Get Ready to Bawl Your Eyes Out With Pandora Hearts by Jun Mochizuki | Manga Review

Pandora Hearts by Jun Mochizuki
Completed at 107 out 107 Chapters, 24 volumes
Reading Status: Finished

Published: May 18, 2006 to Mar 18, 2015
Adventure, Mystery, Fantasy, Shounen, Supernatural
Rating:

The air of celebration surrounding fifteen-year-old Oz Vessalius's coming-of-age ceremony quickly turns to horror when he is condemned for a sin about which he knows nothing. He is thrown into an eternal, inescapable prison known as the Abyss from which there is no escape. There, he meets a young girl named Alice, who is not what she seems. Now that the relentless cogs of fate have begun to turn, do they lead only to crushing despair for Oz, or is there some shred of hope for him to grasp on to?

If you're looking for a funny, cutesy manga to pass your time with, LOOK AWAY BECAUSE PANDORA HEARTS IS NOT THAT. While immensely funny at times, Pandora Hearts is heartbreaking in it's core, weaving through dialogues, characters and beautiful art style an intricate, gut wrenching tale of love, loss and obsession.

From the very beginning, Pandora Hearts engulfs you in this sense of mystery and intrigue. What is going on here? What is the truth? What is the motives behind the characters actions? It piles questions on top questions, wrapping it up with a cast of endearing, funny, sweet and somewhat broken characters.

The main core of the manga are Oz, Alice and Gilbert. And yes, there are some very clear elements of both Alice in Wonderland and The Wizard of Oz interwoven into the tale.

Oz is the successor to the house of Vessalius, one of the four dukedoms of this fantasy world. He is a lovable but odd child. He has a hard time believing he is lovable. Believing he is worth something. He doesn't fight for anything, and at times seems oddly detached from this world. Someone might need to literally beat him up in order for him to realize his own self worth.

None of it is helped by his disastrous 15th birthday coming of age ceremony, where the party is disrupted and Oz gets cast into The Abyss, a twisted, eternal prison, for the simple sin of "existing".

The Abyss is what gives birth to "Chains" - strangely toy-like creatures with superpowers who can only exist in the real world by forming a contract with a human... and eating other humans. There, Oz meets Alice - a human shaped chain who offers to help him escape this prison if he forms a contract with her.

Oz does, forming a connection beyong a simple contract with the spunky girl. Alice is a peculiar chain. First of all - she has a proper name. She is human in her looks and behavior - acting a bit like a naughty child; she loves food; she is funny and sweet and innately attuned to Oz's feelings and moods. She tries to cheer him up constantly, because he "is her manservant and only she is allowed to make him sad". In short, she is a delight.

But why is Alice so different? Yet another mystery slowly unraveled by this manga.

cool Gil!

.... Real Gil...

And finally, the person who awaits Oz and Alice in Real Life, working to free Oz on his end - Gilbert. Oz's servant and best friend, he defines himself by his master, he will do anything for him, he is a bit weak and he's very insecure. He balances Oz's devil-may-care and Alice rush enthusiasm perfectly.

These three are squad goals and I love them dearly. Together, they work to find the truth behind what happened to Oz, what happened one hundred years ago... and what is about to happen next.

Around them are funny, odd, sweet, smart and crazy characters; from the Mad Hatter whom I long to give a hug, to Liem and Sharon, the count, UNCLE OSCAR (I love him), Ada, Elliot, Leo and of course... Vincent. Wacked-up, strangely endearing, impossibly impossible Vincent.

Everyone in this manga are such a mess, but a mess I loved.

Now when I first started this series, it was still on-going, and in it's relatively happy-go-lucky, just-fun-and-games stage. So I was not expecting it to punch me in the face suddenly and then keep punching non stop. Seriously, I started crying at around chapter 54 and continued crying up to the end.

I am not okay. This is not okay!

If you're looking for a manga that could really hit you in the feels and make you both engross and interested and completely heartbroken for everyone at the same time, manga with bitter-sweet endings, then... this one is for you.

Otherwise , stay away because this will break you.

Hope this review made some form of sense! lol

The Bad Beginning by Lemony Snicket | Book Review

The Bad Beginning by Lemony Snicket

A Series of Unfortunate Events #1
First Published: 1999
Kindle
Middle Grade, Adventure
Rating:

Dear Reader,
I'm sorry to say that the book you are holding in your hands is extremely unpleasant. It tells an unhappy tale about three very unlucky children. Even though they are charming and clever, the Baudelaire siblings lead lives filled with misery and woe. From the very first page of this book when the children are at the beach and receive terrible news, continuing on through the entire story, disaster lurks at their heels. One might say they are magnets for misfortune.
In this short book alone, the three youngsters encounter a greedy and repulsive villain, itchy clothing, a disastrous fire, a plot to steal their fortune, and cold porridge for breakfast.
It is my sad duty to write down these unpleasant tales, but there is nothing stopping you from putting this book down at once and reading something happy, if you prefer that sort of thing.
With all due respect,
Lemony Snicket

This book has been on my tbr for ages. Unfortunately, this is a series that never made it to the tiny country of Israel, so I had never heard of it prior to my arrival on the internet book community in 2012. And being of a somewhat older audience than this book normally carters to, it took another two years for me to hear of it.

In all honesty, it's probably that Netflix series that truly made me interested, and that fake(?) trailer which just looked fantastically creepy. Hence, when it was on sale on amazon, I decided to give this series a shot.

Let's start by saying that this is a book I'd give my younger bookworm niece to read in a heartbeat. I can definitely understand why it captured so many hearts and minds. Why it's so well loved.

But at the same time, I also feel like I probably missed the train with this one. Because yes, it felt young to me. I don't like using this sentence, but it's the truth so what can I do.

Firstly, I was a bit taken aback by the tendency Lemony has to explain the "complicated" words he's using, much like a teacher and less like a narrator.This is something that would merit younger children the ages of the characters, as their vocabulary is bound to expend reading words like rickety and standoffish and having something fun to connect them to.

Then, there was the actual plot. Count Olaf (let them go! let them go! can't stay in that house anymore...) is an exaggerated accumulation of every stereotype imaginable that has to do with evil men... every awful thing Count Olaf can be, he is.

It was simply too much. Count Olaf can be an evil man and still keep his apartment and himself clean. He can be a bad man without drinking none stop and having empty wine bottles everywhere. He can be a bad man without having just one bed for three children. Treating them like servants, threatening them, going after their inheritance, etc... that's enough. 

Violet, Klaus and Sunny (okay, maybe not Sunny) were less of one-note characters, but they didn't jump out of the pages to me. I didn't feel them.

And than, what is the point in making your young children smart if you're going to go and have Klaus do that? For some reason, this aggravated me beyond belief. It's like, I wanted Lemony to give Klaus more credit than that.

Will this be a great read for my younger brother? again, yes.

Will I recommend my mother give it a shot? No. Because it'll be nothing more than cute to her.