Waka T. Brown

This was cute! It's solidly middle grade, and will be a great introduction to the horror genre for kids. To borrow a phrase from Lord Ravenscroft, it's a softball horror story. He was using the term to describe R L Stine, which is his and my generation. This...might even be a folkloric suspense novel. That could be a better description now that I'm thinking about it. I enjoyed learning a little bit about Japanese mythology! There were times where I was legit super worried and a little scared. The world-building is great, the foreshadowing's good, and every character is interesting and adds to the story in some way. If Brown writes more horror or thrillers, I'll eagerly check them out!.… (more)

It's difficult to rate memoirs because it's like you're critiquing someone's life or more so how it was portrayed. I liked this though I felt my interest seriously wane toward the middle. The ending was great. Everything came full-circle. Life doesn't always work out like that, but it did for Waka's story.

Overall, Waka's eventual understanding of her austere grandmother ( obviously, her grandma had a rough, dark childhood, but I'm glad Waka didn't make excuses and acknowledged her own feelings as well though certainly with more understanding), the Japanese school life, and the language-learning process were the highlights.

2.5… (more)