ALA Booklist (Thu Mar 01 00:00:00 CST 2007)

Crilley, probably best known for his Akiko novels and comic books, weighs in with the Miki Falls series, about lively, curious high-school-senior Miki, ready for adventure and romance. Attractive new student Hiro Sakurai piques Miki's curiosity, but he is not interested in making friends. Stubborn Miki, however, refuses to take no for an answer, which leads to a surprising revelation about the secretive young man. Except for an odd twist at the end (which, presumably, will be developed in future volumes), there are no surprises here. Crilley's manga-inspired illustrations, on the other hand, are terrific. Ranging from crisscrossing sequential panels to spot art, varied in size and artfully connected to further the plot, the pictures cleverly instill the story with abundant emotion, humor, and drama. An overlay of light shading and almost delicately rendered facial features and details give the book a softer feel than much manga. Despite the age of the characters, this will attract more middle-schoolers than older comics fans.

Kirkus Reviews

A young girl's journey into love evolves with the seasons in the stellar first volume of a quartet. Miki is an extremely likable 17-year-old girl, who, like most teenaged girls, wishes she were more assertive. Unlike her fanciful friends, Miki believes that there are more important things in the world than boys . . . until she meets Hiro. Handsome, brooding and mysterious, Hiro is a man of many secrets, and may be the only one who can never truly be with Miki. When she refuses to relinquish her conquest of him, Miki stumbles upon why Hiro is so enigmatic—and her feelings for him become all-consuming. Complex characters combine with masterful, expressive art culminating in an arresting new series for teen readers. The soft, gentle romance between Miki and Hiro is brilliantly juxtaposed with the darker elements of the story creating a salient tension between the two, and crescendos in the next volume entitled Summer (ISBN: 978-0-06-084617-6). A stark departure from Crilley's previous Akiko series, Miki Falls is a ruminative look at a love and a richly developed labyrinth of fantasy and secrets. (Graphic novel. 12-16)

School Library Journal (Sun Jul 01 00:00:00 CDT 2007)

CRILLEY, Mark . Miki Falls: Summer . 166p. ISBN 978-0-06-084617-X . ea vol: illus. by author. HarperTeen . 2007. pap. $7.99. LC number unavailable. Gr 7 Up Miki is falling, both out of a window, and possibly into love, in Spring . As the story opens, the Japanese high school senior throws herself from a third-story window. The reason is not given; readers know only that it has something to do with Hiro, a handsome and mysterious new student. After serious efforts to win his friendship, Miki discovers his secret: he is a Deliverer, a superhuman being devoted to preserving love. Crilley has made the manga style of art his own, focusing particularly on the expressive eyes of his characters. His use of panels draws the story forward by showing both movement and reactions intermingled. In Summer , Miki begins to delve further into Hiro's secret world of the Deliverers. In order to keep love alive, they rescue it from couples who are falling out of love before the spark is entirely gone. But watching love is dangerous territory, and though Deliverers and humans are not allowed to fall in love with one another, Miki and Hiro are growing dangerously close. Add a jealous Deliverer after Hiro herself to the mix, and their romance only becomes more complicated. Crilley's work with panels again enhances the storytelling (in a scene with a breakup, for example, one character's expressions are shown in shards cascading down one side of the page). Readers will be eager to find out how Miki's romance progressesand how she meets the fate foreshadowed in the first volume. Alana Abbott, James Blackstone Memorial Library, Branford, CT

Voice of Youth Advocates

Miki Falls: Spring begins with a jolt as a young girl throws herself through a third-story window to escape a mysterious group of people. With the reader's attention firmly captured in this graphic novel, the narrative shifts to recounting the events that led to Miki's fall. Miki, a typical senior, begins a new school year and promptly falls for Hiro, the mysterious, unavailable new boy at school, who spends much of his time following people and taking notes. He rudely rebuffs Miki's attempts at friendship, but Miki persists. Despite the odds, they develop a tentative friendship, albeit one hampered by Hiro's strange behavior and refusal to discuss it. Through persistent surveillance, Miki discovers Hiro's secret, which simultaneously draws them closer and threatens to tear them apart. Volume one ends, leaving the reader eagerly anticipating volume two. Summer picks up right where Spring leaves off. Miki has discovered Hiro's role as a Deliverer, a secret group that safeguards the finite amount of love in the world. His job is to capture dying love from couples about to break up and to deliver it to a new couple, who will, he hopes, nurture and protect it. The narrative tension that drives this series is the relationship between Miki and Hiro. Miki is closer to Hiro than any human is supposed to get to a Deliverer, which causes a few problems. When Miki's closest friend becomes the focus of Hiro's professional attention, Miki interferes, with unpleasant consequences. Universal themes of love, friendship, loyalty, and sacrifice neatly combine with the tempestuous swirl of teenage relationship drama. What initially appears to be a typical tale of a girl blindly pursuing an unavailable boy develops into an intriguing, complex story. Crilley uses mystery to drive the narrative and creates characters that the reader will care about. The black-and-white, manga-style art is beautiful; Crilley is equally talented at creating expressive characters as he is at drawing lush la