QQ Sweeper Vol. 1-3

QQ Sweeper Vol. 1-3
By Kyousuke Motomi
Synopsis (from goodreads.com)

The manga's ad uses the tagline "brush away all the soot of the hear". The "cleaning story of love and bravery(!!)" follows Kyuutarou, who never leaves a speck of dust behind when he "cleans". One day, he meets a girl who wants to be his apprentice.

Review: 
First off, I'm a big fan of manga, especially 'shojo' titles, so my review may be a tad biased.  Potential spoilers ahead too.

This was a really interesting story idea. It is about people that harbor bad thoughts of self doubt, etc, that causes their minds to become corrupted or "dirty". They leave behind these black insects that Kyutaro "sweeps" away using magic. He calls himself a cleaner. He meets transfer student Fumi after she stumbles into the mind path and destroys a bug with her bare hands.

His brother has him take her on as an apprentice since she has no where to stay. The dynamic between them is similar to Motomi's other series, Dengenki Daisy, but the improved art and paranormal aspect of the story makes it fresh and a solid series in it's own right.

According to other reviews that I've read on Goodreads, this series ends with volume 3 and continues as a new series. I'm definitely interested in learning the continued story.

I rated this series as a 4, as the art and story were interesting, and kept my attention through all three volumes.

Ketchup Clouds

Ketchup Clouds
by Annabel Pitcher
Published November 12, 2013 by Little Brown Books for Young Readers

Summary:
(from goodreads.com)

Dear Mr. S. Harris, 
Ignore the blob of red in the top left corner. It's jam, not blood, though I don't think I need to tell you the difference. It wasn't your wife's jam the police found on your shoe. . . . 
I know what it's like. 
Mine wasn't a woman. Mine was a boy. And I killed him exactly three months ago. 
Zoe has an unconventional pen pal--Mr. Stuart Harris, a Texas Death Row inmate and convicted murderer. But then again, Zoe has an unconventional story to tell. A story about how she fell for two boys, betrayed one of them, and killed the other. 
Hidden away in her backyard shed in the middle of the night with a jam sandwich in one hand and a pen in the other, Zoe gives a voice to her heart and her fears after months of silence. Mr. Harris may never respond to Zoe's letters, but at least somebody will know her story--somebody who knows what it's like to kill a person you love. Only through her unusual confession can Zoe hope to atone for her mistakes that have torn lives apart, and work to put her own life back together again.

Review
Ketchup Clouds is a book about "Zoe", a resident of the UK who reaches out to a inmate on death row in Texas, USA because they have something in common: they both killed someone.

The story is told through letters that Zoe has written to inmate Stuart Harris, regarding the events leading up to how she supposedly killed someone. While the book deals with the immense guilt and remorse that Zoe feels about this incident, it isn't the only focus of the book. Zoe's family problems are also brought to light as well as the story of two boys.

I enjoyed reading Ketchup Clouds because of the well written prose of Zoe's letters and the even pacing. It was fast when Zoe's emotions were intense, and slow when she was down. You get caught up in the book so quickly because you're only getting snippets of what happens, and as the story progresses you start reading a bit obsessively to figure out who it is that she killed.


I feel like the book ended well, but when I read the last page, I hate to admit that I didn't feel strongly that I liked or disliked this book. I thought it was well written and that I quickly related to the characters.  I found myself less interested in the story that Zoe had to tell and more interested in the problems of her family, as the characteristics of her other family members seemed to outshine her own. 

While I think this was a good read, I feel like it was also missing something and what it is I can't put my finger on.

3/5