bookheaven | Snow & Ink, Vol. 1

Snow & Ink, Vol. 1 by Miyuki Unohana

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This had such potential but I'll be honest I'm struggling to see how it went viral in Japan and I'm laying that squarely at the feet of Freya. The premise is intriguing. Neneo is a young murderer waiting punishment for slaughtering his whole village when he's purchased by Freya the heiress of an industrialist. She's on the run herself, more or less, having been forced out of her inheritance by another family member after she nearly ran the business into the ground. Half the country (apparently) is furious with her because she more or less created an economic depression and massive unemployment.

They're going to the far north to get away from it all...and that's more or less where the plot stops. It now needs the characters to carry it as it fast forwards into romance so awkward it's literally painful to watch. Freya has very little personality and zero background as she whips from simpering virgin to jealous twit to incompetent at most things.

Neneo fares much better especially when we learn why he killed everyone in his village. There is also the ethics behind this place's punishment system because even if he was rehabilitated and released they have him visibly tattooed over his arms and hands showing his crimes. How could anyone ever reintegrate with society after that (I'm assuming he's not meant to).

Even Halvard, Freya's former incredibly wealthy fiancé has more personality than she does as he joins their ranks because as a doctor he wants to understand what happened in Neneo's village. There is a tiny threat of subplot as it seems someone is pursuing Freya.

I've been known to stick with a series even though I don't much like the main character (Fruits Basket for instance) but there needs to be enough for me to dig into that I can ignore the MC. I don't think that's going to be possible here sadly. Too bad because Neneo was interesting and the art is lovely.

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