Kitsune Heart Reviews

Too many books

[kitsuneheartreviews]

Middle grade graphic novel: "Wolf's Belly" by John August (2026-07-07)

With an art style and storytelling cadence reminiscent of Kazu Kibuishi in the best possible ways, this will be a big hit with younger readers who are okay with just a little bit of spookiness and peril.

Lu is the girl who would one day be reduced to just "Little Red Riding Hood," her story shortened to a simple fairy tale and admonition to children who don't follow the rules. But while Lu is breaking rules, she does so with brave intentions: she will slay the wolf who lurks in the forest.

But she doesn't. Instead, Lu is swallowed whole, like many other fairy tale characters before her, falling into the makeshift town of Wolf's Belly. Her grandmother is there. And a talking pig. A puppet maker. Two remorseful stepsisters. Anyone who the stories said ran afoul of the wolf, and many who were never connected to his tale. All alive, but trapped.

Lu is certain there's a way out: up, obviously. But how?

The ending is epic and transformative, and actually quite cute!

The art throughout is strong, and each character has their own very firm outline and design. Even in the darkness of the wolf's insides, the color is top notch, and the color the color in the climax and the final few pages is absolutely stunning.

At LEAST a good library pickup, but I'd also recommend this as a gift purchase for any kid with a love of adventure, steampunk, or fairy tale re-imaginings.

Advanced reader copy provided by the publisher.

[kitsuneheartreviews]

Queer realistic scifi: "We Burned So Bright" by TJ Klune

Hi. Do you like crying VIOLENTLY? Gasping for breath around the river of sadness snot pouring down your face? Like tasting your own tears? Cause you're gonna!

And IIIIIIIII loved it!

A rogue back hole is heading towards Earth, and our planet has no defense. There is no Hail Mary here, no surprise aliens who show up and wrangle the astronomical anomaly. We can't DO anything.

Except doing the last things we promised to do.

Don and Rodney, two old, married men, have a promise to keep, and they must make it across the entire country to do so. This isn't a Mad Max style adventure; their elderly hearts couldn't handle that! But just having the necessary supplies to make the trip when humanity is somewhat gracefully winding down is enough. Hoarding won't do anyone any good, but nobody wants to work at a gas station they, the gas station, and the entire notion of economic systems is about to blink out of existence.

Don and Rodney meet plenty of interesting people, and there's rarely a sense of peril. There is one interaction that has more of a creeping sense of realization and dread, which is overshadowed by a surge in anguish over the hopelessness of the entire world's situation.

There are moments that feel almost like fantasy, or at LEAST a dream, but which, on research, actually happen already in our world. Deform the sun and lower the gravity a small percentage, and even the behavior of herd animals seems like magic.

And then you get to the end and SOB. The purpose of the final trip feels pretty obvious from early on in the book, but then Klune gives you this long, heartbreaking EXPLANATION that is just masterful.

I finished this book with that incredibly clean feeling of crying so hard over something that you can, in the end, recognize is fiction. The kind of cry that would be RUINOUS if it was over your real life, but which leaves you languid and satisfied, if still sad, when you close the book.

100% recommended! Read! Read!

[somemismatchedsocks]

today cannot get possible worse, knock on wood l. Actually, punching that wood, slamming that slab of wood against the floor.

[kitsuneheartreviews]

Nonfiction: "Your Caption Has Been Selected" by Lawrence Wood

Advice for how to win the New Yorker caption contest is pretty niche. You have to 1) Care enough about the caption contest to enter regularly, and 2) Be really invested in getting that little bit of edge over everyone else.

This book basically just explains the rules of comedy, as it pertains to the visual form. Advice on brevity, audience, and standing out of the crowd. There's a bit of history of the contest, as well.

I do wish there had been more completed comics in this book. There are several instances where Wood shares the artwork and a few submissions, without either telling us who won or just not including the winning caption at all. I imagine this was for copyright reasons, perhaps being unable to get permission from those particular winners, but it is still somewhat irksome. Especially as I, admittedly, asked for a review copy of this because I WANTED a collection of the winning art and captions.

A niche pick, but if you know someone in that 2-part niche above, this is a great gift. Although, they very well might have studied up on it already!

[spin-the-wheel-polls]

you have this superpower! BUT you have this side-effect

is it worth it?

yes!!

the side effect is bad but ITS WORTH IT

meh it's okay

the side effect makes it unusable/not worth it

Results/option I didn't think of

Voting ended onMay 20

[aksemmi]

shapeshift but it slowly kills me i mean... yeah its worth it, it just means (depending on the severity of the effect) i would only use it in situations of X import honestly looking at the side effects here, i think most of them are like this, sometimes even more unambiguous (perhaps one could say "slowly kills you" applies even without using the power... but other's seem to be worded as clearly about the power itself). so unless you are very worried about temptation i think it makes sense to take most of them in a way where this question doesn't really make sense

[kitsuneheartreviews]

I can control time, but only once a month. So long as this means date-to-date, I like this. Keep it in reserve until midnight on the last day of the month, and if I haven't had to use it for something heroic, use it for something selfish, like pausing time so I can do a bunch of stuff uninterrupted.

If it's a one month recharge period, oof. That's hard. Because if I use it for something selfish, what if, the next day, someone is hurt, and I could have used my time powers to save them?

[kitsuneheartreviews]

Graphic novel: "Confession" by Kaiji Kawaguchi, Nobuyuki Fukumoto

While this is a thriller, it's also kind of damn hilarious. Two mountain climbers, stuck in a storm; one, with a broken leg, bound to die in hours, confesses to a murder...and then the snow clears and they see the safe haven of a cabin.

Well...oops. Spoke a little too soon.

What follows is a psychological game of one-upsmanship as our narrative focus, the uninjured climber, begins to worry that his companion will commit a second murder to prevent his confession being leaked to the world. The murderer hides all the cabin's weapons, and the innocent man begins to lose his eyesight to altitude sickness. The story becomes a cat-and-mouse tale, as each tries to off the other, and further secrets are revealed.

A good read for a cold night, especially if the lights have gone out and you're reading by candle or lantern.

Advanced reader copy provided by the publisher.

[kitsuneheartreviews]

Romance graphic novel: "Home Office Romance" by Kintetsu Yamada

This was so sweet and emotional with such a strong narrative voice that I was honestly surprised it's not autobiographical! It makes me want to pick up the mangaka's "Sweat and Soap" series, even though I keep passing it up. If they do romance this well, I want more!

Set bascially during the Covid-19 pandemic (though the reason for lockdown isn't directly stated), two neighbors start to get to know one-another through the exchange of hobbies. Nokoru, an office worker, finds himself finally able to physically thrive when he no longer has to commute to work and stay out late to awkwardly socialize with coworkers. He even starts improving his living space, including setting up a balcony garden reminiscent of Angkor Wat. This catches the attention of his neighbor, Natsu, who is actually an archeology grad student!

Shared books, shared video games, shared spaces and holidays. Nokoru is awkward, but Natsu is confident and direct, encouraging Nokoru's vaguest thoughts on romance until they both take the plunge. All is going great, even if Natsu is going to be gone a few weeks on a study trip...until travel restrictions trap Natsu away from home. What will Nokoru do to rekindle the romance that they've only just started?

Despite the Covid-19 setting, there is no sense of danger in this story, so I recommend it for someone needing a nice, relaxing romance.

Advanced reader copy provided by the publisher.

[kitsuneheartreviews]

Graphic novel: "The Well" by Jon Allen

Are you a furry who likes the Cthulhu mythos and also the movie "Office Space"? Have I got a graphic novel for you!

Veronika is a mid-20s programmer, still living at home, hoping her long-term boyfriend will propose before his band goes on tour. He doesn't, but at least he let's her stay at his place for free, and she just got a fairly easy job managing the databases at some sort of energy drink company. Odd coworkers, but friendly. Weird bosses, but...uh...weird. Really weird. And really creepy.

About half of the book is relationship and personal problems, and the other half is a deeper eldritch conspiracy that will make (some) readers appreciate the relative tameness of their own jobs. Or, heck, maybe they'll want to meet the strange creature which seeks to embrace Veronika far more closely than her asshole boyfriend ever did.

I think my one complaint about this is that the animal species of each character is often impossible to nail down. The deer bosses of the company are easy enough, but is Veronika a dog or a cat or a bear? Was Persephone a monkey? Was Dave...actually an animal? But that's a minor thing, and may be addressed by the author elsewhere.

Advanced reader copy provided by the publisher.

[kitsuneheartreviews]

Graphic novel: Sheltering Eaves, Vol. 1

Somehow, despite reading this at least a year ago, I completely failed to leave any sort of review for the ARC copy given to me by the publisher. This may be because I found the story fairly...forgettable?

The premise is fine, but the characters feel very flat. Yoru and Tenjaku grew up together in a foster care home in Japan, which, as with the system in the United States, means low funding, but good intentions from their caregivers. There cold have been a lot of exploration of the system and how it works in Japan, with connections to statistics and societal views of children in the system and the parents who have lost custody. But there's not much of that at all.

Yoru and Tenjaku have the beginnings of a romance in this volume, which appears to progress as the series goes on, but I wasn't invested anywhere near enough to continue reading. Their characters individually are also pretty forgettable: Yoru has a Rubik's cube and is very attached to Tenjaku, while Tenjaku is only vaguely dealing with the emotional fallout of physical abuse.

Overall, a book for a pretty niche audience.

[kitsuneheartreviews]

Fantasy romance graphic novel: "Of Swamp & Sea, Volume 2"

Two people with monsters hiding inside them. Just as Mercy Harding begins to form a sort of peace with the wolf spirit tied to her soul, her traveling companion, Jonah, begins to reveal details of the demon forced into his body many years ago.

...but most of the book is about ROMANCE! :D

Really, this series feels like a romance barely disguised by a Monster of the Week kind of plot, and no complaints from me. The romance element makes the reader fairly certain everything will turn out well, allowing the peril to be a nice spice to the developing relationship. The art style is pretty consistent, with a diverse-looking cast and some great scenery.

Whether you read this in print, ebook, or Webtoon form, this is just a pleasant read. A good way to spend an afternoon.

Advanced reader copy provided by the publisher.

[kitsuneheartreviews]

Fantasy graphic novel: "The Lost Daughter of Sparta" by Felicia Day

FASCINATING!

Only the barest fragments of text remain which mention Philonoe, fourth sister of doomed Helen of Troy, Clytemnestra, and Timandra. Felicia Day creates an entire epic from those fragments.

Philonoe was born with an expansive birth mark, which her parents saw as a curse from the gods. Rather than leaving her to die, they sent her away from home, to be raised among commoners...until they had need of her, for a marriage alliance, even if the curse of Aphrodite means her marriage will be short, miserable, and ends in betrayal. But Philonoe wants to be a dutiful daughter, and so she seeks out Aphrodite and asks her to lift the curse.

Assisted by the goddess Artemis, who really should be the last person interested in helping a woman to wedded bliss, Philonoe faces numerous trials, learning more about her family and her own desires.

Uplifting and meaningful, this is a great pick for anyone wanting a story of women's independence and strength. Plus, it's an impressive first foray into fantasy and graphic storytelling for Day! I definitely look forward to more of her creations.

[kitsuneheartreviews]

Romance manga: Perfectly Fine on My Own, So My Fiancé Can Twist in the Wind, Volume 1

After being repeatedly snubbed by her fiance, Nicole decides it's time to focus on herself. And she's LOVING it! No longer feeling obligated to wait on the favors of Keios, Nicole spends her time reading, going shopping alone (scandal!), and making friends.

Except maybe her assumptions about Keios's intentions weren't quite right. And now this newly independent woman is being richly pursued...but is enjoying herself so much, she can't see her fiance's attempts at ardor!

This is such a cozy, funny little read, and really gratifying, as a ambivert reader. Nicole's joy in discovering the little pleasures of life, irrespective of a man, really resonate. Seeing that the greatest sin of her fiance is a bit of thoughtlessness, and awaiting his further corrected behavior (and hopefully a bit of groveling) is enticing. I've got the next 2 volumes at hold from my library already!

Advanced reader's copy provided by the publisher.

[kitsuneheartreviews]

Horror graphic novel: "Pig Wife" by Abbey Luck

Deeply uncomfortable! And I am not sure if that's a compliment or not.

While this graphic novel is horrifying, the majority of the horror is derived from characters with profound birth defects and intellectual disabilities, as well as a past steeped in abuse and isolation. The whole story feels dated for that.

Artistically, this is consistent, but unpleasant, further pushing into disgust surrounding the birth defects. Even our supposedly "normal" protagonists and surrounding characters are grotesque. It's stylistic, but not enjoyable.

I wish I could rate this higher, because I can tell a lot of effort was put into this, but the whole thing is just gross, for little reason, and with bad targets.

Advanced reader copy provided by the publisher.

[kitsuneheartreviews]

Graphic novel: "News From the Fallout" by Chris Condon & Jeffrey Alan Love (2026-03-31)

A group of soldiers sit in a entirely unsuited shelter, waiting for a text nuclear bomb to drop. And it drops far, far too close. What follows isn't a scene from the horrors of the end of World War 2, but a different kind of terror. Zombie-like.

One soldier--the only one who insisted on wearing a gas mask--is the only uninfected survivor. He flees, trying to warn the nearby town and, hopefully, the US government, that something is coming. Unfortunately, not only must he fight the shambling hordes, but also face down the racism of the uninfected, who are less than keen to listen to a young Black man.

I wish the race of the army private had been a bit more obvious from the start. The thing is, this art is beyond minimalist; everything is basically a silhouette, with only a few moments of face-on detail when the undead are attacking. It's interesting, and the artist was able to include a lot of detail, reminding me of the original "Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark" artwork by Stephen Gammell. But there's little to no detail of the faces of survivors. I don't know if there was something I didn't pick up on in issue #1, but when the racism of the townsfolk came up in issue #2, I was surprised. I had to look closer at the private, and did note that his hair and facial features do indicate his being Black.

Overall, though, this was a fast-paced thriller, with plenty of zombie-typical foolishness from the (soon to no longer be thus named) survivors.

Advanced reader copy provided by the publisher.

[kitsuneheartreviews]

Horror graphic novel: "It Killed Everyone But My" by Ryan Parrott (2026-03-10)

A slightly over-dramatic title for an otherwise intriguing read. It makes me wonder if we'll be seeing more of these descriptive titles, with the surge in danmei popularity and their own long titles....

We open on the scene expected after the credits of a teen slasher movie: the final girl, covered in blood, traumatized but triumphant. But, 25 years later, it's more of the "traumatized" winning through, as Sutton Reed deals with the unending notoriety of being the only survivor--or perhaps perpetrator?--of the murder of all her friends and her sister.

And then...the murders start again.

Sutton let's the investigating detective in on the supernatural origins of the killings, in the hopes he will take over and leave her out of this.

Lushly bloody and full of gore, but I was pleasantly surprised that this doesn't rely on titillation or the exposure of any women characters to draw in the audience. The author promises carnage, and that's what we're given. Not busty co-eds tripping in stiletto heels. Sutton is competent and vicious, as much of a threat as the monsters surrounding her.

The ending of the book tries to set up a possible sequel or even a longer series, but I don't see any announcement on Mad Cave's website that more is coming beyond the standard 5-issue trial run. I also, while I did enjoy the read, don't see myself seeking out a second volume in search for what happens next. Overall, this is a good library pickup, and perhaps a purchase for avid readers of horror.

Advanced reader copy provided by the publisher.

[kitsuneheartreviews]

Queer fantasy graphic novel: "Red and the Wolves" by Cherry Zong

Despite the cover and title of this book, there is very little of Little Red Riding Hood here, and that's fine! What the story gives is amazing on its own.

Red and her Grand Mother are the only humans left in the forest, which is succumbing to rot an invasion by strange beasts. Red hunts the beasts and Grand Mother experiments on them, trying to find a way to bring life back to the woods. Then, Red meets another young woman: Sil! Except she's not a woman. Sil is a wolf who can take human form. And Red is utterly smitten. Which presents problems for Grand Mother and her plans.

There are a lot of elements of narcissistic parenting and gaslighting in this book, so be prepared for a rough time. Yet, along with that, Sil and Red's relationship is natural and never looked down upon for their shared gender. It's not always smooth, but there's a maturity and openness that's refreshing to see in romance.

There's also some great action sequences, where the artist really takes the time to establish the environment, have the character's use the environment, and then destroys the environment. Superb visual flow!

Overall, a great one-night read, perfect for those furries out there. (You know who you are.)

Advanced reader copy provided by the publisher.

[kitsuneheartreviews]

Queer fantasy: "The Wolf and His King" by Finn Longman

I studied a lot of Arthurian texts (this book isn't Arthurian, but has a lot of the feel) and general Middle Ages literature, so I was already aware of Marie de France's Bisclavret, and was actually planning a fanfiction based upon the story when I saw this book on Netgalley and immediately went RABID with want. And so I was absolutely over the moon (transformed by it, even) when I was picked to read an ARC for review.

And, oh, was my excitement warranted! The lyricism of this book is phenomenal. There is a definite sense of the oral retelling nature of this Lai, with an undercurrent of desire and desperation from the first page. Longman makes the interesting decision to only allow a name to Bisclavret himself, but never does this limit his narration, nor does it become repetitive. Despite only one character having a name, every single character has a distinct personality, description, and backstory.

And Bisclavret himself...what a succulent wet dog of a man! He's big, he's strong, he's shy, he's tortured, but he's so kind. I side with the king in his instant attraction to this disaster.

The burn is slow in this book. So slow. And I wish the burn had been brighter at the end. I need more, and I am dying that there are only 2 fanfics of this book out.

In spite of having an advanced copy of this to read, I bought the audiobook version, as well, the day after I started reading. I need this book injected into my veins. This is going to be my next book club selection, I swear. More, please. 🥹