vampires, yikes!

we've been reading this manga series the last several months called "happiness," by an artist named shuzo oshimi, and today we finished off the last two volumes.

wowzers!

i'm not exactly the world's most giantest fan of horror stories, and in particular, i get a little oogly at really gruesome and brutal ones, which, holy cow, this series really is. like, instead of a list of trigger warnings like, "gore, torture, injury to puppies, and smoking," it could almost save time by having a "safe" list instead.

"caution! everything except walking the plank! if walking the plank is your only trigger, you can definitely read this manga, no problem."

anyway, it's not only super-disturbing because of all the stuff that happens in it, it's even super-er disturbing-er because most of the main characters just really don't deserve anything bad to happen to them at all, much less all the vampirism and imprisonment and torture and medical experiments and losing friends and family members and on and on and on.

so i was really uncertain whether the ending would turn out to all be worth it, or if i'd just be left in a big pile of sad and ick. would it be one of those stories where all that awfulness would lead up to something meaningful? or one of those stories where you turn the last page and are like, "welp, that was super-well-written and -drawn and all that, but i never want to read anything like it again, ever, ever, ever."

spoilers! don't read any more of this post if you're the kind who's just desperate to subject yourself to a 10-volume series of ghastly and appalling horror and torment without any guarantee that you'll end up being glad you subjected yourself to the experience.

so ... are all you spoiler-hating types gone? okay, then!

jiminy cricket, what an amazing ending this series had! i'm serious about this: as awful as everything leading up to the last volume was, the finale turned out to be absolutely beautiful and way more than worth it. 10 out of 10, would definitely recommend ... if you can take a bunch of kinda queasy-making, stomach-churning, horror-y kinda stuff.

anyway, if you're into freaky vampire stories with mind-blowing endings that actually make you feel better about the world, go ahead and jump into this one with both feet!

xoxo,
claire