Akira Otani’s The Night of Baba Yaga is a dark and violent tale set against the backdrop of the Japanese yakuza underworld. The novel follows the lives of two strong female characters: Shindo, a skilled fighter, and Shoko, a young woman caught in a dangerous world.

While the book’s premise is intriguing and the action sequences are well-executed, the characters lack depth and the plot feels rushed. Despite the potential for a deep exploration of female friendship and empowerment, the relationship between Shindo and Shoko remains underdeveloped.

The novel’s abrupt ending and lack of emotional depth left me feeling unsatisfied. While the dual timeline and unexpected twist are interesting, they are overshadowed by the overall lack of character development and plot coherence.

Overall, The Night of Baba Yaga is a mixed bag. It offers a glimpse into a dark and dangerous world, but ultimately fails to deliver a truly satisfying reading experience.

This book was quick, action-packed, and super interesting. I finished the entire thing in one day and wished it had gone on longer. The ending felt a tad rushed, but that didn't take away from my overall enjoyment of the title. Definitely recommended for fans of the Kill Bill movies or the Yakuza series of video games.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an ARC for review. All opinions expressed above are my own.

This book was quick, brutal, and sharp. It had so many of the elements of old fighting movies while also putting something good and hopeful at the center of it - even when it hurt to look at.

Our two main characters are so different in every way but perfect as a set. Shindo is a tough as hell woman literally dragged off the street kicking and fighting, and forced to become to personal bodyguard and driver to a local yakuza boss' prized daughter, Shoko. Over the course of the novel they form a bond and understanding of each other - two people who are so different but vital to the other's survival. They are both deceptively strong and it's so hard to see them in such awful situations, but you can't look away.

Translated works can be made or broken by the translator and I think this one holds up well. I'd love to be able to compare it with the original if I read Japanese, just to see the differences in tone - this is one of the first times I've seen an attempt at translating slang or informal language and I'd be curious to see how well certain connotations were adapted into English.

I hesitate to recommend this book to just anyone due to the content and possible triggering content, but regardless, it's a solid book.

Thank you so much to Soho Press and NetGalley for an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

An interesting spin on the traditional Baba Yaga tale, dark and gruesome at times this was a quick and punchy tale. Definitely and interesting read showing the innerworkings of a Yakuza family and how you get stuck in that type of life and it's almost impossible to get away.

Thank you to netgalley and the publishers for providing me with an arc for an honest review.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a free ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This was definitely an action-packed read! I just wish it was longer, honestly. The story had a great and fascinating base - set in the 1970s in Japan, a girl is kidnapped by the yakuza and make to be the bodyguard and driver for the family head's daughter. The two form a close bond and end up escaping the gang. It has been compared to Thelma and Louise, with good reason - I really enjoyed it, but I feel that it just needed way more time to breathe.

Translated by Sam Bett — Even though strong female protagonists are nothing new in contemporary manga or animé, it’s not often we come across them in Japanese crime fiction novels. Yoriko Shindo is not only a memorable character, she also defies traditional gender roles in a spectacular way – not only through her choice of profession, but also her sexuality.

Full review on blog and Crime Fiction Lover: https://westwordsreviews.wordpress.com/2024/08/02/the-night-of-baba-yaga-akira-kotani/

Too much SA that’s not really handled well enough. Having said that, this book has some good parts and is a classic, violent yakuza story with a twist.

3.25 stars

Thank you NetGalley and Soho Press for the e-ARC.

Akira Otani's 'The Night of Baba Yaga' reminded me of the John Wick/Kill Bill movies but one of the central characters is a lesbian woman. It's very violent and dark, and if any reader has triggers, I would recommend that they don't read this.

I really liked the story; it was really intriguing but quite fast-paced and somehow it actually worked. The female characters were complex and I loved how their relationship grew and they eventually trusted each other. I love books that have strong female protagonists!

I hate men!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

On a real note, though, I love Kill Bill, and I thought this was a really interesting rendition of it.

Violent bordering on gruesome in some places, but if you liked John Wick and/or would like John Wick if it had lesbians, this was a fun and fast read! Avoid if sexual violence is a trigger.

I picked up the book because I loved the cover, I loved the title and I love Japanese setting in general. I knew it would be a dark read - this much was obvious from the description - and I liked it too. I enjoy darker stories, especially the one which explore relationshis between the characters. I expected it to be tragic, dark, cruel and raw story, but unfortunately it was just dark and cruel.

The protagonist of the story, Shindo, is a woman that stands out. Not because of her good looks - quite the opposite, if you believe the narration - but because of her untamed power. She knows how to fight and she loves it, and that's pretty much all that she knows and loves. Unfortunately, that's pretty much all The reader learns about her. It's a short novel, I get it, but it's hard to care for the character as one dimensional as Shindo, though she seemed fascinating at first. Mysterious, stubborn, a fighter, she intrigued me up until I realised she's not going to become any more than that.

The other main character, Shoko, is a young daughter of yakuza boss. We know even less about her. Her circumstances are awful and her life is, frankly, tragic, but, just as Shindo, she doesn't read as an actual person. She's a sketch of a person, of a character, that could be interesting, but she was mostly nothing.

I expected it to be more emotional. For a story like that, two women among dozens of horrible yakuza men, I hoped we would see them becoming closer, relating to each other, feeling protective and dependent on each other, but unfortunately their relationship weren't that at all. The story tells me they have a deep connection, but I fail to see where it comes from, or how it manifests. A lot of telling not showing is what I'm trying to say.

In terms of the plot, it felt intriguing at first, but then it felt very rushed, unrealistic and pointless. The ending wasn't satisfying due to everything I've said before, which made me incredibly upset, cause, again, I'm not unfamiliar with Japanese literature and culture, and I feel like it could be such a fascinating story. If only the writer took the time to explore the characters more, to deepen the plot, to give it some substance. But, we have what we have, which seems to be just an idea of a story instead of an actual story.

Content Warnings: Sexual Assault, Incest, Graphic violence, Brief Gore (Torture, Dismemberment), Misogyny

This book's plot and structure are pretty strong. There is a dual narrative in two different points in time that are both presented well, and there is a good twist in the novel that recolors the previous events. That said, the twist was presented so quickly that I missed it and got confused. I had to re-read 10 or so pages three or more times to finally catch it. The action sequences were also good overall.

However, there's a lot of misogyny and violence inherent to gangster narratives that I didn't like. The characters were also flat and not that interesting. This book is being marketed as queer, but there's nothing queer until maybe the last 20 pages or so of the novel, which was also disappointing.

Overall, this book just wasn't for me. Maybe something is lost in translation or maybe it's just not to my taste..

I loved the concept of this, however i wished it was longer and more fleshed out, as i found the characters and plot to lack a certain depth. However i did not see that ending coming,. There were a lot of loose ends left open and it would have added a lot of value if it was around 200 pages longer.

** I received an arc of this book off of Net galley. All thoughts and opinions are completely my own.

I don’t know if it’s because English isn’t the original language, but I couldn’t get behind the writing style. When I saw the summary of the book, I was really excited. A yakuza boss kidnaps a girl to protect his daughter because he doesn’t want men touching her? I love bodyguard x ward, sign me up! But it felt like a lot of the writing was very choppy in a step by step. She does this. Then this. And then this. The transitions did not feel fluent, and it turned me off from the story, but as it isn’t originally in English, and is translated, a lot of this can be due to the translation. Still a sick cover and concept, though!

This was a fun, hyperviolent but fairly quick read. It should also probably have some content warnings which I won't specify here since they are spoilers, but it says right on the blurb that yakuza are involved. Not all of the crimes associated with yakuza are described in detail, but the worse stuff at least get a passing mention. If you have a vivid imagination and a good basic knowledge of fight terms, this will be a fun book; if not your eyes might glaze over. By "boldly through time" on the blurb, I think the publisher is referring to some time skips in the narration, but it's done pretty cleanly. Yoriko and Shoko form an understated relationship through the book; I wouldn't call it a romance but I think it's safe to say the book doesn't end in a tragedy for them.

List of Content Warnings after review.


I absolutely devoured this book -- I'd planned to start it as a pre-bedtime book, but I couldn't put it down & finished in one sitting. The writing style is blunt and kinetic and gripping right from the start. I do wish that the time setting had been better explained at the beginning (<spoiler>even if it might take away from the twist towards the end</spoiler>), since I think it would add to the reading experience. I also loved the queer relationship at the story's heart -- whether it's interpreted as lesbian or trans or whatever, it was a strong layer to the novel and kept me even more interested.

I'd definitely like to own my own copy someday, and I plan to recommend a purchase to my library. This is a book that definitely merits a second reading!!


CW for physical violence, domestic abuse, attempted rape, sexual assault, & incest.

This was a roller coaster of a book. The construction of the narrative was particularly brilliant. This review is not affected by receiving a eARC via NetGalley.

A quick read, but the word choice and repetition of certain words/phrases and onomatopoeia made it awkward. Worth a read if you want easy to follow fight scenes with a female character who can hold her own again men. The queer elements weren't as prevalent to characters as I had hoped it would be, which was disappointing.

This feminist and wild read must be in every woman's TBR pile! Set in 1970's Tokyo,Yuriko is kipnapped and brought to a Yakuza lair. The power and fight of this woman is amazing and unbelievable!

A very light (because of it being short and having a light novel writing style) story, "The Night of Baba Yaga" is a good, but not great read, where Otani seems more interested in entertaining the reader with a couple of fights and 'shock' moments than in really developing a story.

It's all pretty easy to follow: Shindo gets into a fight and some yakuza decide to kidnap her. The yakuza boss, Naiki, then decides that that woman is the perfect candidate to protect his daughter. What follows, as said above, is pretty light in the plot department, and also not very deep in the character part. Some things happen, Shoko, Naiki's daughter opens up little by little thanks to Shindo (and the other way around), some fights happen, all pretty straightforward. There are also a couple of things that may be very uncomfortable for some readers (the trigger warning kind of).

The writing style is one of those with whoosh, flash, bang onomatopoeias thrown into the mix (again, Japanese light novel style), fast, breezy, never stopping. It is a pretty easy to read style, but it also lacks of depth, as it is pretty basic. The fights are ok, and that is actually a compliment, because I have always found fights rather difficult to depict in words.

All in all, an easy read, but one that lacks depth (there is so much that could be developed in the story but Otani leaves by the sides (maybe there is going to be a sequel?)).