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Lenni Reviews: “Magical Girl Dandelion” Vol. 2, by Kaeru Mizuho

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*This book was given to me in exchange for an honest review.

After Tanpopo’s battle with Alice concludes, Peony discovers her connection to Shade.

Peony reacts as you’d expect, unwilling to accept that some fiends can be different. This volume expands the world and lore, using Peony and Tanpopo’s differing views on how to fight fiends. I’m sure we’ll get more backstory about why Peony is so gung-ho about killing fiends as we go. It was cool to see the two magical girls working together. They have the odd couple thing going on, and it’s interesting to see them use their abilities. 4 out of 5.

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Lenni Reviews: “Mujina Into the Deep” Vol. 4 by Inio Asano

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*This book was given to me in exchange for an honest review and is suggested for mature readers.

With Terumi in the hospital, Ubume is out for revenge.

Yeah, this expression is the only real response to Tenko.

Now we learn more about Ubume, and it’s not the book’s fault that it’s a bit on the nose to current events. (spoiler)

A lot of stories have the sooper seekrit experiment conspiracy, so… Now what? Is the endgame to expose all this and reinstate the mujina as actual people so anyone faces consequences? Will there be any antidote for whatever they’re being doped with? I’m enjoying the series but I’d rather more plot than watch Tenko fuck some random dude and say weird shit. 3 out of 5.

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Lenni Reviews: “Magical Girl Dandelion” Vol. 1, by Kaeru Mizuho

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*This book was given to me in exchange for an honest review.

Tanpopo Ohaniami is offered the chance to be a magical girl and fight the Fiends that plague humanity. But the Fiend that has been her companion her entire life, Shade, doesn’t want her to get involved in this dangerous conflict.

This is gorier than I’d expected. Fiends eat people, and it actually threw me off for a second to go from the cute stuff to a severed head and body horror. Now, I love me a twist on the magical girl genre, and this is a compelling start. We have our plucky main character, hard-ass magical girl veteran, a supernatural sidekick, and hints of something bigger at play. Everything I like in an opening volume. The art fits both the cutesy stuff and the horrific, with some impressive creature designs. Just be aware that while this isn’t Magical Girl Apocalypse (at least not yet), it’s no Card Captor Sakura. It gets dark. 4 out of 5.

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Lenni Reviews: “Mujina into the Deep” Vol. 3, by Inio Asano

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*This book was given to me in exchange for an honest review and is suggested for mature readers.

Mai and Tenko face off, and we learn more about Ubeme. Juno is thinking of becoming a Mujina to escape the 9-5.

It’s sad that people care so little that it takes three months for a Mujina to be located after being killed. Yes, I get that they’re no longer legally people, but sheesh… It looks like there’s a big plot point here that has to deal with Ubeme’s past, as she was trafficked as a minor by a prostitution ring that was broken a long time ago, yet still being investigated. On top of that, it’s implied she’s losing her edge because she’s too attached to other people. That’s a pretty standard trope, but if it means that it wouldn’t take three months to find out if something happened to her, then go for it. She’s an awesome fighter, and seeing her in action is amazing. It’s a shame there wasn’t more of that from her in this volume. 3 out of 5.

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Lenni Reviews: “Dark Gathering” Vol. 16, by Kenichi Kondō

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*This book was given to me in exchange for an honest review.

Yayoi’s plan (Operation Bellflower Regicide) reaches its final stage. Now, the graduates must to their part to weaken and destroy the god to save Ai.

Even though this volume stops to expound or flashback a lot, this battle does not disappoint. I actually started to feel bad for some of the spirits that didn’t make it. We’ve spent so much time with them at this point that it was a shame that some necessary sacrifices were inevitable in the fight. It’s amazing to see everything Yayoi has experienced and fought for coming together in a fantastically illustrated battle. This was so satisfying, even though it’s clearly not over. 4.5 out of 5.

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Lenni Reviews: “Boy’s Abyss” Vol. 11, by Ryo Minenami

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*This book was given to me in exchange for an honest review and is suggested for mature readers.

Akira recounts his time with Reiji’s mom, Yuko, and Yuri plots to get Reiji to come back to town.

Yuko is so twisted. I should have known she had some dark plan for keeping Yuri around because that’s just the horrid, manipulative person she is. I do have to admire this story for making me feel like the guy dying of cancer is the lucky one because he’s the most likely to be quit of all this toxic drama soon. I hope whatever Yuko has planned fails, and Reiji can be free too, only without having to die. 3 out of 5.

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Lenni Reviews: “The Tree of Death: Yomotsuhegui” Vol. 1, by Masasumi Kakizaki

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*This book was given to me in exchange for an honest review and is for mature readers. Trigger warnings for SA and suicide.

Former police officer Nawa Kanetsugu is determined to avenge the deaths of his wife and daughter; a quest that’s landed him in prison. Upon release, he’s still on his mission and encounters a strange girl named Ren, a death god, who feeds him the fruit of the Yomotsuhegui. This turns him into an immortal and Ren tasks him with helping her hunt down other dangerous immortals.

This is a strong series opener; the sides/conflicts are established, the threat is made known, and we get a disgusting antagonist Sakase. It’s very adult with violence and gore aplenty, but it doesn’t feel gratuitous. It suits the dark story. There is little levity, and we aren’t sure Nawa is even on the “right” side of all the tragedy surrounding the fruit. The art here is perfect for this story with some fantastic body horror; viscerally detailed when the bloodier and monstrous elements are shown. 4 out of 5.

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Lenni Reviews Challenge Edition: “The Groomer” by Jon Athan

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Andrew McCarthy and his wife, Holly, have a typical life with their kids, Max and Grace. That is, until they notice a man named Zachary sniffing around, and Grace goes missing. Frustrated with the police, Andrew embarks on his own violent mission to find his daughter.

Well… Overall, this is Taken, but if we spent more time on the most awful parts of human trafficking, torture, murder, and snuff (trigger warnings for all of that, by the way). We don’t get the catharsis of a “win” after going through all this darkness; just bitter emptiness. A family is destroyed, and all the revenge gore in the world won’t make the demented fruits of these monsters go away. It’s just a downer, especially with what’s going on in the world now (perhaps that impacted my experience). Even if it’s not the perfect ending where everything is fine, there could have been some kind of hope at the end. The writing is fine, the descriptions of violence are visceral and real, but I can’t say I enjoyed this. 2 out of 5.

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Lenni Reviews Challenge Edition: “The Slob” by Aron Beauregard

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*This book is recommended for mature readers. Trigger warning for murder, gore, and rape.

While Vera grew up in a hoarder’s house with her parents and mentally unwell sister, she now lives with her disabled veteran husband, Daniel. With a baby on the way, Vera decides to become a door-to-door vacuum salesperson for some extra cash until she knocks on the door to the wrong house.

I understand this was meant to be extreme, and it succeeds in that the descriptions of the Slob and his home are gross and the sexual violence is disgusting, but this felt try-hard. I couldn’t get into it like I could with Playground or Tender is the Flesh. It’s as if there was a checklist of “Gross Stuff” and every other sentence was about ticking a box off. There’s even this random bit about some gay guys who kill people, as if the checklist included “People We Need to Offend” and overall, I feel cheated that I didn’t feel what I think the book was trying to get me to feel. I do have to say, Vera is a great character. I’m not sure if I’m becoming desensitized to all this, but in the end, it was a giant “Meh.” 1 out of 5.

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Lenni Reviews Challenge Edition: “Playground” by Aron Beauregard

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*This book contains VERY adult themes. It is not for children or the faint of heart.

Geraldine Borden offers the chance of a lifetime for three low-income families to test out her state-of-the-art playground equipment in exchange for a substantial payout. Little do the parents know that these new devices are deadly, putting their children in grave danger.

Trigger warning for… Everything.

You ready? Yeah, no you’re not.

Okay… I had to sit on this review for a while to ponder where I am considering this book. I was prepared for the gore and the dead children. The plot and cover give those away. Yes, being a parent did have me getting angrier than perhaps a non-parent would be (especially since some of these parents fucking suck). However, I was NOT prepared for the disgusting sexual content (rape, incest, uncleanliness) and shit eating. To say Geraldine is disgusting is an offensive understatement. Brace yourself cause I’m gonna spoil this so, skip the rest of this paragraph if you want to avoid it… Not only did Geraldine harbor incestuous feelings for her own mother (who seemed to be a perfectly normal person), she acts on these desires by masturbating with her mother’s feces and is responsible for her mother’s death because when her mother was on her death bed, Geraldine sat on her face and rode it until her mother smothered to death. The book also goes into great detail about how Geraldine does not believe in properly cleaning her privates or her sex toys and that it’s so disgusting; Rock (her unfortunate adopted son – an adult at the time of this book) is so disgusted by what he is force to do to her, he uses his own bile as lubricant. I gotta give it to the writing because I had to hold back from gagging and desperately needed to take a shower.

Ya’ll still with me? Need a breather? I did when I read this. Geraldine is hypersexual and later on in the book when her attention is on the children, I actually prayed to go away from any further sexual scenes with her and back to the child murder. She has a Nazi scientist, Fuchs, as her assistant and I kinda found that to be cliche. That’s a common trope in horror: death/torture machines made by a Nazi to bring to mind the actual atrocities committed. It makes sense in that of course Geraldine would have a Nazi in her back pocket but still.

The descriptions of what physically happens to the children are properly harrowing. It gives a very Squid Game vibe with how the group either stays together, falls apart, or brings the best/worst out in each other. The kid’s personalities are so well done! You get to know them and they – as well as their parents – all are written well enough that I was very much invested. So, after all that, all the horrid blood gore and wishing I could bleach not only Geraldine’s physical descriptions out of my head but powerwash her body as well, this book as the fucking gall to end on this tragically beautiful note. Or perhaps it rewards me after putting me through that rank ass snatch. So, where do I stand with this? I mean, I got what I came for: extreme literature. I can’t give the book a low rating for that, especially if it’s written well enough that it makes me react so vicerally. I was rooting for the kids, I got attached to them and the parents that weren’t awful, and again, that ending…

I am going to give this a biased 2.3 out of 5 because how dare this book make my bisexual ass hate vagina by being so disgusting, I’d rather read about children being mauled.

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