The Girl from the Other Side: Siuil, A Run Vol. 7 by NAGABE

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🌻 The Girl from the Other Side Vol. 1 | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
🌻 The Girl from the Other Side Vol. 2 | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
🌻 The Girl from the Other Side Vol. 3 | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
🌻 The Girl from the Other Side Vol. 4 | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
🌻 The Girl from the Other Side Vol. 5 | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
🌻 The Girl from the Other Side Vol. 6 | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Content/Trigger Warnings: Violence, guilt, disembodiment, death/murder

“The plain truth is that one girl’s life can save everyone. Isn’t it hubris to imagine salvation will come without sacrifice?”

Okay friends, if you’ve been here for a hot minute then you know how obsessed I am with this series. And it just keeps getting better and darker! I can honestly say that this might be my favorite volume in this whole series. It was so good and I can’t get over the fact that we’re going to have to wait till 2020 for the next volume. I need it now, in my hands, so I can scream into the void how much I love these characters.

If you’re not familiar with this series yet then here’s the breakdown. Keep in mind, this isn’t a spoiler especially if you’ve made it all the way up to this volume. However, I will do my best to keep this volume as spoiler free as possible.

Divided Land

🌻 The Inside – Where all the humans, like you and me, ruled by the King and the Church, patrolled by armed forces
🌻 The Outside – Where the Cursed Ones exist, abandoned villages, also where Teacher and Shiva exist
🌻 The Inside – Where all the humans, like you and me, ruled by the King and the Church, patrolled by armed forces

Factions

🌻 Humans/Mortals – Like you and me, live on the Inside
🌻 Cursed Ones – Beast like creatures, plagued with The Curse, feared by mortals, roam the Outside
🌻 Humans/Mortals – Like you and me, live on the Inside
🌻 The God of Light – Creator of happiness and peace
🌻 The God of Darkness – Trickster, plays pranks on the God of Light, steals away happiness, cause of The Curse

Characters

🌻 Teacher – Main character, horned Cursed Child, guardian of Shiva, either a scholar or doctor when mortal
🌻 Shiva – Main character, child of Light, protected by the most holy, innocent, companion to Teacher
🌻 Teacher – Main character, horned Cursed Child, guardian of Shiva, either a scholar or doctor when mortal
🌻 Father or Head Priest of the Church – Orders for constant capture of Shiva, believer of the “prophecy”, orders soldiers to cause democide, aid of his royal majesty
🌻 Mother – Intentions unknown, creator of the Black Children
🌻 The Black Children – Created by “Mother”, similar to Teacher, wish to obtain Shiva’s soul

Now that you understand a little more about the book, volume seven picks up where volume six left us. Clutching our pearls and hoping Teacher kicks some series butt. Oh yes, I think we all want Teacher to throw down and pull a moment of “YOU. SHALL. NOT. PASS.” on these corrupted soldiers. It was probably one of the most tense ways to start this graphic novel off and I’m not going to lie, I was choking a little bit. The first chapter of this graphic novel is gut wrenching and may cause the water works to flow. I know I shed one or two tears especially the whole scene we get with Shiva. That first chapter just packs a hard hitting punch to the gut.

What I wasn’t expecting from this book was Teacher going into a “two personality” situation or I guess it would be a Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde situation. All of the volumes in this series so far have been building up to this point. We know how much Teacher cares about Shiva, but his love is so thick and deep that he is emotionally tearing himself apart. And in this one scene, we get a double conversation he’s having with himself or his inner self and you know he’s at that ledge of debating how far is he willing to go to protect Shiva. I think it’s brilliant that we’re seeing him show so much emotion and really pushing that line of staying within one’s own values and principles vs. doing whatever it takes. It was beautifully done and I loved how the only thing that brought him out of his own conversation was scooting a cooking pot across the floor. It was so well done and I loved watching him fight himself.

“I will become as monstrous as I must.”

Through this entire series, I have always loved and stood by the relationship Teacher and Shiva have and I still stand by it. That entire ending, I don’t think I’ve loved an ending more with a book, with a series, in general. Nagabe does an incredible job of showing the blurred lines of right and wrong, doing enough and going too far. Even more so when you’re at a crossroad in life and you have to make an insanely hard choice. This ending was such a mix of emotions by Teacher and honestly, a book has never made me reevaluate my own morals and how far I would go for the ones I love and care about. Not to mention, I loved how Nagabe painted Teacher in a light of being the most human he has ever been in this whole series. It’s just wave of emotions and I just loved it. It flowed beautifully and ended in the most cliffhanger way possible.

Overall, I refuse to go into any more detail about this book because the best way to go into this series is to not know a lot about it. I will say this, when you start volume one and get to volume seven, it’s a slow build of this series becoming darker and darker. Not to mention the stakes become higher and higher. It’s so well done and I have never been this addicted to a graphic novel series the way I am with this series. I can’t recommend this series enough and if you have been debating this series, just buy the first two volumes. You won’t regret it, trust me. Plus, it’s never too early to start building a dark, spooky TBR!