Friday, February 28, 2020

Prince Freya by Keiko Ishihara - OPTIONAL

Prince Freya (Volume 1) by Keiko Ishihara, 188 pages. GRAPHIC NOVEL. VIZ Media, 2020. $10.

Language: PG (3 swears, 0 “f”); Mature Content: PG13; Violence: PG13

BUYING ADVISORY: HS - OPTIONAL

AUDIENCE APPEAL: AVERAGE

16yo Freya just wants to take care of her loved ones in this time of war, which is hard to do when she’s always crying. When Freya tries to warn her friends of what she overheard the enemy say, she ends up central in her country’s new plan in the war. Does she have what it takes to lead?

My favorite thing about this book is Ishihara’s beautiful and emotion-filled illustrations. The premise of Freya’s story has piqued my interest, though I’m still a little confused about everyone’s roles; watching how things unfold in volume two is sure to be interesting. I can’t decide how I feel about Ishihara’s commentary throughout the story; I like the insights, but they felt a little disruptive, and I think they would be better as an author’s note at the end rather than placed intermittently in the book. The mature content is for innuendo, and the violence rating is for gore and death.

Reviewer: Carolina Herdegen

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