Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba (Volume 20-23) - Koyoharu Gotouge - FINAL THOUGHTS AND SPOILERS

This is the wrap up for this manga:

Volume 20 - This entire volume basically revolves around the fight with the upper 1 demon. There is a lot of time devoted to his backstory. He had a twin and the relationship between the two was complicated. It started out sweet, but when his brother surpassed him, Kokushibo's brotherly love turned to envy, and eventually hatred. It leads him to the path of the demon, but he never escapes the shadow of his brother. When the end comes, he still is thinking of his twin. 

Volume 21 - The fight with Muzan continues. Tanjiro is seriously hurt, and he has ancient memories involving the life of Yoriichi. Muzan is able to heal faster than they can hurt him, so their only hope is to get him outside and keep him there until sunrise. They still have over an hour to go, so it isn't going to be easy. Nezuko knows Tanjiro is hurt, and she's on her way. I need some Inosuke involvement soon. We only have two volumes left!

Volume 22 - We're getting close to the end now! Muzan is getting weaker! Tamayo is getting her revenge, and Tanjiro is back in the fight! He's getting help from Iguro, and I really liked getting his backstory. I wondered why he was always so standoffish. We're really close to sunrise, and Nezuko is on the road when she undergoes a change and remembers who she really is. Yushiro has really come through by helping out everyone with his demon cat. I felt bad for it, but it seems to be okay (and I'm NOT a cat person). Let's finish this thing up!

Volume 23 - The end of the road for Muzan. The demon finds a way to make a pest of himself even after he's dead by infecting Tanjiro (rude!). His friends are able to bring him back, though, and really there's no other way to do it. Tanjiro has always been grounded by those he cares about. The rest of the volume is dedicated to the fallen and the healing of those left behind. I want to spend a moment on the final chapter. It was so well done. Seeing the effect the Demon Slayers had on future generations was so cute (I hate to use that word, but it was cute). I'm also glad Gotouge put the little explanations after the chapter end to clarify who was descended from whom. And the very end was great as well.

My overall thoughts on this manga are A+. I loved the whole thing. I loved the way the various backgrounds of both the slayers and the demons were woven into the story. The unique powers, appearances and fighting styles of the demons were also interesting and set it apart. The depth and development of so many characters is impressive, and I appreciate all the time and effort the author spent to make that happen. If I had one criticism, it would be that I would sometimes have an issue keeping some of the characters separate in my mind. Some of their names would be similar, and or they would look similar, and it would be confusing for me. I'll take the blame for it; I'm sure there were details in there to tell them apart. It's just that sometimes I couldn't get back to the story for a bit, and I couldn't recall names. 

I would definitely recommend this manga. It's unique, the art is cool, and the story is amazing and has a lot of depth to it. I also appreciated the humility shown by the author, and I always looked forward to seeing the little alligator at the beginning of the volumes. It was just so cute! It's been a bloody, demon-murdering ride, but it's been a rewarding one! Team Inosuke Forever!! Great Manga!

Seven Firefights in Vietnam - John A. Cash

This is one of the books I picked up during our HPB trips. It was cheap and little, and it covered a time I'm not familiar with.

There's not much to say. The title tells you what you get. Some of them are in the jungle, and others involve the rivers.

The thing about this book is that I'm a 100% a visual person. The first incident described in this book confused the heck out of me. It was all "Company A was over here while Company D went over there." There were even a fair number of maps included, and I'd say I struggled with about 50% of those.

I was under the impression the book would be a bit different. When it said it had eyewitness input, I thought it would be more personal. At times, the book would mention men's names, and many times it would reveal their fates. But other times it wouldn't.

There was a lot of pen-drawn art in here, and they were really done. It showed the weapons and aircraft that were part of the stories. I was able to follow some of the stories more than others. Those tended to be the ones with the more linear movements, but I was able to follow a couple of the others a bit as well.

Overall, this was a pretty good book, but it wasn't what I was expecting. I probably wouldn't have picked it up had I known what it was, because I normally like a more personal experience in my nonfiction books. I'm still going to give this a Good Book! review, because it was short enough it didn't hang around too long, and I did learn new things about Vietnam.

 

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba (Volume 15-19) - Koyoharu Gotouge

More summaries for my personal reference:

Volume 15 - This one was really confusing for me. I didn't have any issues following the fight with the tiny demon. It was when I got to the episode after Nezuko was able to walk in the sun. I think the researcher was writing a letter to Tanjiro, and then it switched to a kid. I thought the woman they were showing was the same one, so I had to go back. I thought the kid had killed Tamayo. I'll take responsibility. I was having trouble keeping everyone separate. What I eventually discovered is that the child was a disguise of Muzan called Toshikuni. He kills the women who have been taking care of him. I also got a connection between the broody Giyu and the two mysterious young people who trained Tanjiro at the beginning of his journey. Toward the end of this one, Genya is having sibling trouble, and since Tanjiro doesn't like families fighting, he tries to create peace between them. I still love this manga, it just had me lost in the middle. 

Volume 16 - This one is leading up to (and starting) the big fight between Muzan and the Hashiras. Ubuyahiki is really struggling with his illness, and he decides to use himself as bait to lure Muzan into a place where the Hashiras will come after him. Tanjiro and his friends have been studying under Himejima (the Stone Hashira), and it's no easy task. Inosuke remains my favorite character by far, but I really like Tanjiro's positive attitude and sweet spirit. The Insect Hashira, Shinobu, is breaking my heart with her fight with the weirdo with the fans. He's so infuriating with that stupid smile on his face! The big fight is under way, and I'm worried about everyone. I don't think everyone is making it out of this one alive...

Volume 17 - The fight between Tanjiro, Giyu and Akaza takes up most of this volume. There's an interesting interaction in there involving Zenitsu. Tanjiro is making some real progress toward the end of the volume, but a lot of this is centered on the fight with Akaza. Also the fan weirdo shows up towards the beginning a bit.

Volume 18 - The fight with Akaza comes to an end. The demon regains his memories, and as usual, they're sad and make me sympathize with Akaza. Now Giyu and Tanjiro are exhausted, and we move on to Kanao and weird fan man. I'm not sure anything in his past is going to make me sympathize with him, but I've been wrong before. But, guess what?! Lord Inosuke has joined the battle!! On the flip side, we do get some memories, but they're Inosuke's, and they're super sad. I guess the demon's name is Doma, but I really dislike him for numerous reasons.

Volume 19 - Hooray! Doma is dead! And I don't feel bad about it. I will say that they way he died was very clever and sad (not for Doma, for the Hashira). Kanroji and Iguro are fighting the upper rank 4, Nakime. She's a strange demon who just seems to sit on the floor and strum her biwa, which changes the layout of the building. Now the upper 2 and 3 are dead, and the upper 1 demon is currently fighting 4 Hashira, including Genya and Sanemi. The upper rank 1, Kokushibo, is unusual in that he was a demon slayer and retains his memories. He claims Tokito is descended from him, and that's a twist none of the slayers saw coming, but now isn't the time to think about that. 

On to the final four!

Season of Storms (The Witcher Saga #8) - Andrzej Sapkowski

It took me a while to add this one to my library, but it finally dropped in price. This book doesn't continue the story after The Lady of the Lake, but instead dives into the past. 

Geralt has handed over his swords to get into a city in Kerack, but when there's a misunderstanding (setup), he's arrested. When he goes back to retrieve his weapons, they're gone. Now he's got to try and get them back, but he's got sorcerers and princes trying to manipulate him for their own ends.

The story here was really interesting. I recognized the tale of the fox children from the graphic novel, so that was neat. I'm always a sucker for Sapkowski's worldbuilding. Coral was a bit much, but it's always great to know Dandelion's there. Yennefer even shows up here and there briefly.

Overall, I really did like this book. They're always page turners for me, and I'm looking forward to the day I get my hands on Crossroads of Ravens. Good Book!

The Bridge of San Luis Rey - Thornton Wilder

This ended up on my reading list because I'd seen it go on the public domain. The summary sounded interesting. There will be spoilers in this review. It's something of a short book, and I have a few choice words for it.

When the bridge collapses, five lives are snuffed out. The priest that witnesses the event goes on a mission to try and explain if there was a specific reason God let that happen to those specific people. What follows is the story of three and a half people. One is a clingy mother and her maid(?), another is 1/2 of twins, and the last one is a weird guy who guilt trips a longtime "friend" to let her sickly son accompany him to Lima (this takes place in Peru). Later, the priest also had a system where he was evaluating parishioners on their value, and he's eventually put to death for heresy.

This book was so weird. Half the time, the text wasn't even focusing on the person the priest was researching. I read so much about the other twin and the girl the weird guy was obsessed with. It was just odd. And the idea that any kind of explanation to a random tragedy would result from exploring people's backgrounds is just ridiculous. The priest thought that a bridge collapse was a more controlled tragedy than other types of deaths. Umm, ok. Things like that aren't "controlled" more than anything else. It happened when the structure gave out. The whole book was just weird. At least it was short.

A False Mirror (Ian Rutledge #9) - Charles Todd

This is one of the paperbacks from the HPB trips. I didn't realize it was part of a series when I picked it up, but the main character, Ian Rutledge, solves mysteries and has 8 previous cases under his belt. I was intrigued by the setting of post WWI, and the summary for the mystery was unique.

A man is attacked while out walking by the water in a smaller town. When his wife's former lover hears of it, he freaks out and rushes to her house and ends up taking her hostage. After that, the husband is barely alive, and people are being killed. The former lover served with Rutledge in the war, and the suspect insists that he'll only talk to his former comrade.

The thing about this novel is that it was weird. First, it's number 9 in the series, so I wasn't used to Hamish-in-the-head. This is also one of the men he served with, but this one died and now harasses Rutledge day and night as a sort of conscience ghost (?). Another thing was the plot. It was unique, and normally, I love that. But this one got super weird. The initial victim disappears, and we assume he's dead, and then other people die, and we're not sure if the assumed dead guy is committing the acts, or if there's another murderer. And then the answer just didn't seem to make enough sense to satisfy. I suppose it made sense, but it also kind of didn't, so I was torn on the "villain." And then it just ended. There weren't really many people to root for in this one, and you didn't find out what really happened to them anyway, so it's a lot of unresolved feelings. 

The book overall was enough to keep me entertained, but I wouldn't pick up another one. Rutledge kept referring to a case in London that I didn't know about, so there was that. I also didn't ever really get used to Hamish. And at the end of the book, I didn't really get a feel for enough of Rutledge's personality to say one way or the other whether he was interesting enough to follow. Since this is his 9th adventure, I'm not very optimistic about his prospects to show up in my reading pile again. The writing style was fine, I just wasn't a fan of the weird plot or the detective.

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba (Volume 9-14) - Koyoharu Gotouge

To continue my personal summaries of Demon Slayer:

Volume 9 - It's time to go to the entertainment district. Tengen Uzui has lost track of his 3 wives, and the friends are sent to infiltrate the same houses to find out what happened. Of course there's a demon involved, but it's not a straightforward enemy. I really love the imagination used to create these demons. It's not the usual "they fight with a sword" or "they're skilled with a bow." I'm just impressed every time. Big fight coming up next! 

Volume 10 - Well, the fight has taken an interesting turn as a new player (brother) has joined the fight. These two are connected but have very different skills. Tanjiro gets himself into trouble, and Nezuko comes to the rescue. She's even stronger than she was before, but she's also more dangerous. The fight isn't over yet! But we've got some reinforcements, and the two groups have to work together to deal with this double demon threat.

Volume 11 - We're still dealing with the siblings with the different skills. It's going to take all the fighters working together to defeat this strong team. But even after they're defeated, Tanjiro finds the compassion to try and mend their relationship with each other. It's an interesting facet to the demon personalities. Seeing their backstories and feeling some sympathy for their predicament, in spite of what they've done and tried to do to the heroes, is so unusual. I'm constantly impressed by the creativity involved with this manga.

Volume 12 - It's recovery time. I really liked the first part where it was from the POV of the person that found them and thought they were hugging. As I get deeper into this series, I am falling more in love with Inosuke's character. I can't get over where he was when Tanjiro woke up. Anyway, the group is split up as everyone gets sent on a different mission. Tanjiro is sent somewhere else (he's still healing), but it's a secret place, so he has to be blindfolded and taken there by multiple escorts. They think it's a safe place, but they don't know that a couple demons are already on their way. A feisty demon slayer, Genya, is on the scene, though, and we'll see what happens next. 

Volume 13 - The demons are relentless, and Tanjiro is going to have to dig deep. Genya wants the glory of killing an upper rank demon, and Tanjiro doesn't care as long as everyone is safe. The demon has basically five "aspects," and tracking down the main one isn't going to be easy. They're going to have to look high and low. Then, it's going to take timing. Meanwhile, another fight is going on with a Hashira back at the swordsmith village. And it's not going well with the vase demon. He's a complete putz, and he's really cruel to the smiths he's captured. There's hope toward the end, though, as the peppy Love Hashira, Kanroji, is back on the scene!

Volume 14 - Goldfish/Bubble demon is finally taken care of, but Tokito is paying a high price for fighting it. The insults were flying for a long time with those two, but seeing the backstory was intriguing and knowing Tokito had a twin brother was interesting. We get another backstory in this volume as well. Kanroji gets herself in trouble and sees her past. It's one where she's had to hide who she was, and it reminded me of someone close to me. I love how that scenario turned out in the fight, even though the fight is ongoing.