{"id":33868,"date":"2014-07-18T11:04:19","date_gmt":"2014-07-18T15:04:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/?p=33868"},"modified":"2014-07-18T11:30:36","modified_gmt":"2014-07-18T15:30:36","slug":"the-flowers-of-evil-vol-10-by-shuzo-oshimi-translated-by-paul-starr","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/the-flowers-of-evil-vol-10-by-shuzo-oshimi-translated-by-paul-starr\/","title":{"rendered":"The Flowers of Evil (vol. 10) by Shuzo Oshimi, translated by Paul Starr"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Flowers<\/a>Open this\u00a0penultimate volume, and the belly begins flip-flopping over how it might\u00a0\u2013 must?\u00a0\u2013 end. Creator Shuzo Oshimi has clearly\u00a0shown himself to be\u00a0one scary manipulator, so already I’m trying to prepare for the inevitably\u00a0shattering shock this October when that final\u00a0installment comes\u00a0out. Oh, but the agony of waiting … [Click here if you need to\u00a0catch up.<\/a>]\n

Until then\u00a0…\u00a0back to this, the latest. Check out the saturated hues\u00a0of that cover: after the muted, lulling watercolors of the last three volumes (volume 7 here<\/a>; volumes 8 and 9 here<\/a>), this is an unmistakable warning that things are seriously heating up.<\/p>\n

Takao Kasuga and his parents are homeward bound for the first time since the big escape from Gunma, the small town where Kasuga\u00a0barely survived\u00a0so many shameful, frustrating, violent experiences. The extended Kasuga family is already gathered by the hospital bed of the failing patriarch grandfather. “It’s your fault,” the young cousins tell the prodigal grandson, “… everybody was saying you’ve got a lot of\u00a0nerve coming back here.”<\/p>\n

His many relatives are\u00a0not the only unwelcoming committee, as Kasuga must face friends and acquaintances from his less-than-noble past. Provoking\u00a0as those encounters are, he just might be able to find the answers that allow him to\u00a0shed his stifling, shut-down shell …\u00a0and\u00a0perhaps even move forward with his tenuous relationship with literary classmate\u00a0\u2013 soulmate?\u00a0\u2013 Aya Tokiwa.<\/p>\n

He departs\u00a0Gunma with a\u00a0scribbled\u00a0restaurant\u00a0napkin passed to him\u00a0by a “left behind” past\u00a0connection. He must decide his future with that single clue.<\/p>\n

Two-thirds through, a double-page spread crowded with desperate, vicious, albeit shrunken, images from Kasuga’s memory are a visceral\u00a0reminder of what Kasuga has endured. If you’ve been following the previous volumes all the way through, Oshimi’s choices will surely make the neck hairs rise. If you’ve been skipping ahead, these two pages alone should induce you to go back before Kasuga’s unsettling narrative concludes. Take the time now, so you can recover. The end arrives in just three months. The fear factor escalates …<\/p>\n

Readers<\/strong>: Young Adult, Adult<\/p>\n

Published<\/strong>: 2014 (United States)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Open this\u00a0penultimate volume, and the belly begins flip-flopping over how it might\u00a0\u2013 must?\u00a0\u2013 end. Creator Shuzo Oshimi has clearly\u00a0shown himself to be\u00a0one scary manipulator, so already I’m trying to prepare for the inevitably\u00a0shattering shock this October when that final\u00a0installment comes\u00a0out. Oh, but the agony of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":33869,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,6,73,76,66,31],"tags":[6608,58,75,10,5720,11,135,13,39,248,79,42,249,250],"class_list":["post-33868","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-adult-readers","category-fiction","category-graphic-novel-manga-manwha","category-japanese","category-translation","category-young-adult-readers","tag-bookdragon","tag-coming-of-age","tag-death","tag-family","tag-flowers-of-evil","tag-friendship","tag-grandparents","tag-love","tag-parent-child-relationship","tag-paul-starr","tag-school-challenges","tag-series","tag-series-flowers-of-evil","tag-shuzo-oshimi"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Flowers of Evil (vol. 10) by Shuzo Oshimi, translated by Paul Starr - BookDragon<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/the-flowers-of-evil-vol-10-by-shuzo-oshimi-translated-by-paul-starr\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Flowers of Evil (vol. 10) by Shuzo Oshimi, translated by Paul Starr - BookDragon\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Open this\u00a0penultimate volume, and the belly begins flip-flopping over how it might\u00a0\u2013 must?\u00a0\u2013 end. Creator Shuzo Oshimi has clearly\u00a0shown himself to be\u00a0one scary manipulator, so already I’m trying to prepare for the inevitably\u00a0shattering shock this October when that final\u00a0installment comes\u00a0out. Oh, but the agony of...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/the-flowers-of-evil-vol-10-by-shuzo-oshimi-translated-by-paul-starr\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"BookDragon\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-07-18T15:04:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-07-18T15:30:36+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2014\/07\/Flowers-of-Evil-10.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1792\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@SmithsonianAPA\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Flowers of Evil (vol. 10) by Shuzo Oshimi, translated by Paul Starr - BookDragon","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/the-flowers-of-evil-vol-10-by-shuzo-oshimi-translated-by-paul-starr\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Flowers of Evil (vol. 10) by Shuzo Oshimi, translated by Paul Starr - BookDragon","og_description":"Open this\u00a0penultimate volume, and the belly begins flip-flopping over how it might\u00a0\u2013 must?\u00a0\u2013 end. Creator Shuzo Oshimi has clearly\u00a0shown himself to be\u00a0one scary manipulator, so already I’m trying to prepare for the inevitably\u00a0shattering shock this October when that final\u00a0installment comes\u00a0out. Oh, but the agony of...","og_url":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/the-flowers-of-evil-vol-10-by-shuzo-oshimi-translated-by-paul-starr\/","og_site_name":"BookDragon","article_published_time":"2014-07-18T15:04:19+00:00","article_modified_time":"2014-07-18T15:30:36+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1280,"height":1792,"url":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2014\/07\/Flowers-of-Evil-10.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@SmithsonianAPA","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/the-flowers-of-evil-vol-10-by-shuzo-oshimi-translated-by-paul-starr\/","url":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/the-flowers-of-evil-vol-10-by-shuzo-oshimi-translated-by-paul-starr\/","name":"The Flowers of Evil (vol. 10) by Shuzo Oshimi, translated by Paul Starr - BookDragon","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/#website"},"datePublished":"2014-07-18T15:04:19+00:00","dateModified":"2014-07-18T15:30:36+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/#\/schema\/person\/a00f6dcfcb279c75f3f992ad2919d51d"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/the-flowers-of-evil-vol-10-by-shuzo-oshimi-translated-by-paul-starr\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/the-flowers-of-evil-vol-10-by-shuzo-oshimi-translated-by-paul-starr\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/the-flowers-of-evil-vol-10-by-shuzo-oshimi-translated-by-paul-starr\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Flowers of Evil (vol. 10) by Shuzo Oshimi, translated by Paul Starr"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/#website","url":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/","name":"BookDragon","description":"Books for the Diverse Reader","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/#\/schema\/person\/a00f6dcfcb279c75f3f992ad2919d51d","name":"Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/79b5f08575e8962bd00388cd126d374b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/79b5f08575e8962bd00388cd126d374b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/twitter.com\/@SmithsonianAPA"],"url":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/author\/riemert\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33868"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33868"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33868\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33921,"href":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33868\/revisions\/33921"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33869"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33868"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33868"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33868"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}