Content warnings for physical abuse, attempted suicide, and stalking/harassment.

Rika injured herself a while back and took some time off the track team as a result. She's now in her third and final year of high school and, although she's technically all healed up, she's left the track team and keeps resisting the pleas of her former coach and teammates to rejoin. What one of her former teammates doesn't realize is that her new boyfriend used to be Rika's boyfriend - he dumped Rika not too long ago.

Rika feels depressed and disconnected from her school life but is intrigued when someone in an anonymous school chat room suggests blowing up the school (why this isn't an immediate red flag for school officials, I don't know - I find it difficult to believe that a school chat room wouldn't have some form of monitoring in place). Following some clues, she eventually ends up meeting and getting to know several people from the chat in real life.

I recall Setona Mizushiro's After School Nightmare being an interesting series, albeit not really one I enjoyed (although, looking back, my reviews say otherwise, huh). It was a little too dark and unsettling for my tastes, and the character relationships made my skin crawl.

So far, X-Day seems to be a bit more straightforward. Rika, who goes by the name "11" in the chatroom, appears to be an accomplished student with no reason to hate school, but in reality she feels like her former track teammate is taking everything from her. She desperately wants to stop feeling anything about track team and her ex-boyfriend. The various visitors to the Ursa Minor chatroom, controlled by a girl who uses the name "Polaris," also have things in their lives that are stressing them out and depressing them and have decided that blowing up the school (at night, when no one is around to get hurt) will somehow help.

Part of my problem with this series is that the characters' motivations seem so weak. Okay, so they're all having problems for one reason or another. However, only one or two of them are having problems that are directly linked to being at school (and whether blowing up the building would actually fix their problems is a whole other issue...). The rest of them just seem to be going along with the idea for some reason. Is it the social aspect? They all finally found someone they could talk to and be their true selves with, and since one or two of them want to blow up the school, they all decided to go along with it? I don't know. I suppose I could sort of understand it if the whole chatroom group were composed of teens, but one of the members is a teacher. It boggles my mind that he got involved in this too, even considering his situation.

Well, one more volume to go. Will they actually manage to blow up the school, or will they get found out before they do anything too drastic? Will Rika's actions drive a wedge into the group? Will that one teacher manage to get a job someplace else or will his obsessed stalker push him over the edge? I guess I'll find out soon.

 

(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.)

I am just so weepy recently.

 

Everything gets to me. I am thankful today that I am able to be emotional. It just proves that I am human and no matter what I go through, I am still alive. So in saying that, I am also thankful I am alive. In my darkest moment, I think I don't want to be alive, but I know that is my demon depression talking.

This review appears Here: Poems of the Unrequited Clinically Depressed Ghost Girl - Review As well as at Amazon, and a mention at the book trailer at the publishers website.

Today we have something quite rare, so don't even get used to seeing this. We have a 5 star review. But before anyone should even care, or show a lack of caring, it is important to say that the only reason this gets 5 stars is because it has entered the "right time, right place" zone.

If this had been read and reviewed 2 months ago, it would have gotten 4, it it had been read 2 months from now, it would have gotten 4.

I came into this saying to myself... "No biggie, looks like a nice read, and I can relate. Life sucks at times, so what, that's the other guy, not me, I am beyond all that bullshit."

But then I started getting into the work, and realized that I was about as deep into denial as it gets. Not only was this not the other guy, but I was nowhere near beyond any of my own bullshit.

Let me tell you upfront, if you got a lot of shit going on in your life, and you're dragging, this is going to rip your guts out, so if you are not ready to have your demons revisited, I suggest you stay away from this work until you are ready to hurt. I myself was not ready, but was glad I got caught off guard, because if I would have continued down this road I recently just lead myself onto, I would have been worse off later. TRust me, I was watching what was going on with me, and just figured I could beat it back, and stuff it, as I had done for so many decades in the past. But now there is freedom from these recent demons, and a new way of thinking that just might convince me to let some of the old ones out, and dispatch them.

Most of the poetry is short, but it hits hard and fast. There is a variety of issues addressed, but the central theme remains the same. Pain, only the circumstances change here and their from piece to piece.

Some of them read 2 pages, but for the most part, the book is %35 whitespace, which is acceptable for a book of poetry.

I paid $8.09 at Amazon, and it was a little more than what the book itself is worth. The cover is slightly below average in paper quality, but the cover image is beautiful. The paper is heavy, the ink is dark, the type is clear and readable, and it does hold up well to page folding. Overall, the content inside makes the book invaluable, the price to me is nothing more than another price I have paid in life, and no longer holds a monetary value, after reading the work.

You don't have to be a "Girl" to read this, in fact, this goes beyond gender, even though gender is mentioned here and there. For me, gender just seemed like the shell that this was all housed in, and that this road is no respecter of persons, and has no qualms dragging you through the same sadness and eventual healing and love.

Half of me wants to call this author a "Bitch" for exposing the secret club handshake of the hurting and hidden, and the other half just wants to give her a big hug and tell her, "It's gonna be ok now, I get it, thanks..."

I didn't have any favorite pieces throughout the body of the work, because the work as a whole spoke to me both as a whole, and to each individual issue that each individual piece of work seemed to empathize with. To tell you the truth, I found myself simply reading through it as one body of work, non-stop, with the titles each simply being a faded roadsign that I passed along the road.

This is not a fun-time book to read just for the hell of it, it is a serious read, and you might want to pass it by if you can't be serious about yourself. It is just you and this book alone when reading, you are the one that has to live alone with the words after you are done, trying to "stuff" this back down in your trap door with all the demons isn't going to make anything any better...

I thought this was being released November 4th. 

 

 

It is.

 

 

November 4th, 2014.

 

 

firstworldproblems

I'm feeling really depressed right now, but fortunately I have a Stephanie Plum 'mystery' to turn to. That's about the only thing that can get me in a good mood at the worst of times. Thank you, Janet Evanovich, for distracting me from my troubles!