I loved the concept of this, however i wished it was longer and more fleshed out, as i found the characters and plot to lack a certain depth. However i did not see that ending coming,. There were a lot of loose ends left open and it would have added a lot of value if it was around 200 pages longer.

** I received an arc of this book off of Net galley. All thoughts and opinions are completely my own.

I don’t know if it’s because English isn’t the original language, but I couldn’t get behind the writing style. When I saw the summary of the book, I was really excited. A yakuza boss kidnaps a girl to protect his daughter because he doesn’t want men touching her? I love bodyguard x ward, sign me up! But it felt like a lot of the writing was very choppy in a step by step. She does this. Then this. And then this. The transitions did not feel fluent, and it turned me off from the story, but as it isn’t originally in English, and is translated, a lot of this can be due to the translation. Still a sick cover and concept, though!

This was a fun, hyperviolent but fairly quick read. It should also probably have some content warnings which I won't specify here since they are spoilers, but it says right on the blurb that yakuza are involved. Not all of the crimes associated with yakuza are described in detail, but the worse stuff at least get a passing mention. If you have a vivid imagination and a good basic knowledge of fight terms, this will be a fun book; if not your eyes might glaze over. By "boldly through time" on the blurb, I think the publisher is referring to some time skips in the narration, but it's done pretty cleanly. Yoriko and Shoko form an understated relationship through the book; I wouldn't call it a romance but I think it's safe to say the book doesn't end in a tragedy for them.

List of Content Warnings after review.


I absolutely devoured this book -- I'd planned to start it as a pre-bedtime book, but I couldn't put it down & finished in one sitting. The writing style is blunt and kinetic and gripping right from the start. I do wish that the time setting had been better explained at the beginning (<spoiler>even if it might take away from the twist towards the end</spoiler>), since I think it would add to the reading experience. I also loved the queer relationship at the story's heart -- whether it's interpreted as lesbian or trans or whatever, it was a strong layer to the novel and kept me even more interested.

I'd definitely like to own my own copy someday, and I plan to recommend a purchase to my library. This is a book that definitely merits a second reading!!


CW for physical violence, domestic abuse, attempted rape, sexual assault, & incest.

This was a roller coaster of a book. The construction of the narrative was particularly brilliant. This review is not affected by receiving a eARC via NetGalley.

A quick read, but the word choice and repetition of certain words/phrases and onomatopoeia made it awkward. Worth a read if you want easy to follow fight scenes with a female character who can hold her own again men. The queer elements weren't as prevalent to characters as I had hoped it would be, which was disappointing.

This feminist and wild read must be in every woman's TBR pile! Set in 1970's Tokyo,Yuriko is kipnapped and brought to a Yakuza lair. The power and fight of this woman is amazing and unbelievable!

A very light (because of it being short and having a light novel writing style) story, "The Night of Baba Yaga" is a good, but not great read, where Otani seems more interested in entertaining the reader with a couple of fights and 'shock' moments than in really developing a story.

It's all pretty easy to follow: Shindo gets into a fight and some yakuza decide to kidnap her. The yakuza boss, Naiki, then decides that that woman is the perfect candidate to protect his daughter. What follows, as said above, is pretty light in the plot department, and also not very deep in the character part. Some things happen, Shoko, Naiki's daughter opens up little by little thanks to Shindo (and the other way around), some fights happen, all pretty straightforward. There are also a couple of things that may be very uncomfortable for some readers (the trigger warning kind of).

The writing style is one of those with whoosh, flash, bang onomatopoeias thrown into the mix (again, Japanese light novel style), fast, breezy, never stopping. It is a pretty easy to read style, but it also lacks of depth, as it is pretty basic. The fights are ok, and that is actually a compliment, because I have always found fights rather difficult to depict in words.

All in all, an easy read, but one that lacks depth (there is so much that could be developed in the story but Otani leaves by the sides (maybe there is going to be a sequel?)).

3.5 stars. A very quick and entertaining, queer action thriller. Lot's of fighting. This is quite a short book which makes it a fast read but I would have liked it to expand a bit more on its queer themes and backstory of Shindo's character since the queer aspect is what sets this apart from other Yakuza themed thrillers.

I just finished watching Blue Eye Samurai around the time I saw this book, and it had similar themes, of a mixed-race girl in Japan doing violence, so I was really hoping for them to have similar themes and feels. They don't really, but I still enjoyed the read, though I felt like it felt a bit lackluster on all levels, probably due to the short length. My favourite part was the ending, when they get into gender expression and presentation ever so briefly, and the winding down of the story. For being advertised as a thriller, I was disappointed at the lack of thrills it gave me, and I wish some of the more fucked up stuff was explored more instead of being glanced over and never addressed again. It would have also been nice to see more of Shindo's backstory, because it really intrigued me and I wanted to know more.

2.5/5 stars

Thank you so much for giving me access to this arc! I really enjoyed this and it made me realize how I really need to add more translated fiction to my list. I’m excited to see the response from other readers when it comes out because it was action-packed and so engrossing.