The Twelve Kingdoms is one of my top favorite Japanese light novel series, although it's not without its problems, and it took reading the second book and seeing the anime for me to start feeling that way. I wanted to finally read the fourth book, but it's been four years since I read the second and third and more than six since I read the first, so I decided that it'd be best to start from the beginning.

This book introduces the world of the Twelve Kingdoms via Yoko Nakajima, a high school student in Japan. When we first meet her, Yoko is as bland and inoffensive as she can make herself. Pretty much the only thing that makes her stand out and that she refuses to change is her hair, which is red enough to look like it's been dyed. She prefers to wear it long, even though it looks redder that way, and even though her mother keeps pushing her cut or dye it so she'll blend in better.

Then one day a man with strange clothes and golden hair appears at Yoko's school and tries to take her away. She refuses, at first, until terrifying creatures she'd previously only seen in her dreams suddenly attack. The man, Keiki, hands her a sword and tells her to fight. When Yoko protests that she doesn't know what to do, Keiki tells Joyu, a jellyfish-like creature, to attach itself to her and help her, forcing Yoko to kill for the first time in her life. They escape to a strange new world and are soon separated. All Yoko wants is to go home, but first she has to find Keiki and figure out how to survive in a place where everyone and everything seems to either want to kill her or betray her.

 

I had vague memories of not really enjoying the first book, but also not hating it so much as to cross the entire series off my TBR list. I liked it more this time around, because I had a better understanding of what was going on and what it was all leading towards, but it wasn't exactly an enjoyable read. This book is 459 pages long, and over 300 of those pages featured bad things happening to Yoko. She was betrayed multiple times, forced to kill demons every night, tormented by visions of home, and taunted by a blue monkey that seemed determined to throw all her worst thoughts and actions in her face. She'd have died of her wounds, starvation, and exhaustion multiple times over had it not been for a jewel that Keiki gave her.

Like I said, not pleasant, and it didn't help that Yoko wasn't very likeable either. When she was in Japan, she said nothing when a group of students bullied another girl, because she was afraid of being their next victim. She also lied to others in order to avoid confrontation. She spent her first days in the world of the Twelve Kingdoms refusing to allow Joyu to fully help her, because the bloodshed horrified her. As her experiences wore her down, it became harder and harder for her to trust anyone, to the point that she contemplated stealing from or even killing someone who had previously helped her. While I could sympathize with some of Yoko's thoughts and actions, dealing with them for 300 pages was a bit much.

The good thing is that Yoko was forced to take a long, hard look at the person she'd been and who she'd become. While she wasn't given a choice about her role in the Twelve Kingdoms, she at least got to decide how she wanted to proceed. One of my favorite moments was when she met Keiki again and he realized how much she'd grown as a person since the last time he saw her. He'd named her his master because he'd had no choice, so his more complete acceptance of her by the end of the book was nice. Keiki was barely in this book, so I think the second book may have colored my perception some. Although it deals with a different set of characters, it provides a closer look at

the kirin and their relationships with their rulers.

(spoiler show)

The writing didn't work for me, for reasons I can't explain. However, I found the world of the Twelve Kingdoms to be fascinating enough to make up for that. Whenever Yoko spent more than a few minutes with anybody, she usually received a lecture on some aspect of the Twelve Kingdoms. It should have been boring, especially on a reread, but I ate it up. I loved learning about life in the kingdoms of Kou, Kei, and En. Rakushun, a hanjyu (half-beast) with the form of a rat, was a fount of fascinating information. I loved him for that, as well as for being incredibly nice.

All in all, this was definitely worth a reread. During my first read, I was as clueless about what was going on as Yoko. Having a better understanding of the world meant that certain scenes had more impact for me this time around. I admit, though, that I'm now even more disappointed at the way Ono structured the series. While this first book reunites Yoko and Keiki, by the end Yoko is still in danger, the false ruler is still in power, and the king of Kou is still out there. And instead of continuing the story, the next two books take readers to earlier points in the world's timeline. It's frustrating. The anime does a better job of tying those loose threads up before moving on.

 

(Original review, with read-alikes and watch-alikes, posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.)

DNF. Bizarre names. A heroine dumped into a world of supernatural creatures and within hours is happily accepting not only their existence but her place alongside them. Instant soul-sister bonds that the heroine can feel with no training just by being told the bond exists. Mystical creatures who are incapable of using contractions. Ugh. No thanks.

And just as an aside, does anyone actually refer to themselves, and their mother, as having dirty blonde hair? In my neck of the woods that sort of thing would be an insult, certainly not something you'd be thinking as you looked at a picture of your dead mother for the first time. Meh. YMMV.

I tried to finish this book. I really did. Unfortunately, the plot is inane, the characters are juvenile, and the world-building is practically non-existent. I quit about 60% of the way through the book.

The plot: Nexi Jones' adoptive parents die in a car accident. One week later, she tries to kill herself but instead of dying, she wakes up in high school..., er, Otherworld. She learns that her biological parents were residents of Otherworld, makes friends with the cool kids...er, three other Guardians, witches, etc. Within 24 hours, she is "happy". The kids go clubbing, and Nexi goes out on a date, all while training in hand-to-hand combat to become a Guardian herself. After just two weeks, she is so accomplished that she can defeat the king of the weres and the master of the vampires. With a sword...which she has never used until the day she has to fight these two to prove her merit. Um, yeah.

Then she is sent out with Kyden (her lover and trainer) as a partner to kill the bad guys who are killing humans. In a kilt and an armored bra. Because skimpy, highly-reflective clothing is soooo low visibility when stalking creatures of the night and soooo practical against fangs and claws. Another female character - a witch - who helps them out has a rare and super-secret power to be able to "manipulate time" and create a vision of how each killing occurred. Her talent is so super-secret that she performs this task in front of the Guardians' random informants in the human police force.

From there, the story became about why some wolves were killing maliciously for pleasure....blah, blah, blah. By this point, the plot is so ridiculous that I just don't care anymore.

The characters: How old are these kids anyway? Supposedly, they're in their twenties, but they act like they are 16. Remember I mentioned high school above. Nexi is the perfect plain-Jane new girl whom everyone immediately loves. She can do no wrong. Quickly, she is transformed into a beauty with a little make-up and a new hair style (compliments of another character). The other main female character giggles a lot and bounces up and down when excited; she behaves more like a five-year-old than even a 16-yr-old. Adult men have a pillow fight during a serious conversation. *sigh*

The world-building: What world-building? The Guardians supposedly protect humans from being preyed on by supernatural creatures. We are never told any history of the Guardians, where they came from, how they came to be. There are also witches living with the Guardians. What role do they play? What's their history? Sorry, don't know. How extensive is Otherworld? What does it look like beyond the castle and the Witches Meadow? Never learn that either. Why are there apparently modern "apartments" and modern appliances in a castle in a different dimension? How do all of Nexi's clothes mysteriously appear in her new apartment? Don't know. *sigh*


Overall, I sighed (not in a good way) and laughed (also not in a good way) a lot while struggling through the first half of this book. The combined problems with world-building, plot, and characters made this a DNF.

The Wicked (The Magical Sword, #2) - Sta... Another enjoyable read, although I did prefer the first one.

I really enjoyed this book. If I were to rate it purely on enjoyment and entertainment it would be a 5, but because I felt certain sections of the story were slightly rushed as well as a couple of other little niggling things, it's only a 4 (but a really big shiny 4 with a cherry on the top!).If you like the light-hearted, funny and sexy slant on paranormal romances that authors such as Katie MacAllister and G.A. Aiken take, you should definitely enjoy this book!