A Bride’s Story, Vol. 2 by Kaoru Mori
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Received: Publisher
First Published: October 25th 2011
Publisher: Yen Press
Recommended Age: 11+
Pacing: Normal
Genres & Themes: Manga, Historical Fiction, Family, Marriage, Culture
BLURB:
Acclaimed creator Kaoru Mori’s tale of life on the nineteenth-century Silk Road continues as the young bride, Amir Halgal, struggles to remain with her new groom despite the wishes of her family, who would see her wed another. Will Amir be able to preserve the bonds she has cultivated in her new home?
I wasn’t as captivated by this second volume as I was by the first one. The illustrations are still impressively beautiful, no hesitation there. Sometimes it’s hard to forget this is a fictive story, because of how realistically everything is portrayed.
But the ‘‘storyline’’ was a mess in my opinion. I always found the idea of Amir’s family wanting her back really forced and unexplained. I understand that whatever deal they thought they would strike didn’t happen, so they want Amir to marry somebody else, but we never get the family’s side of the story, in the sense that we have no idea where they’re coming from, so I felt manipulated into comparing them to monsters.
The first chapters are about Amir’s family wanting to take her back and fighting against Amir’s new family, but the rest goes in many directions without actually settling anywhere, so I could not summarize what seems to me as random. However, culture remains important and a focus.
This is why I have no idea where this series is going. The author admits at the end to wanting to focus on a specific character and I’m not sure how I feel about that. This manga lacks a defined storyline. I enjoyed its graphics and characters, but I’m debating whether I should continue with the series or not.
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