Ruby is stuck at her boarding school over the holidays and her only companion is notorious older student ‘Steel Steph’, possessed of icy demeanour and a... mechanical leg... Steph seems unapproachable, but this wouldn’t be much of a yuri story if that was the case.
This is such a bizarre story - it has trappings of being a traditional class-s story, yet with references to the Vatican and CNN. The setting is classic all the way, yet the modern world butts up against it in strange ways.
Honestly it kept me off balance - this book is heavily invested in the divorce of Ruby’s parents, which sets several events in motion (I mean, might as well call out traditional marriage while you’re hooking up in an all girls’ school), yet that feels like something which wouldn’t even occur in older works of this type.
But who knows what is up with Steph? She’s got some very secretive history (explosive even) and a very interesting home life (in a shocking twist I think this is actually not deliberate incest). There’s a lot left to unspool with the way she handles herself.
Steph and Ruby definitely make an interesting pair (even the whole school thinks so!) - they have a tumultuous yet ultimately caring bond developing. Ruby is wildly emotional, but it makes sense given what she goes through during the book. Steph is more aloof, but the book is certainly hinting that she regrets her nature more than she’s admitting.
Where it goes from here, with a broad spread of supporting characters and a deliberately old-school feel, is anybody’s guess. Like I say, despite the modern world outside, the most advanced technology in this school/castle is an oven and a lot of the plot revolves around a pledge drive for a Christmas tree (Ruby’s goal here is pretty cute).
The art is mostly good - despite the standard ice queen look for Steph, she is not a complete blank slate and she gets more to do far more quickly than I was expecting. Ruby is just wonderful - I could watch her facial expressions all day, which is appropriate because she has a lot of trouble with running an internal dialogue.
I do think the skirts in this book are absolutely insane and I really found their design super distracting. It’s not so much petticoat junction as petticoat suburban sprawl with a nearby freeway and a cloverleaf. I did enjoy the way the students actually relaxed in the after class portions, at least.
Also, the language pedant in me is calling Steph out for her speech on Latin where she calls it a living language and then (correctly) a dead one in the span of two pages. Latin only functions so you can read the slogans of major educational institutions.
3 stars. I think I liked this, but I am still not sure, and if I read it all over again I don’t know that I’d have any more insight (this happens sometimes). It feels like the most retro thing ever, but it’s a lot more overt than anything from the 70s would be.
Having seen this setting taken to the realm of parody by ‘Yuri is My Job’ and to a look at a LOT of diverse lifestyle choices in ‘Kiss & White Lily For My Dearest Girl’, I have no idea where this particular series fits in. Evocative, strange, worth reading, but don’t ask me why. Hopefully the second volume clears things up.