anything could happen.
Other than that, I’m not too sure what else I can say that I haven’t said in previous reviews. As always, the artwork is gorgeous, so big props to Takeshi Obata for that. Tsugumi Ohba does a great job with the story, too. He’s clearly a master storyteller, and it’s impressive how much he manages to convey through just dialogue and the image briefs that he gives to his illustrator.
If you’re thinking about reading Death Note, I’d definitely recommend picking up the Black Edition books. They’re not super expensive (I think I paid around £30 for all six of them), and they’re beautiful little artefacts in their own right. They’ll look great on your shelves, but they also look great in your hands and the quality of the print is good enough to highlight all of the details from the original comics.
The only thing that I will say is that when I first started reading the series, I didn’t know who I wanted to win because I liked both sides. Now, though, I don’t know who I want to win because I don’t really care for either side, which is probably a bad sign. I’m just not as invested in the series as I was when I first started out, and I can’t tell whether that’s because of the story or just that I’m flagging.
John Williams – Stoner | Review
Title: Stoner
Author: John Williams
Type: Fiction
Page Count/Review Word Count: 298
Rating: 5/5
I wasn’t too sure what to expect from this, and I basically picked it up because I saw a beautiful copy of it in a charity shop and then kept it on my shelves for a while until my BookTube friend Mara mentioned she was picking it up and I asked her if she fancied a buddy read.
I’m glad that it gave me the motivation to pick this up, because it turned out to be pretty much the perfect novel. Sure, it was bleak and sad throughout, but I like that from books and so I wasn’t exactly complaining. I also thought it did an excellent job of telling the story of Stoner’s life from start to finish.
If you’re looking for a plot-driven read then you should probably look elsewhere, because that’s not what this is. The good news is that I tend to prefer plot-driven reads to character-driven reads, but I thought this was fantastic despite my personal preferences, so there might still be hope for you.
I think what Williams did well was to show some very human characteristics in some very flawed characters. I even liked reading about Edith, Stoner’s wife, even though she was kind of a terrible person. Because she was a part of Stoner’s story and we follow his wife from start to finish, we can see how she becomes the way she ends up being. The same is true of his daughter, too.
Then there’s the commentary on the first and the second world wars, and you really feel their impact in the small community of Stoner’s university. This is a contender for my top ten books of the year.
Click here to buy Stoner.