Kowloon Generic Romance, Volume 1 by Jun Mayuzuki Review

Kujirai and Kudou are real estate agents in the walled city of Kowloon, Hong Kong. Both are young, single, good-looking and the summer’s a-heating up… gee, I wonder where this is headed? Except Kudou is strangely taken with the concept of nostalgia and Kujirai begins to suspect something’s up with her colleague. Are they really just co-workers - or do they somehow share a past she doesn’t know about?

Orochi: The Perfect Edition, Volume 1 by Kazuo Umezz Review

A mysterious young woman stumbles across an eerie mansion during a stormy night and meets a pair of haunted sisters with a horrible secret - and what’s that strange noise coming from the attic? Then, a widower remarries only to find her first husband returned from the dead - and looking for revenge against her new family? Only Orochi, the mysterious young woman, knows the truth behind these tales.

Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer Review

A patch of land is taken over by an alien presence - and is spreading. This is Area X. Expeditions have ventured inside its borders and few have returned, with the ones that have come back having been profoundly changed. And yet, after years of venturing into it, little is known about what is inside Area X. Now, the 12th expedition sets out to uncover the mysteries of the land and maybe even make first contact - that is if whatever’s taken over Area X is interested in making contact…

Batman: Killing Time Review (Tom King, David Marquez)

Riddler, Catwoman, and Killer Croc heist something valuable from a safety deposit box belonging to Bruce Wayne, kicking off an intense chase involving backstabbing, the US government, large sums of cash, and many, many deaths. But what is the item and why do so many want it?

The Woman Chaser by Charles Willeford Review

SPOILERS

A used car salesman pursues his dream of making a movie. But when he finally makes his movie, and doesn’t get the deal he expected, he decides to enact a brutal revenge…

The Joker, Volume 1 Review (James Tynion IV, Guillem March)

The Joker’s latest atrocity is a bombing at Arkham Asylum resulting in the deaths of dozens, including Bane (we’ll see how long that sticks), before an escape to Belize. A retired but cash-strapped Jim Gordon is approached by a mysterious woman offering him a fortune to hunt down and kill the Joker. Except he’s not the only one headed to the tropics - others wanting revenge for the Arkham deaths are also after Joker. Will Jim end up killing Joker or saving him?

Brokeback Mountain by Annie Proulx Review

I think it’s taken me this long to read Annie Proulx’s Brokeback Mountain because the movie left such an indelible imprint on my mind that I didn’t want to have the story told again until its memory had faded a little - otherwise the two tend to blur together and I’m also a reader who craves novelty so I don’t like to read the same story over and over.

Public Domain, Volume One: Past Mistakes by Chip Zdarsky Review

The Domain is the flagship superhero character of entertainment behemoth Singular Comics, whose movie adaptations are box office hits, making the company and the character’s original writer, Jerry Jasper, rich and famous. Except for the original artist, Syd Dallas, who lives a modest life and goes largely unrecognised for his contributions to the character’s enduring success. Until one day he discovers a long-forgotten contract that says that he owns the rights to the character…

Checkmate Review (Brian Michael Bendis, Alex Maleev)

Mark Shaw took over Leviathan which then took over every spy organisation in the DCU. Now, Checkmate reforms to take on Leviathan.

The Angel of Rome and Other Stories by Jess Walter Review

Washed-up actors, a writing student who is more sinister than he first appears, a smitten high school science teacher, a cancer patient looking to escape the confines of her parents’ house, and a pair of climate scientists stranded by freak weather - all this and more in Jess Walter’s latest short story collection, The Angel of Rome and Other Stories!

Shadow Life Review (Hiromi Goto, Ann Xu)

An elderly Japanese-Canadian widow checks herself out of the old folks’ home and goes to live by herself - much to the annoyance of her daughters! Except it’s not just the depressing atmosphere of the home she’s escaping but death itself. And guess who’s tracked her down to her new place…

Stella Maris by Cormac McCarthy Review

It’s 1972 and 20 year old Alicia Western checks herself into Stella Maris, a mental hospital, where she suspects schizophrenia has taken hold of her as she has begun hallucinating visitations from an imaginary dwarfish figure called the Thalidomide Kid. The book follows a series of sessions between her and her doctor Michael Cohen.

Justice League, Volume 1: Prisms Review (Brian Michael Bendis, David Marquez)

A horned super-powered grumpy alien from another world portals to Earth and starts fighting the Justice League. No, I’m not recounting the Justice League movie, I’m describing the premise of Bendis’ super-original take on Justice League! Oh wait, the movie didn’t have his character Naomi in it. Yup, that makes all the difference. So the Justice League portal over to horned alien’s world to tell him to stop portaling over to theirs. Riveting stuff, eh?

A Man Named Doll by Jonathan Ames Review

An old friend from the force visits LA private investigator Happy “Hank” Doll with a proposition: a big payday in exchange for his kidney. And then his friend is shot dead with some shady characters sniffing around for the money. As more dead people start inconveniently popping up in Doll’s life, making the cops look hard at him to see if he’s a crazed serial killer, he sets out to avenge his friend’s death. All in a day’s work for A Man Named Doll.