The main character was so depressing it was painful, and the plot never really materialized. On the plus side the book is short, so the reader is only bored/annoyed for a small amount of time. ( )

This book is actually just part 1 of a larger book. The protagonist is a student teacher teaching English in Japan. He is struggling with the idea of renewing his contract to become a teacher for the next year. Immersing himself in Japanese society has not been as idyllic as it seems.

The book does whet the appetite for a greater story but just doesn't get going anywhere yet. Not sure why release an incomplete book.

It does have pretty illustrations. ( )

Sad sack English teacher in Japan. Cultural stuff is interesting but not much going on. ( )

loneliness of being only English speaker as teacher in small Japanese town

Uh. Well, this was a disappointment.

I picked up this book for the cover and was so interested to see such a sparse work. Martinson writes the panels with little speech and sometimes the narrator's words above the panel, but other than that there's little text.

I really enjoyed the muted three-tone colour palette and the line art, that was beautiful.

... but I was just disappointed. Looking at the blurb, I thought it would be a firm favourite. I love melancholy, slow-moving Japanese books, particularly the ones set in obscure little towns in the countryside.

But Dan Wells is fucking irritating. As an Australian expat to Canada I can tell you getting acclimatised to a new environment takes time and energy, and you won't always feel like you were rewarded for your time or your efforts, but you'll get there.

I understand homesickness but I was frustrated by the lack of energy Dan had. I feel like he was supposed to be written as a depressed character, and depressed characters are logistically difficult to write because depression is often defined by a sameness, a slow spiral into nothing.

This could've been so much more, so much better and I think that's what frustrated me the most. I would hope the other volumes would be more interesting, but to be honest, I'm not really curious to find out what happens to Dan Wells.

2 stars, one star for the writing, one star for the art. ( )