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?)).

3.5 stars. A very quick and entertaining, queer action thriller. Lot's of fighting. This is quite a short book which makes it a fast read but I would have liked it to expand a bit more on its queer themes and backstory of Shindo's character since the queer aspect is what sets this apart from other Yakuza themed thrillers.

I just finished watching Blue Eye Samurai around the time I saw this book, and it had similar themes, of a mixed-race girl in Japan doing violence, so I was really hoping for them to have similar themes and feels. They don't really, but I still enjoyed the read, though I felt like it felt a bit lackluster on all levels, probably due to the short length. My favourite part was the ending, when they get into gender expression and presentation ever so briefly, and the winding down of the story. For being advertised as a thriller, I was disappointed at the lack of thrills it gave me, and I wish some of the more fucked up stuff was explored more instead of being glanced over and never addressed again. It would have also been nice to see more of Shindo's backstory, because it really intrigued me and I wanted to know more.

2.5/5 stars

Thank you so much for giving me access to this arc! I really enjoyed this and it made me realize how I really need to add more translated fiction to my list. I’m excited to see the response from other readers when it comes out because it was action-packed and so engrossing.