Confidential Confessions

Reiko Momochi, Confidential Confessions, vol. 5 (Tokyopop, 1998) My library informed me--after delivering volumes 5 and 6, of course--that they have no copies left of vol. 4 at present to send me. So I took the chance that the next three volumes worked the same way the first three did (self-contained, and thus, not needing to be read in order) and went straight on to book five. Two more stories here. The series continues on with its usual blend of the hard-hitting (in one of the stories, a girl has contracted HIV, with the tale narrated by her best friend; in the other, a different girl conceals the fact that she was raped, with the inevitable mental and emotional fallout) and the predictably optimistic (everything always turns out okay in the end). Just once, I'd like to see Momochi break with tradition, since obviously things don't end up okay all the time (and the HIV story would have been, of all the things she's covered, the best place to do that so far), but, well, you know the drill. It's not bad, but I hope she branches off a bit in later volumes. *** ½