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booksandcecilia's review
2.0
2.5 stars Better than I expected. Liked the parallell love stories and how they kind of was knitted together.
haunted_by_humans's review
3.0
This wasn’t great, but I did enjoy it; I didn’t think their backstory would interest me, but I kinda wished we had a full length novel about them instead of the original book?
nixwolfwood's review
5.0
http://www.platypire.com/j-hooligan/july-09th-2015
I absolutely got this book the day it became available without reading the synopsis first. But, I have loved the last three of Amanda Sun's books so I already knew I'd like this one as well.
And I was absolutely correct. It's been about a year since I've read one of her books, but I fell back into the characters rather quickly. There were two entirely different stories going on in this, one folklore and one more contemporary romance, and I enjoyed both of them.
Unlike the other novella, Shadow, this was a spin off of the series featuring the friends of Katie Greene as well as the beginning to the paranormal aspect of the series.
Yuki and Tanaka's story was freaking adorable and Izanami and Izanagi's was beautiful and heartbreaking.
Highly recommend this series to everyone ever in the world. Because I adore it. It's the only series I but in paperback. I'd get Rise and Shadow as paperback if it were available.
I absolutely got this book the day it became available without reading the synopsis first. But, I have loved the last three of Amanda Sun's books so I already knew I'd like this one as well.
And I was absolutely correct. It's been about a year since I've read one of her books, but I fell back into the characters rather quickly. There were two entirely different stories going on in this, one folklore and one more contemporary romance, and I enjoyed both of them.
Unlike the other novella, Shadow, this was a spin off of the series featuring the friends of Katie Greene as well as the beginning to the paranormal aspect of the series.
Yuki and Tanaka's story was freaking adorable and Izanami and Izanagi's was beautiful and heartbreaking.
Highly recommend this series to everyone ever in the world. Because I adore it. It's the only series I but in paperback. I'd get Rise and Shadow as paperback if it were available.
jaxreadshere_21's review
2.0
2.5
I was hoping for a little more detail/slightly longer novella, but this was a cute, small look further into Yuki and Tanaka's relationship. I love their characters and it was sweet to see them finally get together and see the backstory behind Tanaka answering the phone when Katie calls in book two. Also, in the alternating chapters was a really cool story out of Japanese Mythology that was very enjoyable to read.
I was hoping for a little more detail/slightly longer novella, but this was a cute, small look further into Yuki and Tanaka's relationship. I love their characters and it was sweet to see them finally get together and see the backstory behind Tanaka answering the phone when Katie calls in book two. Also, in the alternating chapters was a really cool story out of Japanese Mythology that was very enjoyable to read.
psistillreadyou's review
3.0
So far with this series I've gone into each book knowing as little as possible. When I found out what this book was about, I was surprised. I didn't expect much from it in the first place.
The story with Izanagi and Izanami was tragic and depressing. The one thing that I didn't understand was why Izanami's speaking first after them walking around the pillar would disrupt the order of things. How did that make their children deformed and why were there the children conceived after the second pillar walking normal? The book said that after the second pillar walking Izanami stopped touching Izanagi. How is it possible for them to have eight children if they never touch? Since Izanami went to Yomi after her death, how is it possible for her to die again? Where would she go after her second death? And if Ameno and Kunitoko knew this would happen, why would they have created them in the first place? The least they could have done was give some marriage counselling. The only purpose I see in this story being told is to be an introduction to the creation of Japan and the kami Amaterasu, Tsukiyomi, and Susanou. I wish I had read about the betrayal that took place between Amaterasu and Tsukiyomi as mentioned in Rain.
Yuki and Tanaka's story honestly made me like them a little less. They weren't very interesting. They seemed like one dimensional characters with only one thing on their minds. Katie and Tomohiro had more character development in Shadow. I understand that Yuki and Tanaka only had less than half of the book for their story, but I still didn't care about their relationship much. They were sweet together and Tanaka was protective of Yuki, but that was it. They didn't have a relationship where they strongly complimented each other and I couldn't see them with anyone else. They just made me miss Katie and Tomohiro's relationship.
The story with Izanagi and Izanami was tragic and depressing. The one thing that I didn't understand was why Izanami's speaking first after them walking around the pillar would disrupt the order of things. How did that make their children deformed and why were there the children conceived after the second pillar walking normal? The book said that after the second pillar walking Izanami stopped touching Izanagi. How is it possible for them to have eight children if they never touch? Since Izanami went to Yomi after her death, how is it possible for her to die again? Where would she go after her second death? And if Ameno and Kunitoko knew this would happen, why would they have created them in the first place? The least they could have done was give some marriage counselling. The only purpose I see in this story being told is to be an introduction to the creation of Japan and the kami Amaterasu, Tsukiyomi, and Susanou. I wish I had read about the betrayal that took place between Amaterasu and Tsukiyomi as mentioned in Rain.
Yuki and Tanaka's story honestly made me like them a little less. They weren't very interesting. They seemed like one dimensional characters with only one thing on their minds. Katie and Tomohiro had more character development in Shadow. I understand that Yuki and Tanaka only had less than half of the book for their story, but I still didn't care about their relationship much. They were sweet together and Tanaka was protective of Yuki, but that was it. They didn't have a relationship where they strongly complimented each other and I couldn't see them with anyone else. They just made me miss Katie and Tomohiro's relationship.
emakay's review
4.0
I feel like I'd understand this more if I'd read the other books, but I still enjoyed it!
bibliotropic's review
3.0
I’m not entirely sure how I feel about this novella, to be honest. Much like Shadow, it’s interesting without really having much point, because we see that Yuki and Tanaka get together in the main trilogy, and we don’t really need to see their thought processes and actions behind said hooking up because they’re side characters, and not even side-characters involved in the main story. They’re the more mundane connections in Katie’s life, and so constantly get sidelined, leaving them as flavour text, for the most part.
That said, it is kind of interesting that the author developed the characters beyond what you get to see in the main trilogy, and that they have stories of their own that don’t simply revolve around Katie because she’s the protagonist. So, credit where credit is due.
My main problem with this novella, though, is the parallels it draws between than and Izanami and Izanagi, gods involved in Japan’s creation myth. Mostly because if you want, you can draw parallels between those deities and absolutely any couple that doesn’t communicate perfectly and their relationship suffers for it. I wondered if Sun was trying to imply that Yuki and Tanaka were Izanami and Izanagi incarnate, which would have been fascinating (although admittedly baffling, because holy crap, why then wouldn’t they have larger roles in the main story, and thus would there be other books about them in the future), but that wasn’t where Sun decided to go. It seemed more like a way to introduce Japan’s creation myth to a Western audience than anything else.
Which is fine. But utterly unnecessary to tell a “how these two got together” story.
On the other hand, this novella does have a fair bit of content that’s worthy of praise. First of all, it presents the story of Izanagi and Izanami as a struggling pair that go beyond their roles as creative deities. According to myth, demons get created because Izanami essentially couldn’t keep to her role as subordinate to the male Izanagi. And Rise expands on that a bit by showing how she’s troubled not only by that, but also by her struggles to suppress her own wants and creative urges in order to please her partner, which is unhealthy and ultimately leads to her downfall and corruption. But it presents Izanagi as troubled also, recognizing the problems that his leadership urges have created and yet seeing no way around them, because he couldn’t suppress his own self either. So there’s that aspect, and it addressed a few things that have always bothered me about that myth.
Also, it presents teenage sexuality as not-a-bad-thing. And I don’t mean that in the sense of just admitting that teens can have sexy feelings for each other. Most YA novels address that nowadays, I think. But most also have a, “We feel this way but we know we’re not ready to have sex,” message going alongside it. Which is also fine. It’s good for teens to hear that having those feelings doesn’t always mean you have to act on them if you have reservations. But it’s also nice to see an example of a couple who may have only recently gotten romantic but who have had feelings for each other for years, and so decide, “You know what? We both want to do it. So let’s.” And for that to not really be a big deal, because it was a mutual decision. Their encounter was only implied, but implied strongly, and I kind of liked how it was established but not made into more than it was for either of the characters. So I’ve got to give the author some points for handling that pretty well.
That said, it is kind of interesting that the author developed the characters beyond what you get to see in the main trilogy, and that they have stories of their own that don’t simply revolve around Katie because she’s the protagonist. So, credit where credit is due.
My main problem with this novella, though, is the parallels it draws between than and Izanami and Izanagi, gods involved in Japan’s creation myth. Mostly because if you want, you can draw parallels between those deities and absolutely any couple that doesn’t communicate perfectly and their relationship suffers for it. I wondered if Sun was trying to imply that Yuki and Tanaka were Izanami and Izanagi incarnate, which would have been fascinating (although admittedly baffling, because holy crap, why then wouldn’t they have larger roles in the main story, and thus would there be other books about them in the future), but that wasn’t where Sun decided to go. It seemed more like a way to introduce Japan’s creation myth to a Western audience than anything else.
Which is fine. But utterly unnecessary to tell a “how these two got together” story.
On the other hand, this novella does have a fair bit of content that’s worthy of praise. First of all, it presents the story of Izanagi and Izanami as a struggling pair that go beyond their roles as creative deities. According to myth, demons get created because Izanami essentially couldn’t keep to her role as subordinate to the male Izanagi. And Rise expands on that a bit by showing how she’s troubled not only by that, but also by her struggles to suppress her own wants and creative urges in order to please her partner, which is unhealthy and ultimately leads to her downfall and corruption. But it presents Izanagi as troubled also, recognizing the problems that his leadership urges have created and yet seeing no way around them, because he couldn’t suppress his own self either. So there’s that aspect, and it addressed a few things that have always bothered me about that myth.
Also, it presents teenage sexuality as not-a-bad-thing. And I don’t mean that in the sense of just admitting that teens can have sexy feelings for each other. Most YA novels address that nowadays, I think. But most also have a, “We feel this way but we know we’re not ready to have sex,” message going alongside it. Which is also fine. It’s good for teens to hear that having those feelings doesn’t always mean you have to act on them if you have reservations. But it’s also nice to see an example of a couple who may have only recently gotten romantic but who have had feelings for each other for years, and so decide, “You know what? We both want to do it. So let’s.” And for that to not really be a big deal, because it was a mutual decision. Their encounter was only implied, but implied strongly, and I kind of liked how it was established but not made into more than it was for either of the characters. So I’ve got to give the author some points for handling that pretty well.
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