Title: Black Butler, Vol. 1
Series Title: Kuroshitsuji
Author: Yana Toboso
Translator: Tomo Kimura
Date Added: January 8, 2018
Date Started: July 26, 2018
Date Finished: August 2, 2018
Reading Duration: 7 days
Genre: Manga/Graphic Novel, Young Adult (YA), Fantasy, Paranormal, Horror

Pages: 192
Publisher: Yen Press
Publication Date: February 27, 2007
Media: Paperback (Library)

In the Victorian ages of London The Earl of the Phantomhive house, Ciel Phantomhive, needs to get his revenge on those who had humiliated him and destroyed what he loved. Not being able to do it alone he sells his soul to a demon he names Sebastian Michaelis. Now working as his butler, Sebastian must help the Earl Phantomhive in this suspenseful, exciting, thriller manga.

This is one of those books where the blurb tells you more than the initial chapters.  I didn’t realize Sebastian was a demon Ciel sold his soul to until I neared the end, though I did peak at the chapter titles and the last one is called “The Butler Most Evil.”  I spent the entire book wondering about the Earl of Phantomhive’s eye patch and wondering if that had anything to do with his dark deal.  Sadly, I doubt I’ll even find out unless I watch the anime or look up the wiki.

Everyone except for Sebastian and Ciel were annoying AF with Elizabeth reminding me of Misa from Death Note.  I wonder if that’s just a manga/anime thing, though I’ve watched enough anime in my time to recall I didn’t find the majority to have a character I desperately wanted to yeet into the sun.  While I obviously don’t condone violence against women and girls, I couldn’t blame Ciel for wanted to smack Elizabeth for breaking his family ring.

This is not a series I’m going to continue unless, as fore mentioned, I watch the anime (something I still need to do with Death Note btw).  I like the whole “deal with the devil” trope, but it’s not enough to keep me interested.  The other characters were super annoying and the novel wasn’t really that engaging.  While I’m sure it’s possible later entries are, I’m not in any rush to test that theory.

2 stars.

Oh!  And I think the anime is produced or associated with Square Enix in some way, or Square published some of the manga.  There’s some tie to the big SE, which is another reason I was interested and then even more disappointed I didn’t like it that much.