Yellow stringer vol 1 by Goeffrey Jean-Louis and Frederick L. Jones

Naomi graduated top of her class from Columbia, and could be reporting for any prestigious paper she wants. But, she has good reason to believe monsters are real, which led her into a career writing for the Yellow Stringer, a paper with a reputation for being a gossip rag with outlandish tall tales. Her new partner is Tony, an ex-cop who is looking for a steady job. Their first assignment is to investigate a potential theft at the local museum. Neither fully expected to find zombies involved! A few other cases come their way that shed light on Tony’s past. A bartender provides Naomi a place to recuperate after a terrible date, and the two end up getting tangled in a terribly-planned revenge plot against Naomi.

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Each chapter of this volume contains a different adventure. The first one is a bit long, but all the others are pretty short and a little disjointed. The cases are slightly related to one another, and the overall story of what's happening to Naomi and Tony is clearly sequential, but the threads tying everything together are a little loose. Some of the dialogue is a little choppy as well. Despite these setbacks, there is some solid foundational character work done by our authors. Both Tony and Naomi have some compelling backstories and have already started to take shape as full people within this first volume. If some of the cases would be fleshed out a bit more, this series has great potential to appeal to fans of the long-running Case Closed or find a foothold in a genre of manga that isn't overly written at the moment.

The art style is deceptively cutesy - this story isn’t for younger audiences. There is alcohol consumption, a few swear words, some characters smoking, and some pretty violent moments where we see people’s heads wrapped off or people get stabbed on the page.

Sara's Rating: 7/10
Suitability Level: Grades 9-12

Publisher: Saturday AM (Rockport Publishing)
Publication Date: September 6, 2022
ISBN: 9780760376904 (Paperback)

​Tags: Rating: 7/10, Suitability: High School, Manga, Mystery, Friendship, Action Adventure, Saturday AM