Visitor Volume 1

I have to admit that the ending to this series threw me a little. The premise of young girls being tormented by unseen forces was incredibly interesting. I couldn't quite figure out what the hook was, but the solution left me a little unfulfilled. Don't get me wrong, it was a good ending, but it just lacked the punch that I was hoping for. I'd still recommend this to a friend, though.

Korean high schooler Hyo-Bin Na is a very beautiful young lady and being new to the school, she garners a lot of attention. All of the most popular guys are hanging around her like flies. Hyo-Bin doesn't want any friends though, and she especially doesn't want a boyfriend. You see, she feels as if she is cursed because bad things happen to people who get close to her. And then there's the nightmares. Every night in her dreams she is in a room doused with blood and dead bodies, and there is a voice that speaks to her, wanting to be let in and appears as a dark visage in a mirror. Hyo-Bin isn't alone in the nightmare. She finds out that the room she dreams of is actually the room of one of her classmates, Mi-Soo Kim, and that the two are having the same nightmare, and can see and communicate with each other in their sleep! It's up to the two girls to figure out why these events are happening to them. Meanwhile, Hyo-Bin is beginning to exhibit dark powers that might make her fears about hurting people become a reality. I have to say that this is an extremely well-written horror mystery with shades of shojo romance. The relationship angles never really get too sappy or burden the storyline. Yee-Jung No does a good job of blending the humor and the horror into a disturbing concoction. It really makes me want to go out and get Volume 2 today because of the suspense. The only thing that put me off a little was the artist's style of drawing in which the characters are over-enlongated, making them sometimes look like giraffes with big heads. But once you get over this stylistic complaint, this book is really good.