The Night of Baba Yaga

my media consumption has unintentionally converged: i just recently watched both volumes of kill bill followed by its inspiration lady snowblood, and yakuza 0 is next up on my games backlog (like a dragon, the JRPG title with kasuga, is the only one i've played in the series). so that should give you an idea of the book content: a bloody action thriller, with severed limbs, tons of misogyny and gross sexual violence, but gratifying physical hand-to-hand combat. it's a short read (translated from what i assume is a light novel) and pages go by fast due to the font size and line spacing. the plot probably fits into a 30-minute tv episode; it's compact and deliberate, with not much to trim off.

i don't want to say too much here because i think the less you know the more you'll enjoy the read (if you're OK with the content warnings above), but i was definitely glad i had a library hard copy to easily flip back to earlier pages. the book jacket synopsis also doesn't allude to this format outside of one word that you'll only figure out the meaning of towards the end, but it's dual POV with a wicked cool confluence.

this has a sapphic asian author and it was probably on my radar from some preview list of upcoming queer releases, and one of the marketing blurbs on the back alludes to it being "part poignant queer love story," but i think that's overselling it. the queerness is more... nebulous, understated. it's got certain themes that will make some audiences go 👀 and i think you'll root for the protagonists like you would for sook-hee and hideko in the handmaiden, but it's a far cry from being a gay romance.