 | | ▪ | RELEASED BY: | | TOKYOPOP | | | ▪ | AUTHOR / ART: | | CHE GILSON / BRETT UHER | | | ▪ | FORMAT: | | ENGLISH / B&W | | | ▪ | PAGES: | | 192 | | | ▪ | RATING: | | T | | | ▪ | RELEASE DATE: | | 09/11/2007 | | | ▪ | REVIEW DATE: | | 10/08/2007 | | | ▪ | REVIEWED BY: | | HOLLY ELLINGWOOD |
After the death of her parent’s, a forlorn Priscilla must travel from her California home to her only relatives in Eastern Europe. What she’s about to find out is that her mother’s side of the family are all vampires! Now living in the strange city of Nachtwald, all too human Priscilla must try to find a place for herself, happiness, and just plain survive in the strange supernatural world of Dark Moon Dairy!
An exciting new supernatural dramedy from Tokyopop’s growing original English language (OEL) manga books, Dark Moon Diary has comedy, drama, romance, and the supernatural adventures a very normal human girl undergoes when she’s thrown like a fish out of water into the strange macabre life of the relatives she never knew she had, and now likely wishes she never met! Priscilla has a very rough and tumble introduction into this new world and her new home. That they are vampires is hard enough to swallow, but it seems like her cousin Kitten wants to swallow Priscilla! Even though Aunt Lilith and Uncle Wolfgang seem kind, they have no idea how to care for a human girl. Priscilla has to face meal times that involve moving creepy crawlies and worse. All of that pales in comparison to her first day of school! Creatures of the night, zombies that like to bite, and ghosts and ghoulies to cause a fright are all in store for Pris! Dark Moon Diary is a fun and entertaining series. The main character’s woeful circumstances are both sympathetic and comedic. It makes for an engaging blend, interesting characters, and a fun story. It’s a touch of The OC meets The Munsters at school when the main vampire hottie takes a liking to an unimpressed Priscilla. This only fuels Kitten’s animosity towards Priscilla and doesn’t bode well for the human girl at all. It lends to some extreme retribution, a blow up, a blow out, and a confrontation with Priscilla may see her leaving to go into foster care! The comedy is in all the surprises and supernatural shenanigans. There’s even a very cute if somewhat unusual looking friend/pet with the boogey under Priscilla’s bed. Broonie is cute and cat-like and definitely unusual. If it was ever made into a plushy, I imagine there would be buyers for the cute and bizarre companion. Priscilla doesn’t stay all alone either. She meets Radu, a nice guy fascinated by American past times, and his nice girlfriend, the witch Isabel. So there may be hope for Priscilla after all, and considering she has vampire heritage, it will be curious to see if she remains strictly human or if blood calls to blood. The art work is engaging, as mentioned, the Boogey is unique and cute. There’s a lot of movement happening within this adventure driven tale. The various supernatural residents make for an intriguing set of characters and backgrounds in this strange city. The OEL manga also includes all kinds of extras such as notes from the author and the artist (you’ll want to check out Brett Uher’s wonderful drawing of his pet ferrets), original character sketch gallery with accompanying notes, and two previews of other Tokyopop titles. IN SUMMARY:
Dark Moon Diary is a frightfully fun read! A human girl amongst vampires, ghosts, witches, ghoulies and more – and those are just her classmates! It’s an entertaining supernatural set of misadventures. |
