Beasts of Abigaile by Spica Aoki

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Please note, this is going to be a manga series review!

🌹 Beasts of Abigaile Vol. 1 Review

Content/Trigger Warnings: Bullying, violence, physical abuse, scene of child abuse, slavery/talk of slavery/servitude, death of an animal, death/loss of a loved one, manipulation, kidnapping, trauma, drugging, scene of homicide, suggestive comments

Our story follows a girl named Nina who recently left her home in Japan and has relocated to the beautiful country Ruberia to live with her uncle and aunt. Even though this country is very beautiful, there are many dark secrets that have been hidden away from the world, and Nina is so to discover the darkest secret of them all. When curiosity gets the better of Nina, she gets bitten by one of the notorious luga and begins to transform a tail and a set of furry ears herself. Now she’s throw into the dangerous world of the luga and if she’s not careful, she may face the wrath of more than one luga, but make many friends along the way.

“I never could’ve imagined…the unthinkable trails that awaited me…here on Abigaile.”

I figured the best way to talk about this series was to do a series review. If you already saw my first review for the first volume in this series then you probably have a little insight to how I felt reading as well as what this series may hold. I really loved this series and even though this series was only four volumes, it did a great job at threading together a captivating story-line that I didn’t want to end. If you’re a manga reader, this is definitely a series you want to put on your radar. And I really need to thank Kayla at Books and Blends because without her recommendation and her amazing review, I never would have heard of thing manga or even picked it up in the first place!

This manga took me by storm and I was already pretty hyped going into this series from the few things I was told about it. I have no idea I would read through it so quickly and crave the remaining volumes so desperately. I wish I had know about this series sooner because finally reading this series and falling in love with it, I would have been telling everyone about Beasts of Abigaile sooner instead of now.

I loved all of these characters. Nina is such an easy character to love and is great choice for a main character. She’s very bold, passionate, and she has no problem standing up to anyone when they’ve committed a wrong. There’s even certain moments in this series that even her more calmer, subtle moments, you can feel how important the words she’s saying are and you can feel how moved she is in those panels. She’s such a genuine character and a lot of her actions in this series really moved me. I just felt that kindred spirit with her and I think that’s why I truly love her character the way I do. We also get an amazing character by the name of Dario and throughout this series he is hilarious and just this ray of sunshine. And he’s a force not to be reckoned with. His character continuously surprised me throughout my reading experience and he was also the first person to fully believe in Nina, not once did he hold back with his support when it came to her. I just truly loved him with my whole heart.

I really want to take a moment and say how much I adored the friendships Nina made. The friendships she established with so many of the luga were just great examples of loyalty especially when it came to a character named Poe. Nina really took the time to show him that she cared and she really wanted to find a way to bridge the gap between him and all the other luga. Her loyalty to Poe is so strong that she even risks her life to prove what his friendship means to her. Not to mention the friendships she’s established in Dario’s home that he’s constantly rushing to make sure she’s okay, that nothing bad has happened to her, and protecting her. Loyalty is a huge theme in this series and it really warmed my heart because I’m a huge believer in loyalty and actively showing that loyalty.

Of course, this would be a manga if there wasn’t some for of a romance involved in it. I’m not going to lie, I was a little skeptical in the beginning especially when it seemed like there was going to be a love triangle forming. And I’m not going to lie, I was sitting here rooting for the good guy, the underdog, the entire time reading this series. However, there were some really intense scenes between Roy and Nina. You could feel the sexual tension radiating of the pages in certain scenes. While I definitely would have preferred the relationship to go a different direction, I wasn’t disappointed with how it turned out. It would have been even better if we had more volumes in this series to really see the relationship grow and blossom.

While there were many things I loved about this book, the ending and conclusion of this book left something to be desired. You can definitely tell the author was rushed to finish this series. There were also some questionable moments that never got addressed or answered. I truly wish this author had the chance to continue this series because I would really love to see so much develop from where this book concludes. Not to mention, it would be really amazing to see how everything turns out for the luga and with Nina. To quote Sheldon Cooper, “I don’t need sleep, I need answers!”

Overall, this series just reminded me why I love werewolf books so much. I loved the poison element for the luga the author put in here. It was such a creative twist and the little details we find out about it just blew me away. Plus, the characters are to die for. I have no doubt the readers won’t find a character in this book they won’t love. It was just a really great series and I wish we had gotten more volumes because it truly is a great story to immerse into.