I haven't read manga in a while, so I forgot how quickly I read graphic novels! It's great to see intelligent, compassionate, and diverse women solving mysteries and prioritizing sisterhood (rather than being obsessed with boys/romance). Their paper master powers are interesting and often fun. It's also comforting to see other female bibliophiles. ( )

This is the first volume in the series featuring the Paper Sisters Detective Company - two women and a young girl who use their incredible paper-manipulation skills (more in the realm of telekinetically created bullet-proof paper walls and other creations than good origami) to help people with their problems. With the exception of the young girl, Anita, who hates reading, the Paper Sisters are book addicts. These are the kind of women who will spend their food budget on books, despite having a potential avalanche of books in their home.

Each chapter features a separate story, and few of the stories are in any way connected to each other (characters from one story do reappear in another, but rarely). In the first story, the Sisters help a woman find a stolen book. In the second story, the Sisters help a young boy fulfill his elderly friend's dying wish to return a book to a mysterious library. The third story doesn't have much of a plot - it's just a funny snippet about the Sisters trying to deal with the results of one of them spending their entire food budget on books. The fourth story is about an alien who's threatening to destroy the world unless the Sisters can show her a book that can convince her that humankind is worth keeping alive. In the fifth story (which is told in chapters 5 and 6), one of the Sisters, Maggie, befriends a sick young girl by reading to her. The sixth and final story, like the third story, doesn't have much of a plot - Anita has become fed up by the books cluttering up their home and tries to get the book-loving Sisters to clean things up and get rid of any books they don't need. Unfortunately, Anita, not being a book-lover, doesn't understand that, for a book-lover, all books are potentially useful or have some emotional value.

If you're going to spend your money on manga, I'd probably recommend getting something else instead of this - the art is kind of boring, the artist's use of tones could've been better, and the stories aren't anything special (I kept feeling like I'd read most of them before, in other books and manga). However, it's not the worst manga I've ever read, and I felt that it was actually better than the series that came before it, R.O.D. Read or Die by Hideyuki Kurata (story) and Shutaro Yamada (art). Whereas that series was more action oriented, this series is more humorous and occasionally touching. Read or Die's main character, Yomiko, had a love of books that was almost sexual in the way Yamada drew it, whereas the Paper Sisters have a very intense, but more normal-feeling love for books.

(Original review, with read-alikes, posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.) ( )

I liked this better than the Read or Die manga, but it's very different in style. In Read or Dream we're looking at three sisters with paper powers who run a detective agency. Each chapter is a stand-alone story although there are links between them. This is much more of a humorous manga rather than an adventure manga as Read or Die was. Rated T for teens although there's not much provocative here compared to some other T rated mangas. I look forward to reading the rest of the series. ( )

I came to this series when a friend gave me a copy of R.O.D. the TV series. I loved it and later checked out the OVA, Read or Die. (R.O.D. the TV series is an amalgam of Read or Die and Read or Dream, two different series following different characters in the same universe.) Although I've watched a smattering of anime, this book is my first exposure to manga, which definitely takes some getting used to structurally.

As an introduction to the R.O.D. universe, this book is fairly poor. There is almost no utilization of the Paper Sisters' abilities and no grand adventure. Still, I really enjoyed this book. It's a bit schizophrenic, since most of the chapters have autonomous plots and range from silly to sappy to strange to hilarious, but it's charming and fun. Chapters 3 and 7, my favorite chapters, had me cracking up. The domestic storylines are definitely this series' strength. There's a lot of book love throughout, which makes it a good choice for lifelong readers, especially those who can laugh at themselves. I would, however, recommend R.O.D. the TV series as a better introduction to these characters and this universe. If you can't find the TV series, though, I'd still recommend giving this book a chance. ( )

When I purchase a new Manga series I usually buy the first two to see what they are like before purchasing the rest In this case, I'm glad that I purchased book two because book one did not get the story off to a great start. Each story in the beginning is separate from the other in theme and purpose and there doesn't seem to be any plot strings connecting them The character development is a weak as well. However, you can't help but be intrigued by these three sisters who can control paper. Being a book lover and a librarian I especially like the connection to books in this series which made me want to read the second one.

Though this book makes it hard to get into the series I definitely recommend the series as a whole. The story really begins in book two but book one is a good warm up to the characters. ( )