In exchange for much needed rain, an impoverished village sacrifices a young woman, Soah, to the Water God Habaek. Instead of drowning, Soah is rescued by the Water God and finds herself as a welcome guest in Habaekā€™s kingdom. There are several twists surrounding Habaek, but not much is explained about Habaek or his friends.

I thought the artwork was gorgeous and that the setting was interesting. The few pages that were printed in color were stunning, and the black and white pages were just as beautiful with flowing lines and the way the shading was used. I found the very beginning of the story easy enough to understand and follow, but I soon grew confused about what was going on in the story. I had confusion about all the different characters and memorizing who was who as they all had similar looks. I also had a difficult time keeping up with who was talking when multiple characters where part of a scene. There was no indication given about who was talking, the speech bubbles were often off to the side or there was no one in the panel to show who was speaking. Also, the changes between scenes or character interactions lacked smooth transitions lending to the confusion.

I also had many questions about the characters and plot as I continued reading the story. Why is Soah kept in the dark about her situation, especially why she survived and did not drown as expected? Why does Habaek keep Soah in the dark about his situation of being a child by day and a man by night? Why does Habaek not give the village rain when Soah is first sacrificed? Why does Soah not question anything about herself, Habaek, the other gods, or her predicament in general?

I am sure if I was to read further in the series, these questions and more will be answered, but I do not know if I am intrigued enough to continue reading the series.
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Art to die for. ( )

I really like the different folklore, costumes and the art in this series. ( )

Soah's village is desperate to end a long drought, so they decide to sacrifice her to the Water God, Habaek. Instead of just drowning, Soah wakes up in the land of Suguk, where she learns that Habaek is a child. What she doesn't realize is that the child she sees is only one of Habaek's forms - for some reason, he must spend days as a child but grows into an adult form at night.

I don't know how I feel about this series yet. The story was very slow to get going - all this volume accomplished was introducing several gods I tended to mix up, plus Habaek's mother, the goddess of punishment and torture (how's that for an intimidating mother-in-law?). Also, it appears that there might be a love triangle. Soah initially mistook Huye for Habaek and was relieved that he was good-looking. Also, Habaek might find himself in competition with himself later on in the series, depending on when he finally tells Soah the truth: when Soah first saw him in his adult form, he told her his name was Mui and didn't correct her assumption that he was Habaek's older cousin.

Yeesh, the character relationships are already a bit complicated. At any rate, I own three more volumes and am willing to see where this goes, although the series' out-of-print status makes me hope that it doesn't work for me overall.

The artwork is pretty enough - I particularly like the full-page illustrations. I'm not always a fan of the way the author draws people, though, very long and bony.

Extras:

A couple full-color pages that are so lovely I wish the entire volume could've been in color, plus an amusing/cute 2-page comic-style afterword by the author.

(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.) ( )

Mmmm, not really for me.

It sounded interesting. A girl is sacrificed to the water god so he will bring rain to the village. She finds the water god to be a good guy and presumably, they have some adventures.

There wasn't much of a drowning death scene. Not sure she even drowned. She's on a boat, it capsizes, she swims to shore and it's the home of the water god and various other gods. They don't take much of an interest in her. Reading the back of the book, it seems her relationship with the gods gets better.

She misses her mother. She's a little scared of her mother-in-law, goddess of torture and punishment and love and desire.

That's about it. Not planning on reading an more in the series. I found it boring. ( )