The design and UX isn't done, Rob and Abbie, okkurrrr! đ
dananana's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.5
Graphic: Death of parent, Animal cruelty, and Grief
Moderate: Violence, Injury/Injury detail, and Blood
Minor: Incest
guessgreenleaf's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
Moderate: Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Blood, and Animal cruelty
Minor: Sexual harassment
kurumipanda's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Blood, and Death of parent
Moderate: Violence, Xenophobia, War, Classism, and Grief
Minor: Sexual harassment, Sexism, and Confinement
allycat21's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Minor: War, Animal cruelty, Medical content, Blood, Death of parent, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, and Violence
talasterism's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
second, the book itself. first obviously the biggest plus is the kid and their magic beast bond trope which i MISSED so much in my life. however, it is not even a magic bond that binds them, but hard work, love, & hours of gentle care that were put into the bond that make it ever so magical in a different way. she is the beast player BECAUSE SHE PLAYS MUSIC FOR THEM trying to imitate their language!!! lon lon lon..... i found the worldbuilding sexy in a way that is simple and understandable on a surface level yet has a lot of nuance. the politics were great, and time after time after time i was baffled to see the themes in the childrens book/very pos. the disgust she has for people who take animals and use them as tools in the war and be kept in captivity?? gahhhh. #justveganthings /hj. NO BUT HOW SHE HATES THE SILTEN WHISTLE. how if she COULD she would desotry it, at the very core. how strongly she feels about it, how right she is.
her relatiosnhips with other people & the side characters themselves always felt so real. but elin and leelan... the real gems of the book. the whole spiel of what every creature knows is not love but fear... wait lemme see if i can find it
"Where would her love for Leelan, the tentative, step-by-step efforts she had made to get closer to her, lead her now? Had it all been for nothing, just self- gratification?  Perhaps.  Esalu had probably been rightâthe one emotion all living creatures shared was not love, but fear. This, most likely, was the hard truth. Men, beasts, all sentient beings that inhabited the planet, were incapable of trust. Somewhere in their hearts, they would always harbor the fear of others. To ensure their own survival, they would continue to devise ways to dominate and control.  Only by binding each other with force, with laws, with religious precepts⊠and with the Silent Whistle, do we finally feel safeâŠÂ  No matter how hard I study the nature of living things, in the end, thatâs all I will findâjust this empty futility." (but ALSO how when Esalu told her shes naive to not think that and she might as well write her will and ELIN GAVE HER HER WILL THE NEXT DAY?? fucking icon) Â
this made me tear up so much:
 "Watching the sky darken to twilight, Elin thought of the summer days she had spent with Joeun. And it gradually dawned on her how incredibly lucky she had been. If no one had found her on the bank where the Toda had left her, she would probably have died. If the person who had found her had been cruel, who knew what kind of misery she might now be living in?  She saw Joeunâs smiling face in her mindâs eye. Yes, she had been happy.   Those days with him were like priceless gems.   When I grow up, Iâll go back to the meadow on Kasho Mountain where Joeun had his summer hut.  She would lie in that meadow full of flowers he had loved so much, look up at the sky, and speak with him. She would tell him how grateful she was for all he had done, how much she had longed to see him, how she had spent her days and how she had grown up⊠She would live in such a way that Joeun would declare, âWell done, Elin, well done. Youâve lived your life well.â "Â
the book is such a gem such a masterpiece and i have underlined maybe a third of it. i will share one last thing, the poetry of the beast player on the last pages that made me weep and love it more.
  "A hot lump rose from the pit of her chest into her throat. Why?⊠Why would she do this for me? When Iâm not her child, or her parent, or her mate. When I used the Silent Whistle like a whip to make her obey me. Why?  Her feelings for Leelan, which she had locked away deep inside for fear of that sweet delusion, burst forth and shook something awake inside her.   Leelan, I just wanted to know. Thatâs all I ever wanted⊠I stood on the edge of that abyss between man and beast and played my harp for you, checking each note, one by one, to see if it would reach you. Because I wanted to know. I wanted to know what you thought.    And you â you spoke to me, one note at a time. We explored each otherâs incomprehensible minds from across that yawning chasm.   Sometimes we hit the wrong notes like clashing echoes.    Yet sometimes, just by chance, the notes we played for one another made unexpected music, like this.    Her eyes filled with tears.   As long as the life you have given me continues, let me stand on the shore of that great abyss and play. Let me pluck my harp, note by note, and speak to the creatures of earth and sky, so that I may hear music as yet unknown. "Â
third in recouting but by far not in importance was the dear & fond memory of taking this book to see ennie, this book that had just arrived on the day i was leaving to see them, on the train, and on the couch in the morning with my cute lil coloured pencils, and on the twenty something minute ride of me retelling it in all the jumbled detail and out of order mess & how they listened & they cared in their cute lil white shepe coat with their cute lil smile and questions and just perfectly right comments. thats just the vibes my lads.
Graphic: Animal death, Death of parent, and Animal cruelty
Moderate: Gore, Blood, and Violence
Minor: Sexism
emakay's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
Graphic: Blood, Death, Death of parent, Gore, Grief, and Violence
cameronmh's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
Graphic: Animal death, Animal cruelty, Blood, Death of parent, Excrement, and Violence
Moderate: Grief and Incest
heatherinjapan's review against another edition
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Graphic: Blood and Violence
Moderate: Gore
lapis's review against another edition
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
Okay, things to know. My brother, who is pretty good at Japanese (not just saying, he passed the top JLPT, so itâs kinda hard to test him further) read the first volume of this, has the second, and watched the anime of this (I think itâs under the title âBeast Player Erinâ), so he knows the basic plot when I discussed it with him. This, as sites say, is a compilation of the first two volumes.Â
Iâm shelving this as Young Adult, because I agree with Pushkin Press that it is. However, itâs sort of weird in tone for a Young Adult tone. Maybe âNew Adultâ would be a better term. Itâs very obsessed with biology, and it sort of sticks out in my mind compared to the typical English YA book I read. Elin doesnât really deal with love triangles for example. Romance is there and it does drive the plot, but not in the traditional YA sense.
The plot takes place over, roughly ten years (I may be off by a few). Itâs a bit slow-moving, especially for the majority of the first half/book, so if youâre looking for something fast, this may not be for you.Â
The names are really interesting. Theyâre Romanized in a way thatâs not difficult to say (though Iâd personally write them with dashes or something for syllable breaks, but thatâs preference, donât mind me), but gives them a fantasy-feel. I would love to pick Nahoko Uehashiâs brains about the naming scheme in the book, not just for the characters, but for the terminology. I know she has an anthropology degree (excellent choice, but Iâm biased), but I donât know if she has any linguistics or foreign language background. Part of why I want to pick the author's brains is that the back cover I have has the protagonist's name romanized as "Erin". In the books, it's "Elin". I'm like 90% sure that it originally was Erin in the translation, and author approval changed it to Elin. I find this interesting, as while I don't know the Japanese terms for much, there's stuff like a character being born in spring called "Halumiya" and Elin being a name that derives from a specific Apple. Basically I'm saying I really don't believe Cathy Hirano put in all those l's in the prospective translation draft.Â
Letâs talk about Romanization of Japanese terms for a bit. I am by no means an expert (se habla español ), but this is basically why itâs not a perfect 5 for me, because when I dug into this book, I could not understand why the decisions were made that were.
You have two main beasts (the kanji may be wrong; my brother wrote them from memory). éè Tohda, ççŁ Oujuu.
The first translates as âWar Serpentâ if you want a poetic name (Battle Snake would probably be more accurate but thatâs kinda⊠) The Latter IS translated in the book as Royal Beast. The former is left as âTodaâ. I canât figure out why both arenât translated. It seems inconsistent to me. I assume this is the author's request, but I really want to know more!
To end with: Pushkin Press puts this in their children line. I think thatâs thatâs up for debate, but anymore I donât think thereâs any shame in reading Young Adult books as long as thatâs not all youâre doing, like how literally no one cares if you watch anime except the people who also watch anime. Â
READ THE BOOK.
Moderate: Incest, Suicide, and Violence