Life Vol. 4

Life

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Graphic Novel Summary:   Just when Ayumu promised to become a stronger person, Katsumi comes to pay her a visit.  Manami feeling betrayed, punishes Ayumu with terrible pranks.  Everyday, the pranks get worse and worse.  Ayumu is spiraling down into despair and only knows of one way to remedy her chaotic lifeâ"cutting.  Some habits seem to never die, unless they kill you.  
        Key Selling Points:  

• "I have read the ARC of Life, and thought that it was superb - both the writing and illustrations were exceptional, and this book is something that I feel that teens can really identify with - without being overly didactic or unaccessible.  Thank you for bringing this book to my attention."
  - Jennifer Feigelman, Teen Services Librarian Goshen Public Library and Historical Society
  
• Ayumu is faced with common high school problems:  grades, fighting with friends and a general feeling of isolation.  Her method of dealing with the trials of adolescence, however, is decidedly more distressing.  Ayumu is a cutter, one of an increasing number of teenage compulsive self-mutilators.  Tortured by a falling-out with her best friend and dealing with a competitive new school, Ayumu retreats into the cold comforts of self-imposed social exile and self-inflicted injury.  Matters are further complicated when Ayumu's manic and boundlessly irritating new friend, Manami, attempts suicide after a difficult breakup.  To say that the subject matter is serious is a criminal understatement; the overwrought narrative will appeal mainly to the core demographic of manga readers.  Luckily, the artworkâ"especially the inventive page layoutâ"adds a much-needed frisson.  Frames and panels merge, fracture and dissolve, reflecting alternating extremes of tranquility and anguish.  The cutting scenes are especially powerful, eschewing dialogue in favor of a dreamlike stillness in which Ayumu's chosen implement, a common box cutter, takes on the status of a magical totem.  These frames, along with a genuinely haunting, semi-cliffhanger ending, more than make up for the characters' stilted language.  The book concludes with a brief fact page written by a clinical psychologist that includes how to deal with cutting in real life.  
  - Publisher's Weekly
  
• The pain felt by the characters is palpable and affecting.  The characters and their emotional reactions to situations feel real.  
  - VOYA
  

Codes: 64557300999132934 DEC063921