I found this at Miami's library book sale. It's even an autographed copy!!

Turns out this is vol 4 of the series. It was obvious as I register the book now, but on the real book it's not apparent. I did have some difficulty getting into the book - and my advice is, don't sweat, just read to the end and then flip back to the beginning - trust me, it's much easier to understand the story this way.

The artwork here is stunning. And I don't mean just a few frames of pretty illustrations, which many budding artists can manage but then the story telling falls apart. Here, the story flows smoothly, and the variety of frames, colors, and styles enhances the story.

It's a rather dark story of a young woman named Kabuki being imprisoned. She has a kanji scar on her face, which supposedly makes her look horrendous, and it should be in real life, but in the graphic novel is rather alluring. Another prisoner, Akemi, reaches out to her. Is she a friend? Or sent to pry information from her? Or worse, to kill her so she can't spill secrets?

It would be interesting to get the other volumes, to see how Kabuki becomes who she is, as well as later volumes, as she obviously didn't just die as in the beginning of this book.

Also, here's a cool video about a girl who cosplays the character Kabuki:
http://nerdist.com/just-cosplay-stella-chuu/

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Fetched from the Oslo convention book table.
The mixture of manga vs realistic drawings plus photographs caught my eye :-)

Finished...
The artwork is beautifully done, indeed. Maybe too beautifully. Often I recognize Kabuki because I know it can only be her, but not from her face, because the author prefers to present her as attractive and sexy or to evoke emotions in the reader's mind using her image over making her recognizable.
I liked the plot and the text, too, although there is one weakness in the text. It is often a bit too ambitious, Mack seems to be interested in showing off how much he knows about Japanese culture, I think. A little less would be sufficient :-) My favourite parts are Akemi's letters, especially her variations of the "... yours, ..." formula.

The story is interesting so I wonder if another part of the series will ever come my way :-)

Convention book table. Will be taken by someone or released after the convention. Have fun :-)

Was glad to saw this book again the BC Con but surprised that there is no taker for this beautiful book when the convention ended. Decided to take it with me because I know some other BCer who may be interested, and can't bear to have this book wild-released and trashed. (I know, there's a chance it will find a reader by serendipity... but I prefer safer methods of releases...)

Sharing it in the manga box. Hope someone will enjoy this beautiful work.

Took out of the manga/graphic novel box

When he looked up again Tas had gone. Rising to join the others, he caught sight of something small and abandoned on the floor. "Tas you forgot your pipe." He picked it up and then saw words carved into the wood he had not seen before. Find the music, find the magic.
"Did you carve this?"
Tas did not turn. "Yes," he said, reluctantly. "I have to leave it."
"But, Tas, why?"
Tas squared his shoulders as though firming some resolve. But still he did not turn. "Because the shepherd said that it could only be used once. Thats why I can't get the pipe to play that song-or any song. I've used the magic." He took a deep breath and went on. "And he said that once I found the magic I had the pass the pipe on." he paused and then he did turn, a scamp's humor in his long brown eyes. "It's going to be a long winter. I'm going to leave it here for someone else to find." "Snowsong" by Nancy Varian Berberick

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