I received this book from the publisher on Netgalley in exchange of an honest review.

Yeah, this would have worked better for me if I didn’t have a family member with dementia. Now, seeing grandma lose herself and then also getting violent was really a bad trigger for me given certain events (both from the past and how my dad is now with his dementia taking over and he gets even more volatile than he used to be). Sure, it isn’t the biggest focus and mostly just something we see at the beginning, but it did trigger me and put me in a bad/sad mood.

Plus, the story was so rushed and I am kinda done with the forced magical girl trope. This girl just gets roped into it without any warning or whatever. She just meets a guy. They see a monster. He is almost killed (and she as well) and then he puts a bracelet on her and tells her to transform and then they are partners. And I just was like, no. Please no. Let her have a choice.
And as I said at the start of the paragraph, it felt like I was in a speedy car on Nürburgring. Flying through the curves and almost crashing. It was just a lot. There was a lot of explanation. There was a lot of things happening. I mean Zen, the guy we meet just up and dies and then suddenly there is a little figure coming out of him who is him but different and yeah. Oh, and then they have to retrieve the body and somehow there is a girl (who our MC knows) that can see it all. Ehhhhh. And so it continues in high speed. Thankfully, after a bit it did slow down but I would have liked the earlier parts to be just paced a bit better. Let us glide into things.

I am not sure about the whole for fans of Sailor Moon / Card Captor Sakura. Sure, both had their dark moments, Sailor Moon more than CCS, but to say it is the same? Nah. At times it goes pretty dark a la Madoka or Magical Girl Raising Project but then it goes back to pretty tame. So I am not sure how to classify this one exactly, but definitely not CCS.

What I did enjoy? The monsters, well, OK, that first one just looked mostly cute, but the other monsters were pretty spooky. Plus, not the mention that it sucks out your souls by punching holes in your body (which you can only see in the inside)? Cool and terrifying as heck. The battles? Kick ass. And very dark. The transformations? So pretty and I loved the way our mahou shoujos looked. The art is fun as well. And I do love it when we use accessories to transform. Plus, I appreciate the weapons to look a bit different than how they do in many Mahou Shoujo, though they aren’t original. I can name a few series with Mahou Shoujo that also feature non-wands. Still, I like that the author choose this one. It also fits with the darker/the girls really can get hurt part.

Will I be reading more of this one? On the one hand my interest is piqued. On the other hand… not sure. I mean it was just a bit too much fast-paced for me + some things still don’t make sense. We will see.