Customer Reviews

Chain Mail: Addicted to You

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At first if you look at the publisher you will see Tokyopop. You may also know that Tokyopop is one of the main providers of Manga to America. So when i saw that this was a full out novel i was a bit apprehensive, though i am glad i gave it a chance!

Chain Mail is about four teens living very different lives, yet brought together by a single chain mail on thier cells. The theme is a role playing game, where they each take a part and type on a forum about thier character, inter playing with the other girls characters to create thier own novel. However when one girl stops posting the fantasy world they have created is about to get very real.

I felt the story was very original, i had to keep reading, i was THAT sucked into it. Each of the charaters had thier own personality and vibe that made me like each of them. The characters they also chose to portray where quite well done too, like the 'stalker' character, creepy! i myself would have been terrified of some of the stuff that came out of the persons mind.

The writing was fluid, easy to read and was told from the view of the four girls so you got a view of what each was thinking and that made for a really good perspective without giving too much time to one person or another. The ending was also unexpected and the twists were appreciated, since if you pay attention there is a great message about loneliness and acceptance. Even if Tokyopop is a manga distributor and even if novels like this don't make it big, i really hope more come forth because i really, really enjoyed it and i would recommend it to others.

That's the first thing the story asks. Despite the rather odd question, the story begins rather unoriginally. However, once you get past the explanations, Chain Mail: Addicted to You, by Hiroshi Ishizaki, grabs you by the collar and drags you on a fast ride that doesn't let up until the end of the book. One of the interesting aspects is that this book is written from three different points of view. Each character is very unique and well written - the lonely Sawako, the overshadowed Mayumi, and the cynical Mai. Overall, I was very impressed with the broad spectrum of writing styles used in the story to express the thoughts of the different characters, both in the world of Japan and the world of Chain Mail.

I didn't really have any problems with the book, myself. However, I could see that there is one thing that others might have a problem with. That is the translation of the book. I personally commend Richard Kim for maintaining the integrity of the novel. For others, therein lies the problem. Because the story was originally written in Japanese and takes place in Tokyo, there are many Japanese elements that American readers might not necessarily understand. Regardless, the book does explain what most of these terms mean.

Overall, the book reads quickly and is sufficiently interesting. The ending is rather confusing, and the twist at the end almost seems like a throwaway. It's a little hard to get into the book, especially if you don't understand many of the references. Once you get into the book, it's hard to put down. It's an interesting and insightful look into story writing, the Japanese culture, and the dark side of the teenage mind.

Sawako, an overachieving junior high school student, is extremely lonely. Her mother is gone, her father distant, and her friends are non-existant. When she receives an email on her cell phone inviting her to be a part of an interactive story, she jumps at the chance to belong - even though the message came from someone she does not know.

Two other junior high girls receive similar emails on their phones: Mayumi, who lives in the shadow of her intelligent and athletic best friend, and Mai, who would rather go clubbing (for the music, not necessarily the scene) than deal with the high expectations of diplomat family.

They develop a story about a young girl, her tutor, her stalker, and a detective. Each girl writes for a certain character and posts their chapters at the website. The mysterious Yukari, the girl who started it all, writes the role of the stalker. As the story's suspense escalates, life begins to imitate art. Suddenly, Sawako goes missing in both stories, leaving the other girls to wonder what happened to her - and if it will happen to them next.

Chain Mail: Addicted to You by Hiroshi Ishizaki embraces the story-within-a-story format from the very beginning, and keeps raising the stakes until the vey end. Cell phones are ever-present, making this cautionary tale ultra-contemporary. While racing through the book to find out who done it, American readers will subconsciously learn about Japanese culture and schooling.

Chain Mail comes courtesy of Pop Fiction, a new teen fiction imprint from TokyoPop.

Hiroshi Ishizaki's premise for this novel is an interesting one: Have characters who do not know each other writing a novel within a novel. Four lonely teens--Yukari, Sawako, Mai, and Mayumi--enter into the world of role playing through an anonymous chain e-mail, allowing them to create a fictional world in which each girl assumes the role of a character. The girls then write scenes from their respective character's point of view, building a story with the intention of creating their own private, if fictitious, world of mystery and intrigue.

Eventually, however, the words of the created heroine begin to ring true in the girls' real lives: "When you talk about scary things, people start to think that you're the one who's scary" (p. 38). Only, in this case, those coming to consider the girls scary are not outsiders, but the girls themselves.

CHAIN MAIL was originally published in Japan by Kodansha Ltd., Tokyo, in 2003. It was later translated into English by Richard Kim and adapted by Rachel Manija Brown. While the overall concept is good, the translation does lapse into stilted, unnatural language on occasion, and American teens may find it hard to bond with the characters. From the girls' names to the situations in which they find themselves--stressing over "cram school;" removing their shoes and storing them in "shoe lockers" while attending classes; Mayumi "treating herself to a bowl of barbecued eel over rice" (p. 107)--many American girls will be unable, initially, to relate to these characters, and may give up on the story too early.

But footnotes are included for the more confusing aspects--"cram schools," for example, are described as, "Schools in Japan that prepare students for university entrance examinations by way of an accelerated curriculum" (10)--and if the reader is willing to embrace an unfamiliar culture, she, too, may find herself slipping breathlessly into the fictitious world created by Ishizaki and, within its pages, the world of mystery and intrigue created by her central characters.

Reviewed by: Mechele R. Dillard

it came in a bit late
i was looking for this book for a while now on the market
then i just gave up and found it online a year later
Chain Mail: Addicted to You

A group of bored teenage girls, who all have problems they wish to run away from, enter the anonymous world of online RPGs only to find themselves in a more terrifying situation than their previous ones.
Although the ending was a little too...unpredictable for my taste, the story was engaging throughout and kept me squirming at the edge of my seat. The translations were pretty accurate as well and did a good job of maintaining the original author's voice. Overall, a thrilling, original, and startlingly realistic work.

its a great little suspense novel. its about a couple of teens who are lonely and isolated by their surroundings, yet connect online via their cellphones, communicating through a message board where they take turns writing a story. however it doesn't stay that simple, the phrase, life imitating art leaps to mind. i figured out the little twist a little bit before the characters did...but of course through a little misrepresentation the author intends to through you off. which i thought was cheap, but in the not knowing i guess lies the excitement. read this! it's fast paced and easily related to if ur in highschool and you feel different or alone. or i suppose even, if u just like a good book.