Books 95-96
The Scare School by R.L. Stine
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
This felt absolutely rushed to the finish. Okay yeah sure it's written for middle graders which I'm not but even a kid is going to see the holes in this story. There are two converging story lines. Three students have escaped their school, their very reality, to ours (I'm assuming) Leeda (who is abrasive), her friend Drake and a tagalong neither of them like, Buddy. They are on the run from their principle and his Droggs some kind of cyborg insect thing.
They get pulled back for extermination leaving a rift that three students from our side end up going through Jess and Joss the twins and their friend, Marco notice these strange students and end up following through the rift and now they're in danger.
Why is there the same principle in both realities? Why is the mirror verse keeping the students infantilized? Why is the school the only thing in the other universe? Keep wondering because you're never going to know because the story line is rushed and unworthy of a graphic novel adaptation by itself (truthfully the story is only about half the pages the rest are ads and sneak peeks of other volumes so glad the library bought this and not me).
The story had potential it failed to live up to. The art was good though. The most interesting thing about this graphic novel was the sneak peek for Hotel Dare at the end.
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GHOST GIRL ゴーストガール 1 by Akissa Saiké
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
Let's call this a good idea ruined by toxic masculinity. It left such a bad taste in my mouth I've let it sit so long I've forgotten things I wanted to put in the review. The idea of it is good (and the art is fantastic) which makes this all the sadder for me.
Chloe Love is a wannabe actress but at nearly 30 she still looks 13 (a big (and gross) deal is made of this throughout) and somehow that's a detraction from her finding roles (taking that with a grain of salt). She faces a casting couch moment that turns into a nightmare complete with tentacle rape attempts (OMG mangaka can we please stop with that).
She meets Kai Ioda, a psychopomp from Hades who has to round up escapees from Hades including whatever has possessed her would-be employer. Kai is able to possess Chloe's body turning her into the titular ghost reaper girl while he becomes a scythe with an eye (ala Soul Eater) While the fight scenes are bad assed we're forced to deal with her morphing into her outfit that is your typical chain mail bikini nonsense.
I can handle a little fan service. Hell I consider Kai's open shirt/man in chains look fan service for the ladies but this goes to extremes, Chloe is briefly naked each time she changes, there are upskirt/panty shots galore and this is where I start getting angry. We keep talking about representation and doing better and then we have something like this aimed at teen aged boys and it's glorifying all the toxic behavior you can think of.
Kai is constantly sexually harassing Chloe. The art is doing the same if we're honest. We had to endure endless Lolicon fantasies of Kai's. It gets gross quick and it tries to make this way of treating women okay. I know I won't be reading more of this because I felt like I needed to shower in alcohol after this one. It's a shame because the idea was neat and the art was gorgeous (I mean look at that cover) but I can't get past not only the extreme sexualization of Chloe but the added fact that it is because she looks prepubescent that's the turn on that truly creeps me out.
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