Reviewed by Jess
TITLE: Saving Akira
AUTHOR: M.M. Shapiro
PUBLISHER: JMS Books
LENGTH: 144 pages
RELEASE DATE: February 24, 2018
BLURB:
Akira Watanabe’s greatest issue isn’t being a lesbian, but rather having a father with the maturity of a teenager. He’s a heavy drinker and hardly works, so she supports them both with a job at a local convenience mart. It’s there she befriends police sergeant Rosey Garatino, who frequents the store and lives in the same complex as the Watanabes.
Akira has the hots for a Goth girl named Jade, but unfortunately, Jade likes guys, and she also drinks and smokes. One night when Jade comes into the store, drunk, and tries to steal some beer, Akira stops her. Jade gets sick, and Akira helps her outside. Sparks fly between them, but nothing happens.
Later Akira hears rumors that Jade is a lesbian. The heat that smoldered between them now sparks into a fire, especially when Jade promises to quit drinking and smoking. Akira’s surprised to learn Jade is Rosey’s daughter.
Growing up can be difficult in the best of situations, but the neighborhood where Akira and Jade live is dangerous, too. As their friendship deepens into love, will they be able to protect each other and find their happy ending?
REVIEW:
I’m not really sure what to make of this story. There were some really intriguing character elements, but the writing lacked nuance and the whole book read like a first draft. I never really believed in the characters or bought into their romances or relationships, which stinks, because there was a lot of untapped potential.
Akira and Jade are supposed to be first-year college students for the majority of the story, but Akira often reads as a thirty-year-old woman and Jade as a bratty fifteen-year-old girl. This not only makes their characters inconsistent, it makes their romantic and sexual scenes really strange and uncomfortable. Besides a physical attraction to each other, I never bought that these two would even be interested in one another. Akira seemed to get along more with Rosey, Jade’s mom—and they even had better chemistry! There were some very odd boundaries drawn between Jade, Akira, and Rosey, as if Rosey was their friend rather than a mother or parental figure. Rosey often commented on the girls’ sexy bodies, bought them lingerie, and discussed going to nude beaches with them. A very awkward dynamic all around.
Every time I got invested in a story element, it was overshadowed or swept under the rug. I liked the idea of Akira wanting to feel closer to her Japanese heritage. Her exploring Jujitsu in a proper setting was a nice touch, and I like how her home life with her troubled father strays from the “model minority” stereotype still prevalent in fiction. But every time we got close to learning more about Akira, another bad plot choice got in the way. And there are a lot of incomprehensible plot choices in this story. A lot of accidents and episodes, a lot of melodrama, a lot of silly tropes that end up not bringing much to the table (including the world’s most useless pregnancy scare). It seems like the author wasn’t sure where they were going with the characters from page to page. I also think there’s an author self-insert (the police officer Maurice Shapiro), which is very strange.
But the writing itself is what really got to me. These girls use words and language that no real woman would ever use. They refer to each other in goofy, dated terms (maiden, lass, etc.) and use childish sexual terms like twattie, clittie, and love button during erotic scenes. They often call one another the “hot Japanese girl” or “sexy goth girl,” which is…not how real people speak to one another. It also often reduces them to stereotypes.
With some editing and a tighter plot focus, Akira and Jade could’ve gotten a nice story. But this one missed the mark for me.
RATING: 
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