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A review by rnbhargava
Perfect World, Volume 5 by Rie Aruga
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
mysterious
reflective
relaxing
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
This volume is very well done. There’s more tension in our main characters’ current status quo. There’s some other new characters that are like character foils to our mains as well that are well done.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Body shaming, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Suicide attempt
Moderate: Bullying, Cancer, Chronic illness, Sexual content, Grief, Gaslighting, Sexual harassment, and Classism
There is clearly a lot of shaming and bullying around whether disabled people should have relationships at all. This is a core theme of the book, including all the feelings of medical trauma and potential suicidal thoughts because disabled characters feel or are made to feel like a burden on their able bodied partners and family members. This is ableism, misogyny, classism, medical content, potential self harm, body shaming, etc.
One of the main characters has a parent that is undergoing cancer treatments. There is also a sex scene involving one of the main characters that could be read as sexual harassment because she possibly goes through with sex in the scene because she feels like she “owes” the guy sex because it’s “normal” for people in a relationship together to have sex and he goes out of his way to get to her during a tough situation. It read and was drawn to be an uncomfortable situation, at least it seemed that to me. Be forewarned.