We could be The Hero for just one day…
Creative Staff:
Story: Miyuki Miyabe
What They Say:
When her brother Hiroki disappears after a violent altercation with school bullies, Yuriko finds a magical book in his room. The book leads her to another world where she learns that Hiroki has been possessed by a spirit from The Book of Heroes, and that every story ever told has some truth to it and some horrible lie. With the help of the monk Sky, the dictionary-turned-mouse Aju, and the mysterious Man of Ash, Yuriko has to piece together the mystery of her vanished brother and save the world from the evil King in Yellow.
Content:(please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Yuriko is your average eleven year old Japanese girl living with her family in Tokyo where nothing unusual ever happens, until the day it does. She is mysteriously pulled out of school by her parents, and alarmed by the morose tones of her teachers as this happens. It can only mean a bad thing has happened. As she gets home, she learns the horrible reason why she was pulled from class; her older brother Hiroki has disappeared after a violent altercation with his classmates.
These are not the actions of the older brother Yuriko adores, and soon she will learn what has, literally, possessed Hiroki to behave so strangely. In his bedroom, she finds a book named Aju that suddenly speaks to her and leads her to get her parents to look for Hiroki at a relative’s cabins, where she learns more talking books await. It is there she learns the terrible truth, that Hiroki has been taken over by the Hero, a powerful book that has been contained for a long time but has still managed to spread out into Yuriko’s Circle (something like a physical plane or realm in this story), with each piece acting as a part of the original, similar in ways to the horcruxes in Harry Potter. It’s not just that Hiroki is possessed, he is the last vessel, the Summoner, whose body will most likely be consumed and overtaken by The Hero’s dark side, The King In Yellow.
Horror fans will immediately recognize this name, immortalized in the late 19th century by author Robert W. Chambers and later referenced in works of H.P. Lovecraft and other media such as season one of HBO’s True Detective. Chambers himself is referenced herein, known as the weaver. With the books’ helps, Yuriko becomes an allcaste, able to travel between her world and others, and begins her quest to save Hiroki by visiting the Nameless Land and conferring with the nameless devout, monk-like men who all look exactly like and are many and are one.
It is from the nameless devout she learns a powerful, horrible truth about stories, all stories that ever and would ever exist, and why the King in Yellow must be stopped before all of existence is eventually snuffed out from an imbalance of stories created and stories fading.
With the help of her servant Sky, a castout nameless devout, the dictionary Aju, and ‘wolf’ Ash, can Yuriko save her brother and save the world, and at what price?
The Book of Heroes is just enough horror to sit comfortably amongst Lovecraftian works, but not so scary that younger audiences would be turned off by anything too intense. The storytelling, involving stories themselves and this universe’s concept of what they really are, is a nifty one and makes me think perhaps it’s better to liken this tale to The Neverending Story meets Lovecraft, as Yuriko navigates through the real and the fictional to stop the King in Yellow. As Yuriko commits to becoming an allcaste, and gives herself the new name U-ri, she becomes almost a new character herself, though one at times that felt narratively way older than an eleven year old. I suppose if I had to have a major quibble, it’s that; Yuriko/U-ri’s point of view voice often sounds older than a child, even with the point of the story saying she was starting to change/grow up more, it still felt a little off for a fifth grader.
As Yuriko uncovers more clues about what happened to her brother, it’s almost bittersweet how Hiroki just wanted to be someone’s hero but at such a cost, but even Yuriko cannot imagine what her beloved older brother’s fate will be. It’s a credit to Miyabe as a storytelling that the twist with Hiroki was well done and right in the reader’s face the whole time, only apparent in the end.
In Summary:
If Studio Ghibli ever made a cosmic horror story, you’d have a pretty good idea what reading this novel feels like. It’s interesting to read a tale such as this involving the work of Chambers and that also feels a touch Lovecraftian through a child narrator, no matter how I perceived the character’s POV voice.
But that aside, the story is a clever one and at its core is a familiar one woven with new yarns. It’s those echoes of a familiar fantasy that make it a comfortable read tinged and steeped in just enough darkness to do Chambers influence justice.
And as this adventure ends for the young allcaste, what’s to say more aren’t to come? A sequel book, The Gate Of Sorrows, is slated for release this month so this story is only beginning.
Grade: B-
Age Rating: T
Released By: Haikasoru/Viz Media
Release Date: January 19th, 2010
MSRP: $14.99
