Manhwa Review | Blind Play by YD

Title: Blind Play



Ah-in wants one thing: love. Coming from an abusive home, eventually orphaned due to his abusive father’s death, and then experiencing intense prejudice due to being an orphan, true love is something Ah-in has never experienced and desperately wants. He does have a boyfriend, but even in this relationship, Ah-in knows the love is one-sided. His boyfriend, a college student, frequently exchanges money with Ah-in for sex and affection. Ah-in is fully aware of this arrangement, yet he still wants love from him. So, he continues to pay his boyfriend, hoping one day that this fake love will become something real.

Unfortunately, his boyfriend’s tastes are pretty rich, and Ah-in’s only means of affording his expensive expectations is selling his body. In Korea, the only way to become a licensed massage therapist is to be visually disabled. So, Ah-in pretends to be blind and picks up customers under the guise of giving them a massage, only to have sex with them. He makes good money doing so and gets some nice items he gives his boyfriend as gifts after stealing them from his clients. Most of his customers are in upper society, so he doesn’t worry much about his safety.

But then he gets picked up by prolific author Seo Ilmo. Ah-in isn’t worried at first, but then the author begins to test him, holding out his hand, trying to point him around places, offering things to him without a word, as if he knows Ah-in isn’t actually blind. It’s uncomfortable but not the worst thing in the world, and Ah-in does his best to keep up the charade. But Ah-in is really put to the test when he enters Ilmo’s apartment, only to find a rotting corpse on the couch. It’s the ultimate game of cat and mouse as Ilmo tries to scare Ah-in into revealing his is fake so he can kill him. At the same time, Ah-in maintains the ruse, determined to survive each and every encounter while trying to expose Ilmo for the murderer he is.

It’s a deadly game of lust and blood. Who will win?

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Manga Review | MADK by Ryo Suzuri

Title: MADK



Makoto has an obsession. It’s one that could never be accepted in society, and so Makoto feels isolated and trapped. As a last-ditch effort to fulfill his grotesque desires, he resorts to the occult, summoning a demon. The demon appears before him, praising his talents. The demon will grant him whatever he wants in exchange for Makoto’s soul. More than happy to trade his corrupted soul, Makoto asks for the one thing he has always wanted but never been able to obtain: the chance to eat someone. The demon is surprised but has no qualms about fulfilling this request.

So begins Makoto’s strange relationship with the demon. For a while, Makoto takes his time, slowly eating the demon’s flesh and savoring it. Eventually, though, even this routine becomes dull. The demon, bored himself, offers an alternative. He tears into his throat and offers Makoto the chance to have intercourse there. It’s horrific and disgusting. But Makoto is all too happy to give it a try. Once the act is complete, Makoto breaks down into despair, realizing he’ll never be able to experience pleasure that again. Satisfied, he’s ready to be taken by the demon.

But the demon has other plans. Instead of taking Makoto’s soul, the demon named J takes Makoto’s severed head to Hell. There, he proclaims that he will get Makoto a new body and raise him into a fantastic demon, one that could tear J down from his perch as the Archduke of Hell. Makoto is furious, having assumed his life would finally be over. Makoto goes along with J’s plans, both because he hates J and because he loves him.

But the road to the top is long, and everyone in Hell is trying to raise their station. Can Makoto make it to the top without being destroyed? Or was J mistaken in his abilities as a demon?

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Novel Review | The Flower of Alosha by Jang Ryang

Title: The Flower of Alosha


Kay is living his best simple life as the vice captain in Lablen. He’s a bit of a womanizer, enjoying the company of women, though never more than one at a time. This does come at a price, earning him the ire of his captain, who often longs for the very women that Kay ends up with. It is an annoying but small problem in his life, so Kay is relatively happy at the end of the day. But Kay’s simple world is rocked when none other than the Grand Duke, Zigryl Rhyner, arrives in this small, cold region of the empire unannounced.

Zigryl is well-known for his chaotic and cruel nature, and though he isn’t the emperor, his brother, the emperor, who has been ill for some time, has no successors. So, he has all the power of the emperor without the shackles of the crown. What is a man with such power and freedom doing in this snow-covered rural region of the empire? As it turns out, Zigryl, alongside his attendant Schumann, isn’t here for Lablen but for the subregion of Edor, which is well-known for being dangerous and near-impossible to reach thanks to the surrounding Forest of the Dead. They are after something called the Alosha’s Flower, and they need a guide to get there.

Unfortunately for Kay, as soon as Zigryl lays eyes upon him, the Grand Duke wants Kay and only Kay for the journey ahead. Kay, unable to deny the wants of someone with such power, has no choice but to acquiesce. Kay anticipates this mission will only take a few days, and then he’ll be able to return and live his everyday life back in Lablen. But what Kay doesn’t realize until it’s far too late is that Zigryl wants Kay as a guide and a bedmate, and once he gets a taste of him, he has no intention of letting Kay go.

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Manhwa Review | Hotel Pharus by BINGO

Title: Hotel Pharus



Daniel is down in the dumps. His long-term lover has left him to get married, his boss is closing the bar down, and without much direction, he has no idea what to do with his life. More bad news arrives at his door when someone delivers a letter announcing that Daniel’s estranged father has passed. But hope is waiting in the wings as his father has left him the Daniel once grew up in. Seeing this as his new start and a chance to revisit his happy childhood memories, Daniel takes the leap and moves out to the countryside to find his childhood home worse for wear but still in running order.

It might be best to just sell the building or demolish it and move on, but Daniel is determined to establish a life for himself, so with the help of the hotel manager, Daniel delves into the hotel and its current state. Things are in need of repair and some minor maintenance, but everything seems fine except for the newest addition to the hotel: the west wing. Supposedly, it’s in great disrepair with a significant mold issue. But a plaque on the wall suggests something more paranormal, warning people to stay away and, if they see something, to report it to the staff. When Daniel happens upon his father’s hidden study, a ledger full of payments far exceeding the price of a stay makes the west wing seem all the more suspicious.

Things only become stranger when a guest, whose stay has been paid for months in advance, arrives and turns out to be a child of the Creston family: Alexander Creston. And for a generous fee, Daniel is tasked with reporting all of Alexander’s movements to a mysterious caller. The caller mentions that Daniel, the former owner’s son, has inherited this task. Just what was his father doing in the hotel? And why is Alexander now part of it?

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Manhwa Review | Killing Stalking by Koogi

Title: Killing Stalking



Yoon Bum is a loner, but he doesn’t want to be. Bum longs for companionship, but not just with anyone. He longs for no one other than Oh Sangwoo. Bum has been quietly stalking Sangwoo since meeting him during conscription after Sangwoo rescued him from an assault by his platoon leader. After figuring out where he lives, Bum discovers the numbers of Sangwoo’s door lock and lists out every possible combination, which he decides to try so he can gain access to Sangwoo’s house. Unfortunately, at the end of the list, a cop car pulls up and begins questioning why he is there. Bum is in a panic but is able to say he’s Sangwoo’s cousin before getting the code right and slipping inside.

While Bum sees this as a victory, he doesn’t realize that the cops he spoke to know Sangwoo, and they end up telling him about the run-in with his “cousin,” prompting him to return home while Bum is lurking about. But having a stranger in his home isn’t the main reason Sangwoo is in a rush to get back. While Bum is snooping about, he discovers a basement door in the floor with a lock on it. Once he opens it and heads down, Bum discovers a woman, bound and beaten. Bum tries to help her, but before he can get her free, Sangwoo finds him, knocking Bum out with a baseball bat.

Bum is now Sangwoo’s newest victim. Can Bum survive this encounter? But more importantly, can he make Sangwoo love him as much as he loves him?

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Manga Review | Total Eclipse of the Eternal Heart by Syundei

Title: Total Eclipse of the Eternal Heart



Terumichi is in love with his mysterious classmate Yamada, who just appeared in his life one day. Yamada is strange and imposing but dangerously beautiful and one of the few people who have been kind to Terumichi. His unique disposition makes him all the more alluring to Terumichi, and in the end, he can’t help being drawn to Yamada. After an abrupt confession, Yamada and Terumichi seem on the cusp of when a stranger with a knife appears.

Terumichi does everything he can to protect Yamada, but in the end, Yamada is stabbed to death. Terumichi is in a panic, calling an ambulance, even though it’s clear by the amount of blood that Yamada isn’t going to survive. Yet, somehow, Yamada gets right up and walks away as if nothing ever happened, whispering a cryptic sentence:

“Only two left.”

Terumichi would be better off cutting his losses and moving on, but he just can’t forget Yamada.

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Manhwa Review | The Black Mirror by Muhwa

Title: The Black Mirror



Tae-jun spends every day trying his best not to rock the boat. He does his best to make everyone him, to make the best grades possible, and to make his caregiver proud, all at the expense of any of his wants or needs. Tae-jun is whoever he needs to be to survive; that is all he can hope for. This all started because Tae-jun lost all of his memories after a traumatic accident during his childhood. The accident also had a lasting effect of strange hallucinations, which, as a child, made it hard for Tae-jun to fit in. So, to protect himself and fit in with a world that couldn’t understand him, Tae-jun changed himself to fit in.

All of his careful crafting of this perfect personality begins to crack when he encounters Yeon-woo. Yeon-woo recognizes Tae-jun immediately, but Tae-jun doesn’t remember Yeon-woo, much to Tae-jun’s despair. Nevertheless, Tae-jun is drawn to Yeon-woo, desperate to understand their history and see if Yeon-woo knows anything about the accident that caused him to forget his childhood memories. Yeon-woo is more than eager to let Tae-jun into his life and to help explore their past, but as they get deeper and deeper into their shared history, the hallucinations that have haunted the edges of Tae-jun’s life grow ever closer. The safe life Tae-jun has built for himself is about to fall apart, but he can’t seem to shake himself away from the cause: Yeon-woo.

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Manga Review | Devils’ Line by Ryo Hanada

Title: Devils' Line



There is a hidden group of people called devils. They are humans born with an insatiable hunger for blood – similar to , though they aren’t weak to sunlight. Tsukasa Taira, our female lead, comes face-to-face with this group when her male companion is outed as a devil – a devil serial killer and rapist, in fact, and the person who calls him out? A devil police officer named Yuuki Anzai.

There is an immediate attraction between Yuuki and Tsukasa. But, as their attraction to each other grows, they quickly find that a relationship between a predator and prey isn’t going to be as simple as they might hope. While dealing with the personal issues surrounding them are espionage, conspiracy, and worldwide efforts to either empower the devils or stomp them out for good.

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