December is a strange month for me because of traveling to get home and other plans, and having to recon with my own success at completing my own goals (not going to touch on that whatsoever here). It was a month where I read a bunch of things in translation and a singular ARC which feels more in the direction of how I want to be reading into 2023.
December’s only blog interview:
Genre: Fantasy Shoujo
Year Release in English: 2022
Source: Kinokuniya
Content warnings: Blood, attempted murder
Stella is on her way to start a new job after a freak accident takes out her carriage driver, and she wakes up in a Gothic mansion that’s more a thorned cage than a residence occupied by four men who are definitely vampires. They eat crystals, have strange mannequins, and barely leave the building. There’s a sense of dread but the boys and the art are swoony.
This first volume is horny in ways that are very befitting of vampire lore. There’s a fixation on taste and devouring, with sensual wound care, and one of the vampires gets put in a muzzle during one of the chapters. As far as the boys go, the work leans into tropes and archetypes in ways that are swoony and delightful. I had fun during this first read, and I’m definitely looking forward to more.
Jo Writes Fantasy 