Johnson, Alaya Dawn - Racing the Dark

Lana wants most of all to be a diver, like her mother, but soon, changes in the environment mean the death of the mandagah fish whose jewels they harvest, along with the death of her island's lifestyle. Lana is then apprenticed to the witch Akua, and... stuff ensues. Lots of stuff!

I was extremely confused by the pacing of this book. In the beginning, it was because I had this categorized in my mind as a young adult fantasy, which I am not sure it is.* As in, we begin with Lana hitting puberty and going through a rite of adulthood. I had fully expected the book to go into why the mandagah fish were dying and what it meant for Lana, but then the book very quickly moves on to that to greater problems. The mandagah fish are a symptom, but they are not the whole mystery. The POV also switches a fair amount, which also ran counter to my expectations. Again, when I got more used to the book and started thinking of it more as epic fantasy in my head, everything made a lot more sense. I have no idea if this confusion will strike anyone but me, as it feels fairly idiosyncratic...?

Anyway. There is a lot going on in this book!

First of all, I enjoyed the setting a great deal. It's based on Pacific Island cultures, with a smattering of Asian influence (mochi!), and it doesn't feel much like anything I've read before. I also like the magic system, which is based on sacrifice and is approrpiately dark. There are also bound spirits, linked charms, volcanos, and harbingers of DOOM. Everything feels extremely complex and fleshed-out, and I particularly like seeing the differences among the islands and the cities on the islands. There's a whole lot of world in this book, which was a very pleasant surprise.

However, I also had a lot of problems with the book. After I got over my first issue with the pacing, I continued to have other issues with the pacing. The book feels like it skips from moment to moment, not always tying them together. I give it a fair amount of leeway for this, as it's the first of a trilogy and I'm guessing it's setting up a lot of puzzle pieces that will only come together in the final volume. However, I couldn't always find a thread through even the similar pieces, or the plot elements that starred the same characters (ex. Lana going from a diver to a witch apprentice to... something else). As such, it felt like a very disconnected read. I was constantly trying to figure out how much time had passed, where I was, who I was with in terms of the story, and what each character had to do with each other.

This was more pronounced around the end of the book, where we're introduced to several new characters with very little background as to who they are. This wouldn't be as big of an issue if I didn't get the sense that the new characters are going to be fairly important in the next books, and if they didn't have a very close bond with Lana. I felt there wasn't enough time dedicated to that relationship, particularly given how quickly it deepens and how much weight it's given. And there's a giant plot twist that happens about two thirds of the way in which didn't feel adequately forshadowed at all—I think Johnson tried to in the prologue, but we all know what people say about prologues.

One last complaint is that Lana never quite comes together as a character for me. Much of it is because I felt as though she was reacting to things throughout the entire book, from her rite of passage gone awry to her apprenticeship to Akua to what comes later. I didn't see as much of her making her own choices and carving her own path, more deciding what to do with her life based on the circumstances at the time. As such, it was hard getting a feel for her, since I felt like she changed depending on what circumstances she was in.

In conclusion: very rough in terms of pacing and structure, but with a lot of cool ideas in terms of the magic and the setting. And yay POC characters and world! I think it'll be interesting seeing where the trilogy goes from here, since I currently have no idea, and I suspect many of the structural issues will work themselves out once Johnson has written more novels.


* I realize defining "young adult" is an exercise in futility. My personal definition, which I was completely unaware of until this book did not fit and confused me, is that YA has a certain immediacy to it. This can either be in terms of plot, which can span a long time period but feels scarf-down-able and in the moment, or in terms of cast, which tends to be fairly small. Or, uh. Something like that. *handwaves* And of course the coming of age bit, which I think is a part of this book, but not the driving factor.

Steinberger, Aimee Major - Japan Ai: A Tall Girl's Adventures in Japan

Steinberger is a geek girl: gamer, cosplayer, shoujo manga fan, Volks doll fan. Ever since she got into the Volks doll scene, she's been dying to visit the Volks store in Tokyo. One day, she writes to Volks and gets an enthusiastic reply; they actually know of her through her doll articles in the US! So she and two friends head off to Japan. Their plan: dress as geisha, go see Takarazuka performances, dress up in Tokyo, eat, and go see dolls!

This is more of a sketchbook rather than a comic; there's some sequential art involved, given that it's a trip, but most of the art is not in the form of panels. It's also incredibly fun to read. Steinberger's art is extremely friendly and round and happy, and she notices odd things that I enjoy. One of the slightly unfortunate things is that she can't read or write Japanese—I'm not sure if other people will care, but I really wanted to know what the Japanese on particular drawings was.

I am still not sure what to think of dressing up as a geisha. On the one hand, it is something I would love to do. Also, there's the factor that it's being done in Japan, probably making money for the Japanese people running the business, in a context in which people know a lot more about who and what geisha are. On the other hand, I do not know.

Some other parts of the book occasionally hit my "please do not make fun of Engrish" button, from the making fun of Engrish to Steinberger getting annoyed at being stared at. For the latter, I completely don't begrudge her getting annoyed at being stared at; it's probably annoying as hell. However, I still have a kneejerk reaction of "Yeah, welcome to my world!" inherited from homestay in Japan with two tall white guys who were all "We stick out! We miss American food!" after I had gone through a year of depression and lost a lot of weight thanks to a combination of culture shock, homesickness for Taiwan, and literally not being able to eat all the non-Chinese food. But I digress! Although I spend a lot of space here writing this reaction up, I didn't really hit it that often. Much of this is because you can tell Steinberger loves it there, and the overall feeling I got from her excitement wasn't "OMG this is so exotic and foreign!" but "OMG I have heard about this for forever and FINALLY I AM HERE!"

Instead, I had a lot of fun through most of the book. It made me remember being in Japan and exploring Harajuku and Shibuya and Akihabara, it made me miss the food and the public transportation, it made me wish I had had enough money when I was there to buy awesome clothes at Harajuku and the like. It also interestingly made me incredibly homesick for Taiwan. A lot of the things in Japan are different, of course, but a lot of things have either been imported to Taiwan or are shared characteristics, from the squatting toilets of DOOM and ladies on the street handing out advertisements on tissue packets to sock stores to the food. I miss the food so much!

Most of all, I loved all the geeking out, from cosplaying and Takarazuka and dolls (not my areas of geekdom) to assorted manga and anime references. I laughed so hard when they visited Tokyo Tower thanks to CLAMP, although they went because of Magic Knight Rayearth and my friends and I went because of X (sadly fortunately, when we went, no necrocuddling was involved). I am also extremely jealous that she got to see Takarazuka! Some day...

Also, if you read this, check out the omake as well! Actually, check out the omake even if you haven't read it; it's a pretty good preview of what the book itself is like. Cute and fun.