Special Edition: Soara and the House of Monsters Vol. 2
Author: Hidenori Yamaji
Illustrator: Hidenori Yamaji
Publishers: Seven Seas Entertainment
Age Group: Older Teen
Genre: Fantasy
Content Warnings: assault, slavery, verbal abuse
Spoilers ahead
Plot
For every type of creature living in the monster world, there’s a house to suit their needs, and a peaceful life they can live within it.
Kirik and his band of dwarves continue their quest to build houses through the monster world, and the orphaned human girl Soara travels with them. First up is a love den for a thunder wolf and a mermaid—a pair of lovebirds who can’t even touch each other—then it’s off to the castle of the powerful and fearsome Demon Lord.
Character Development
Soara is in the stages of beginning to question everything she’s learned from her training as she helps build a house for a mermaid and thunder wolf. How can monsters have emotions when she’s been taught otherwise? Not only that but meeting the Demon Lord keeps her on her toes, though not in the way she expects. Towards the end of this second installment we see her realize she has a purpose and is wanted with the dwarves.
Kirik is still as sweet as ever. When the Demon Lord says it’d be better for Soara to go home, Kirik steps in (granted in the most hilarious way possible) and says she’s one of them and they look forward to working with her more.
World-building
We get a lot more world-building in this installment. Working on the houses has slowed down a lot so we get to enjoy the process and their adventures gathering materials. As before, the designs are well thought out and cool to see. I’m looking forward to more designs for various monsters in future volumes.
Themes
You choose your purpose. While this is just beginning as the theme in this installment, I think it’s important to address it now. Soara has been working with these dwarves for a while and enjoys it but she hasn’t considered them as friends yet. Knowing they want her around though, helps her to choose to stay with them. She can protect them…after all, she was trained to slay monsters.
Observations & Predictions
I look forward to future wacky house ideas that are well thought out and engaging to think about. I hope we see more of Soara’s development as she struggles between her training and what she’s actually encountered. My hope is that we get a bit deeper into this as it still seems like we are just scratching the surface. While the characters are engaging and this is a fun work, we need to connect with the characters a bit more. I hope we see this in the future.
This installment also brought in a little bit more trigger topics than the previous volume. I’d say this turns it from pre-teen to early teen for its audience.
Recommendations
Other feel good series to try:
In the Name of the Mermaid Princess
By: Yoshino Fumikawa
Coral’s Reef
By: David Lumsdon
One Piece
By: Eiichiro Oda
