Book Review – Attack on Titan: Lost Girls

Attack on Titan: Lost Girls is an English Language translation of the Japanese Light Novel of the same title. Those of you who have been around for a while know that I really enjoyed AoT as an anime series, and since watching I’ve been keeping up with the Manga pretty consistently. The story is just so well crafted and suspense laden!

But anyway, Jim picked this up for me as part of my Christmas present, and I sped through it pretty quickly over the course of Christmas eve and Christmas day. Being a light novel, it’s a rather quick read – I think it took me maybe two and a half or three hours in total – and overall I enjoyed it.

Now, this is definitely not something you can use as an introduction to the Attack on Titan series. The book itself consists of two short stories, both of which are kind of character studies and both of which require familiarity with not just with the world, but with the entirety of the anime series (as released so far, which takes you to the end of Volume 8/ Chapter 34 in the manga). Without that familiarity you won’t know what in the world is going on, PLUS you’ll spoil some main plot points for yourself without even realizing it. But if you’re up to that point in the series, I’d recommend it as a quick little read.

The first story deals with Mikasa, and honestly was the less enjoyable of the two. It’s a little less plot driven, and sort of presents a vision of an alternate history in order to give some extra insight into her character. It’s effective, but sometimes the narrative beats a bit around the bush. That kind of flowery approach has never really quite been my bag. The second story, which revolves around Annie, was much more engaging to me. It read kind of like a noir mystery, while still providing the same level of character insight – if not more.

The book rounds out with an epilogue of sorts that ties both of the stories, and both of the girls together, which honestly was a nice little touch.

In summary: Very quick, fun little read, but only for a very specific audience – AoT fans.

Overall Rating: 3.5/5 stars

Would recommend to: anyone who enjoyed Attack on Titan and has finished either the first season of the anime, or the manga through chapter 34.