FINISHED:
Lyga, Barry. (2011). Mangaman. New York: Houghton Mifflin.

[Ryoko Kiyama, a graphic novel character from the manga universe, is transported into the physical world and stuck here until the portal that he came through can be fixed to let him go back home. Marissa Montaigne, the most popular and beautiful girl in school, is intrigued by Ryoko despite the horror of her peers. As the two begin a romance, including a failed attempt at copulation where pulling down Ryoko’s pants reveals a pixilated blob, they teach each other about their very different worlds while dealing with the scorn of their classmates and Marissa’s disapproving parents. Things get very “meta” when Ryoko shows Marissa how to experience things his way and break out of the (literal) boxes that he sees them in, and a wrench is thrown into the romance when Marissa is shocked seeing Ryoko pulverize her ex-boyfriend. While Ryoko appears very manga-East, from his androgynous appearance to the hearts that appear in his eye sockets upon seeing Marissa for the first time, Marissa is depicted as quintessentially Western with her flowing blonde locks and various, often period inspired, outfits (cowgirl, Marilyn Monroe). Though it easily falls into the teen high school story cliché of “new fish-out-of-water falls for the most popular girl in school, much to the displeasure of the popular school jock”, author Barry Lyga (The Astonishing Adventures of Fanboy and Goth Girl, Houghton Mifflin, 2006 ) has teamed up with longtime comic artist Colleen Doran to pen a trippy tale of East meets West with a rather intriguing twist. [Reviewed from ARC.]]

STARTED:
Westerfeld, Scott. (2011). Goliath. New York: Simon Pulse.

[.]

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