Black Bird: Volume 8

by Kanoko Sakurakoji, 190 pages

Crow-demon Kyo decides the only way to protect himself, and his future with human lover Misao, from dogged exorcist Raiko is to wipe the young man's childhood memories of the demon attack that scarred both his body and his psyche. Misao, hating the idea of manipulating someone else the way she once was by Kyo's scheming brother, nevertheless goes along with the plan, although she asks Kyo to try every diplomatic avenue possible first. She just has to convince Raiko to trust them to negotiate in good faith. But can she trust him?

I've the same problems with this volume as I've had all along. Misao is a personality-less non-entity who generally goes along with whatever her man says, believing wholeheartedly in the melodrama. Kyo is a possessive cold fish who doesn't seem to care all that much about anything, his own life included, despite his manly 'tude. At least in this volume he admits to himself that his instinct is to live, whatever the consequences. The romantic tension finally gets dealt with, but by this time the reader's interest has waned a bit and she just wants to know how it all plays out with the prophecies everyone's been fretting about since book one. I like the whole tengu angle, but I don't think it gets used to its full potential--although this volume does a little better with it than have others. And as nice as the art is, I think it doesn't quite work for this kind of fantasy melodrama and would be better suited for a more mundane, realistic story.

It only just occurred to me that Misao and Kyo are rather Bella- and Edward-like in their personalities and in their relationship to one another: she's a human, he's a dangerous creature with sharp pointy bits (talons in this case); she's weepy-spineless, he's moody-broody; she wants to take it to the next level, he won't out of concern for her. He's even got a close-knit "family" who begrudgingly takes her in even as it's under perpetual assault from rival clans wanting to move in on its territory. Maybe those similarities are one reason I get so annoyed with these books? And yet, as with Twilight, I read them anyway. *sigh*