Reviews for Book Girl (Book Girl Series #2)

The average rating for Book Girl (Book Girl Series #2) based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2013-09-20 00:00:00 Lynne S. Parlier The stories in each volume of Book Girl are self-contained, fill the reader in on important character traits and could stand alone fairly well, but even in this second book there's a lot of development hinging on hints and background from book 1. I'd recommend starting there. As with the first book, Book Girl and the Famished Spirit features self-styled "book girl" Tohko (a literature loving and eating goblin in schoolgirl form) and her force recruited book club junior Konoha. His job is to write Tohko snacks, and occasionally unravel strange events stemming from requests left in the club's personal mailbox. Describing the series' concept and main characters is a bit of a problem because it makes the books sound different in tone and approach than what they are. Tohko's "unusual" appetite is largely just a character trait in a sense - the stories at this point do not center around it nor explain what she is. Her love of literature is much more relevant. Also the absurdity and strangeness of the premise might seem to indicate light, whimsical tales. Not so. FAIR WARNING - while extremely well written, compelling, and laced with subtle touches of humor, the Book Girl series is incredibly dark and deals with very heavy themes. Creepy doesn't even begin to describe the events Tohko and Konoha get caught up in this time, and it starts with a disturbing opening page description of an unknown character deciding to kill someone. A few pages of prologue follow recounting Konoha's disastrous brush with fame in the past and the specters that still haunt him. It's done in wonderfully direct fashion and before the fist chapter has even begun Nomura reintroduced the main character, discussed his personal demons in a way that ties to the themes of this particular story, and established a gripping, chilling atmosphere that will continue throughout the book. Strange notes in the club mailbox and the possibility of a ghostly presence are only the beginning. As Tohko and Konoha approach an answer from different angles they'll each run afoul of distinct, unusual personalities and mysterious happenings. The supporting cast contains a good mix of familiar faces from the first book and newcomers, and is used remarkably well to build a multilayered mystery that gets scarier and more dangerous the more it unravels. The suspense elements are nicely done, with some pieces falling into place as the reader goes and some vital connections remaining elusive until they are explained. The clues are in place though, and the author "plays fair" with the storyline and the readers. There is again a nice literary tie in to the themes and progression of the plot which is fully understandable even if you haven't read the associated works. The writing flows well, is dripping with emotion and really establishes the proper feeling and atmosphere for the story. This is a great accomplishment both on the part of the author and the translator. The descriptions are quite detailed in parts but I never felt like the pace suffered. If fact I found the story moved along at quite a good clip while still fully conveying what was happening at any given time. Despite being quite unsettled at times, I was very impressed with Book Girl and the Famished Spirit . But know what you're getting into before reading. This is a very odd series that meanders a little sometimes, hits hard and isn't afraid to deal with dark, depressing topics. What's done with it all is top notch so if you can handle the con-caveats I mentioned I highly recommend checking out this strange duo's adventures.

Review # 2 was written on 2014-01-29 00:00:00 Jeff Safron For future reference to myself, I must remember to do more research into books before I read them. This is an especially good idea if the book is one that references, and is partly based on, other famous books. Since Book Girl tends to be a series of mysteries wherein the protagonists use their knowledge of other books to solve said mysteries that eerily resemble other famous tales, this is especially a good idea. In Book Girl and the Famished Spirit, the plot reference of the novel is, which I would have known had a read the afterword first, Wuthering Heights. I hated that novel, and couldn't get more than a quarter of the way through it, so obviously I wouldn't like this one either. Yep, definitely should have looked ahead. The story is one where this mysterious girl dresses up in an older school uniform and leaves random bits of paper in the book club's advice box. The book club, composed of our protagonists Konoha and Tohko, the titular "Book Girl" (a goblin who eats stories), decide to investigate. Of course, in the course of this, they have some discord and everything is a mess. I won't spoil who the Heathcliff and Catherine analogues are. The thing is that this was easy not to see at first how this volume of Book Girl, unlike the first one, would be dark with no light at the end of the tunnel. It had no "victory" if you will, like in the first book. Indeed, the story started out with the weird bit of magical realism that the first book contained, and thus it didn't occur to me just how this was going to turn out until, about halfway through, I started to suspect. I confirmed it and wow! I hate this book. It is, if possible, even darker and more disturbing than Heights was, with possibly more messed-up secondary characters analogous to the Heights ones. I can't say that the story wasn't enjoyable (as far as I got through it, at least...), but it was just too dark. Really, really dark. I can't recommend it, despite the good writing, as it was entirely too depressing.