Queenie ChanRezensionen
Autor von The Dreaming, Vol. 1
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What is UP with these cliffhangers?!
And I have to wait THREE WEEKS for my library to get Vol II. FML.
On a brighter note! I haven't read a manga since I was... more or less since I was 13, which is sad because I really bloody enjoy them. It's even sadder that there are NO good places around here to borrow/buy mangas, so I have to make do with what I find.
And then I stumbled upon [b:The Dreaming, Vol. 1|330724|The Dreaming, Vol. 1|Queenie Chan|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1348061938s/330724.jpg|321297]. It's everything I look for in a manga and more. A definite must read.
I've never reviewed one, so I'm just gonna throw some pictures at you.
Pretty pretty artwork makes me happy. I can't stand reading manga if the artwork isn't at least decent.
Where did the ghostly girls come from? And what do they want? Before the students know it, the missing girls enter the school, where Amber spots Millie, who speaks to her almost as if to warn her of something. Is there more to this supernatural mystery than just the school itself? The answers to why these girls have come back and what caused their death are revealed in this haunting series finale.
This final instalment mostly focusses on Jeanie and Ms Anu gradually unravelling the mysteries of the school. And a side note I didn't really think about until this Volume, it's nice to see a story where the main characters are Asian and Indigenous rather than defaulting to Anglo.
Of course it turns out there's more to the weird goings on at the school than there initially seemed and — no spoilers — there was a twist I didn't see coming. Oh and there was more creepiness, building on what was already established in the earlier two volumes.
Overall I quite enjoyed reading this manga. It's quite different, especially in form, to anything else I've read and I'll definitely be seeking out other work by Chan in the future. (Perhaps starting with Small Shen in collaboration with Kylie Chan, or maybe her Legend of Zelda fancomic.) I highly recommend The Dreaming to fans of horror/dark fantasy, including those who might not usually read manga.
I'm also interested in checking out a few other manga authors if anyone has any suggestions as to where to go from here. (Though I won't be switching over from predominantly text-based reading any time soon.)
4.5 / 5 stars
You can read more of my reviews on my blog.
Greenwich Private College grinds to a complete halt after the discovery of Millie's body. As gloom and despair sets in, most of the students leave the school. But Jeanie's curiosity keeps her on campus, and when she's led down the path of the Greenwich's dark history, has she awakened a ghostly curse?
In Volume 2 the story picks up right where Volume 1 left off. Somewhat unsurprisingly, it mostly serves as a chance for Jeanie to learn more about the history of the school — y'know, the history no one wanted to talk about in the first Volume before everything went wrong. And on top of that, there aren't many students left at the school, to make the building extra creepy.
We are also treated to a build up of creepiness which is obviously setting up the story for the concluding volume. What will happen next? Who will survive? Will anyone get out of the school alive, or will it just merge into the surrounding bushlands, never to be seen again? And what's with the Victorian dresses?
To answer these questions, (and more!) I read on to the last volume...
4 / 5 stars
You can read more of my reviews on my blog.
When twin sisters Amber and Jeanie are accepted into an exclusive Australian boarding school, their future looks bright. But the school's halls harbor a terrible secret: students have been known to wander into the surrounding bushlands and vanish...without a trace! No one knows where they went--or why. But as Amber and Jeanie are about to learn, the key to the school's dark past may lie in the world of their dreams...
I am by no means an expert on art but, to me, the art style was nice and added to the story. (People wanting to judge for themselves can see examples on Chan's website and this Asia Education Foundation page.) Especially some of the creepier images (pages? scenes?) definitely added to the vibe of the story. Especially the ones that sort of jumped out at me.
As for the story, this is Volume 1 of 3 so it was only the first part of the story, the set up for the overall story arc. The story is narrated from Jeanie's point of view and begins with the girls arriving at their new school, very isolated in the Middle of Nowhere, NSW. It's a co-ed school, which I thought was odd, especially since there's only one boy who appears briefly in this volume. (But presumably he or some other boy will be back at some point in Volumes 2 or 3, otherwise I don't see why it wouldn't just be a girls' school. This was the only thing that bothered me.)
The horror set-up in this volume includes a terrifying vice principal with a strong aversion to twins — to the extent that the girls have to pretend to be ordinary siblings born a year apart — a mysterious room, girls historically disappearing in the bush, and strange dreams. And, as I began to suspect once I was about half-way through, it ended on a bit of a cliffhanger. I suspect reading the omnibus version of this would be better, but Volume 1 was all that the bookshop had. I've discovered that the paper versions are non-trivial to get a hold of outside of the US (shipping costs more than the book/s), but I will be buying the remaining volumes on the iPad via Comixology, so stay tuned!
Not strictly part of the story, but the "Introducing Australia" page at the end was comedy gold.
I enjoyed this start to a horror story. I am definitely going to read the remaining two parts, because, as I've said, the story is just not complete. I highly recommend it to fans of horror and manga, especially readers interesting in either in an Australian setting. I'm not usually much of a fan of comics (longer than webcomics, anyway) or graphic novels because I prefer words to pictures and experience existential angst over which I should be paying attention to, but this worked for me. I would urge others who don't usually read manga to give it a shot (and it's not as though it's a long read).
4.5 / 5 stars
You can read more of my reviews on my blog.
I wasn't sure just what to expect, going in, but I found The Dreaming, Vol. 1 to be an engaging story, with appealing artwork. I can't say I was particularly frightened - maybe if I were a younger reader? - but I did want to know what was going on, and raced through the book... only to discover (of course!) that I need to obtain the second. After reading Thomas Siddell's fabulous Gunnerkrigg Court books, which also tell the story of an unusual boarding school, I was a little disappointed to find all the artwork here to be black and white. But apparently that is a characteristic of manga, and after my initial surprise, I soon grew accustomed to the style, and came to like it. Recommended to all young manga-lovers, kids who like frightening tales, and all readers (like myself) interested in contemporary adaptations of the girls' school-story genre!
Somehow, twins were not allowed to attend this old, grand school so the twins, Jeanie (the louder one) and Amber (the quiet one), had to pretend they are not twins, instead they are sisters. While they were exploring the school they meet the mysterious, old and scary vice-principal, Mrs Skeener, who hates twins...
As they were exploring their new school, they realised that the school is hiding something... behind a sealed door...with a creepy painting on the door...
On their first night at Greenwhich Private College, both Amber and Jeanie, start to have mysterious and unexplainable dreams which take place in the woods surrounding the school.
Night, after night, they keep having these strange dreams, which affect Amber more...
Later on, they realise that these dreams, mean something...
Can they figure it out...? Will someone die...? A mysterious and scary-ish book for those who love a little fright... :)
When twins Jeanie and Amber are sent to Greenwich Private College in Australia, they expect it will be a regular school. Things quickly turn creepy as the sisters are told to pretend they are not twins and start dreaming the same dreams. As they delved further into the history of the school and the rumors of haunting and missing girls, the twins start to realize that the key might be in their dreams.
I went ahead and read all three since manga are short and it's only a three part series. This is some creepy stuff right here. The first volume is the introduction to the story with one of the twins getting weirded out right away at their new boarding school. Then they have the same dream about the bushland that surrounds the school and girls with knifes. The second and third volume give more history of the school and the disappearances that have happened over the years with the very creepy back story of the vice-principal. At first, it seemed that the story was going to devolve into some lame fairy tale, but then it takes a sharp turn at what? and then stops at nightmarish so I was actually somewhat surprised at the end. Though there was a storyline that feels like it was dropped somewhere along the way and I'm not quite sure what happened there at the end.
As far the artwork, it is typical manga style although with more creepy eyes than I have read before. I had some trouble with who was who until I realized that Jeanie always has a ponytail and then I got it. I think it is hard to draw twins and not have confusion though. The art really did add to the overall effect the story was going for and the paintings inside of the school were majorly horrible (like in scary, not in poorly drawn or anything).
When twins Jeanie and Amber are sent to Greenwich Private College in Australia, they expect it will be a regular school. Things quickly turn creepy as the sisters are told to pretend they are not twins and start dreaming the same dreams. As they delved further into the history of the school and the rumors of haunting and missing girls, the twins start to realize that the key might be in their dreams.
I went ahead and read all three since manga are short and it's only a three part series. This is some creepy stuff right here. The first volume is the introduction to the story with one of the twins getting weirded out right away at their new boarding school. Then they have the same dream about the bushland that surrounds the school and girls with knifes. The second and third volume give more history of the school and the disappearances that have happened over the years with the very creepy back story of the vice-principal. At first, it seemed that the story was going to devolve into some lame fairy tale, but then it takes a sharp turn at what? and then stops at nightmarish so I was actually somewhat surprised at the end. Though there was a storyline that feels like it was dropped somewhere along the way and I'm not quite sure what happened there at the end.
As far the artwork, it is typical manga style although with more creepy eyes than I have read before. I had some trouble with who was who until I realized that Jeanie always has a ponytail and then I got it. I think it is hard to draw twins and not have confusion though. The art really did add to the overall effect the story was going for and the paintings inside of the school were majorly horrible (like in scary, not in poorly drawn or anything).
When twins Jeanie and Amber are sent to Greenwich Private College in Australia, they expect it will be a regular school. Things quickly turn creepy as the sisters are told to pretend they are not twins and start dreaming the same dreams. As they delved further into the history of the school and the rumors of haunting and missing girls, the twins start to realize that the key might be in their dreams.
I went ahead and read all three since manga are short and it's only a three part series. This is some creepy stuff right here. The first volume is the introduction to the story with one of the twins getting weirded out right away at their new boarding school. Then they have the same dream about the bushland that surrounds the school and girls with knifes. The second and third volume give more history of the school and the disappearances that have happened over the years with the very creepy back story of the vice-principal. At first, it seemed that the story was going to devolve into some lame fairy tale, but then it takes a sharp turn at what? and then stops at nightmarish so I was actually somewhat surprised at the end. Though there was a storyline that feels like it was dropped somewhere along the way and I'm not quite sure what happened there at the end.
As far the artwork, it is typical manga style although with more creepy eyes than I have read before. I had some trouble with who was who until I realized that Jeanie always has a ponytail and then I got it. I think it is hard to draw twins and not have confusion though. The art really did add to the overall effect the story was going for and the paintings inside of the school were majorly horrible (like in scary, not in poorly drawn or anything).
I adored this series and loved the ending which was very creepy in keeping with the whole tone of the series. As always the artwork was stunning and I plan on photocopying some of the pages to colour in. Possibly my favourite manga series so far, I don't want to say too much more about it and risk spoiling too much of the plot. I will definitely be visiting Chan's website and seeing what else she has been working on. Japan meets Australis by someone from Hong Kong, highly recommended.
She spends time with remaining teacher Miss Anu and finds out that she went to the school when she was younger and her roomate also disappeared mysteriously. She has returned as a teacher so she can investigate the school and Vice Principle Mrs Skeener. She discovers her given name before she was married and the identity of the twins in her photo. The power goes off in the school, the road is flooded and the missing girls from the different ages appear in front of the school in the middle of the night.
Very sppoky, I read this in bed right before I went to sleep and it gave me nightmares oops! I loved the second installment and I am really looking forward to seeing how everything comes together in the final installment.
The twins start having indentical nightmares where they are in the Bush surrounded by other people and the trees start dripping blood. They are dressed in what looks to be Victorian dresses and both keep waking at the same place each night. Amber is already superstitious and expects the worst and Jeanie is left trying to piece everything together. Things get even stranger when they discover a series of Victorian paintings around the school by an ex pupil and the women in it are seem to be going more insane in each successive painting.
Spooky, creepy and beautifully drawn I definitely recommend this series. I am hooked and will definitely be continuing the adventure very soon. It's nice to find a short manga series as most of the others around seem to just keep on going. There is also a fun bonus short story by Sarah Ferrick at the end.
1 
Rhinoa | 11 weitere Rezensionen | Feb 4, 2009 |
Rhinoa | 11 weitere Rezensionen | Feb 4, 2009 | Queenie Chan was born in 1980 and grew up in Australia. She got her break into manga when Tokyopop began accepting submissions from international authors.
1 ThisYAlibrarian | 5 weitere Rezensionen | Apr 17, 2007 |
ThisYAlibrarian | 5 weitere Rezensionen | Apr 17, 2007 | Queenie Chan was born in 1980 and grew up in Australia. She got her break into manga when Tokyopop began accepting submissions from international authors.
1 ThisYAlibrarian | 11 weitere Rezensionen | Apr 17, 2007 |
ThisYAlibrarian | 11 weitere Rezensionen | Apr 17, 2007 | Diese Seite verwendet Cookies für unsere Dienste, zur Verbesserung unserer Leistungen, für Analytik und (falls Sie nicht eingeloggt sind) für Werbung. Indem Sie LibraryThing nutzen, erklären Sie dass Sie unsere Nutzungsbedingungen und Datenschutzrichtlinie gelesen und verstanden haben. Die Nutzung unserer Webseite und Dienste unterliegt diesen Richtlinien und Geschäftsbedingungen.
The art by Queenie Chan looks a bit amateurish and struggles to stay on-model for the characters.
Not a great Steven fix overall.