Title: Secret Moon
Author: Siira Gou
Illustrator: Sato Tomoe
English Publisher:
June MangaOriginal Publisher:
Frontier Works, IncISBN: 978-1-56970-616-9
Translator: P.T. Rillo
Available At:
Amazon WARNING: ILLUSTRATIONS ARE NOT WORK SAFE
Summary from back of book
While enjoying the cool Yokohama night air, Viscount Akihiro Sanders Tomoe met a wild man, whose eyes burned like fire. Intrigued, he invited the young man back to his home.
Nearly a hundred years ago, a spurned lover ended Tomoe's life. Madame had given him new life, but this gift was not without its limitations. Living again in Japan after an extended time abroad, Tomoe was on the prowl for a new lover. But he may have gotten more than he hoped for in young Taichi Yamagami. A young man with abnormal strength and eyes like fire, he awakened sensations within Tomoe that he had never felt before. But this young man was hiding a secret of his own. Influenced by the ebb and flow of the moon, he could be a sweet naive intellectual, or a rough, demanding lover. Tomoe has never had a lover quite like this...what kind of man is Taichi?
Siira Gou's intriguing June story of two young otherworldly lovers entices the imagination. Two unusual yet beautiful young men, this is what fantasy is made of.
My Thoughts
I'm probably digging my own grave with this but, shortly after starting this novel, I immediately laughed and thought, "Wow, this novel is about Jacob Black topping Edward Cullen and there's no Bella to interfere!" And yes, I'm saying that without ever having read or watched anything related to the Twilight Saga (I've been fangirled at and told so many things though...I feel like I've seen/read it).
On a more serious (I suppose) note, there was only one grammatical error that stuck out to me. Other than that, I think the rest of the novel went grammatically well. The plot, however, left quite a bit to be desired.
Well, to start with, I'm not very fond of vampire or werewolf stories. So, I wasn't entirely expecting much from this one either. However, Akihiro Sanders Tomoe wasn't remotely close to what I would've considered "vampire-like" at all. To me, his character came off too desperate, what with using his vampire (mind) controlling abilities to get Taichi to bed him and then to stay with him and all. He moped and dwelled on the fact that he had been "alone" for so long that it just kind of grated on my nerves. And, not only did he come off as very desperate, he was also quite clingy too. I found his character rather flat and boring. Much of his story was also told by him rather than observed, which hardly ever goes as nicely.
Taichi Yamagami is a little better developed, but not by much. I feel like the part that was supposed to be about him, his past, character and whatnot suddenly became all about Akihiro, which left Taichi with not too much of a story. He lived with his grandmother, who sheltered him so much from the rest of the world that by the time he came to Yokohoma and started living with Akihiro, he was like a naive little kid. However, his "other self," influenced by the moon, seems a bit brighter (and wilder at the same time), even though it's supposed to be the Taichi during the daytime that's got the "intelligent feel" about him. The personality differences were a bit too extreme and then the sudden change at the end (which seemed more like day-Taichi than night-Taichi, even though it was told that "both" are now "one") wasn't developed into the story well enough. They lived together for about a month, perhaps two, Akihiro gets hurt and next thing you know, the wild wolf-man (technically Inugami) is able to control himself to such an extent as seen in the final intercourse scene between the two of them. It lacked too much of the development details for Taichi for my liking.
A few things that really bothered me about this novel was (1) the dialogue, (2) the transition between the states of "dream" and "reality" and (3) the telling rather than showing of past events. A number of times, the dialogue came off too constructed or so korny it was simply unbelievable. The transitions between flashbacks, dreams and reality were so bad, I had a difficult time telling what was what until a paragraph or two after the transition was already over (such as the dream scene where the big black wolf is running through the forest and meets up with a golden wolf then reality was suddenly there again). I was left going, "Huh? What just happened?" more than once. Then, several flashbacks/events were told by Akihiro rather than shown, which generally leaves out a number of detail that would have helped clarify the situation and/or made the event more interesting to read.
LIGHT SPOILERS BELOW
For example, when Akihiro spoke of his spurned first love, he simply went, "I betrayed him. He was angry and shot me." Had it started off as dialogue from Akihiro and then go into a full flashback scene (where Akihiro's telling Taichi the story, but to us, it appears as just a story), it probably would've caught my attention and interest a lot more firmly.
END SPOILERS
I was fully expecting something tearjerking, such as Anthony's death (who, by the way, is my favorite character), but no such event came. The story was overly fluffy with sex scenes that passed quite quickly (good or not, I'll let you judge) with little details. Nights where sex ensued passed by like time was on fast forward whereas nights without sex seemed to be nights where everything happened (misunderstanding, sex due to jealousy, etc).
It wasn't great but it wasn't bad either. It's somewhere between "okay" and "meh" for me. It was enjoyable (for the fact that I kept making Twilight jokes, mostly) and cute (perhaps too cute with it's overly fluffy dialogue). The art is definitely beautiful though. I did, however, really like that Akihiro Tomoe could only drink female blood, which put a kind of interesting twist to him being a vampire. Haha... As for whether or not it was worth the $30 I spent on it, not so much...
Story Snippet
Pages 52-53
"You're freezing!" Although he'd been unaware of it while they were making love, Taichi was suddenly surprised by the low temperature of Tomoe's body. "Are you unwell? If so, you shouldn't push yourself so hard. It feels like I was the only one who got anything out of last night, and I did it until I was sated. Are you tired? Your body feels like it's getting colder."
"Like I said--unless you hold me, I won't be able to sleep," Tomoe was already halfway asleep. Taichi obediently cradled Tomoe in his sturdy arms and pulled the blanket up to cover them both.
"It's okay; my body temperature is very high. If it means you won't be cold..."
"Thank you. You're...wonderful...I think...I might be falling...in love..." Tomoe fell into such a restful sleep that Taichi couldn't be sure the man was even breathing.
Taichi, with traces of the night's excitement still coursing through his system, was unable to sleep, so he gazed at Tomoe's face for a while. Like his hair, his eyebrows and eyelashes were light-colored. The bridge of his nose was straight and high, but his nose wasn't too big. His lips were red and well-shaped. His mouth wasn't as small as a woman's, and the corners were always turned up.
Illustration Samples