Sankarea 1-4

Sankarea Volumes 1-4 by Mitsuru Hattori, 704 pages

Sankarea follows the life of high school student Chihiro who loves anything zombie. From films to manga if it has zombies he is going to have a copy of it. This obsession goes as far as following an old manuscript to make a potion to bring things back to life. He manages to use it successfully on his deceased cat, but doesn’t know if he actually wants to continue using/making it. Enter Sanka, a girl who hates her family and has run away. She, seeing the potion is made from a poisonous plant drinks the potion, with no apparent adverse effects. That is until she falls off a cliff and comes back as a zombie.

Sankarea is definitively a romantic comedy or romcom. It has Chihiro falling in love with Sanka all the while trying to hide the fact that she is a zombie from the world and her family. Despite how cheesy most romcoms are, this one is actually quite well written and enjoyable. It is pretty graphic and certainly earned its teen rating. 

Fangirl

Fangirl  by Rainbow Rowell, 438 pages

I picked up Fangirl after reading Rowell's award-winning Eleanor and Park.  E&P was a beautiful story that I really enjoyed, so naturally I wanted to see what else Rowell had to offer.

Fangirl is the story of a young woman's transition into college life, her strained relationship with her twin sister, and her first experience in a meaningful romantic relationship.  Cath writes fan-fiction inspired by her favorite fantasy book series.  She's a talented writer and has gained a strong following of readers -- the only problem is that the stories, characters, and settings she writes aren't her own creation.  She can't seem to write her own original fiction, and only finds success building from and manipulating the existing book series.  Cath is challenged by her creative writing professor to share her own story, but she can't seem to find a way to build worlds or characters that are as meaningful to her as those in her fan-fiction.

Fangirl is a breezy, quick read that reminds you what it's like to navigate that awkward time between your teen years and adulthood. 

Book of Unknown Americans

Book of Unknown Americans by Cristina Henriquez
285 Pages

Arturo and Alma Rivera come to the United States legally to enroll their daughter in a special school in order to help her recover from brain damage she sustained in a fall.  The story follows their immersion into American society as well as a budding romance between their daughter Maribel and Mayor, the boy who lives next door.  Interspersed throughout the story are narratives from other Hispanic Americans who came from several different countries to American.

The novel is well seated in its storytelling and the reader is quickly immersed into a world similar and yet different from their own.   As with any successful novel, you quickly feel empathy for the characters and their predicament and it disabuses of common preconceptions fostered by the American media and politicians.