Reviews

Алая зима by Annette Marie

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kamalaharris's review against another edition

adventurous lighthearted fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes

2.75

Verrrryyyyyy strongly Kamisama Hajimemashita inspired, which is not bad since it's probably the best spirit world romance series ever created. Unfortunately, it also means that it is very hard to out-do the original work, and this series missed the mark for me. In the first book especially, I lost track of how many times Emi lost consciousness, followed by a brief time skip. The narrative is told in third person entirely from Emi's pov, but I feel like this story could have benefited from a truer third person perspective/narrative.

robotnik's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

I have a shameful confession: I had a weeaboo stage. I knooooow. But, little preteen me was one of many fools who scoffed at anything made outside of Japan and was willing to sell my soul to my overlords who made anime and manga. While I still enjoy a good anime and manga every now and again, I grew out of that phase a long time ago. That being said, it's given me a special talent where I can spot weebs and/or weeb material from a mile away.

Whenever I see a novel by a western author about Japan and/or Japanese mythology, my first thought is "was this written by a weeb?" I wouldn't think it so much if it wasn't the fact that people (like Hollywood so so so very much) keeps making shitty things based on Asian culture and mythology. I would like to say that Red Winter did not ping my weeb radar. While it gives me the impression of a shoujo manga, it seems like the writer put proper research into things and didn't rely on anime for their knowledge, which was a welcome sight.

This book wasn't what I was expecting it to be. I thought this was going to take place in feudal Japan, but it takes place in modern times. You'd be forgiven if you kept forgetting that was the case, however, as the shrines and forests that feature as the main locations seem like they're living in the past and it's only the brief mentions of the modern world that remind you that's the case. At first, I found it a disappointment that it wasn't a historical fantasy but I got over it because the modern day setting does help the story along at times.

The plot is slow moving at first. It takes maybe thirty percent of the book to really have the plot kick into motion, but after that, it keeps chugging along steadily until it reaches the climax. I didn't mind the slow start into the story. The writing for this novel was rather pretty and gave off beautiful imagery that distracted from the fact it was taking a little bit to get going. There's beautiful illustrations sprinkled throughout the book, and man, was I glad just to look at them because they were so damn pretty to look at. Bless the artist to have all the good things in life. When the plot did get going, I was absorbed into it, wanting to see just where it was going to go and if it was going the way I thought it would (80 percent of the time it did, but that's okay). It might just be me, but the battle scenes also seem a little chaotic at times in the writing, but they're still understandable, so I suppose it's alright. Battle scenes can be a bitch to write.

Most of the minor characters are rather one dimensional and uninteresting, but the main characters are really well developed. Emi is naive and not knowledgeable about the world outside her shrine life. That's one of the things the modern day setting helps with. Emi knows jack shit about it or about really communicating with people, and it shows. At times, Emi makes dumbass decisions. Like really dumbass decisions. Sometimes, her dumbass decisions pay off big. Perhaps, instead of being like a shoujo heroine she's more like a shounen hero because dumbass decisions are their field of expertise. Shiro was also really fun and I enjoyed him. I think he's probably my favorite character though Yumei being a grumpy guts half the time also amused me greatly.

I'm interested to see more of Izanami. I actually wasn't expecting the twist for her to be the villain.

I may have been shipping Emi and Shiro pretty hard, I'm not gonna lie.

Thanks for the kiss; please let there be more. I was waiting all book for that shit.

The ending may have been fairly typical but it set the plot up for the next book. I would recommend this book to anyone with a mutual interest in Japanese mythology and young adult literature. This is a good combination of them.