Unpleasant+Surprise

= Unpleasant Surprise = = = 

I remember one of the first books I borrowed from the young adult section of the public library. I was probably in the fourth or fifth grade when I picked up __Samurai Girl__ by “Carrie Asai.” On the cover was an Asian girl and Japanese letters in the bottom right corner of the cover. I picked up the second book in the series first, but was quickly captivated by the story and ran back to the library to read the first and all the rest in the series.

__Samurai Girl__ is about a nineteen-year-old girl named Heaven Kogo who was the sole survivor of a plane crash at the age of six months. As a baby, a wealthy Japanese family adopts Heaven. Now at the age of nineteen, Heaven is being forced to marry her father’s business partner’s son in an arranged marriage. During the wedding ceremony, a ninja drops in and attacks. Her estranged brother who is killed in a sword fight with the ninja saves Heaven. After the fateful night, Heaven is on the run for her life. Throughout each book in the series she comes closer to discovering the truth about her family and why someone is trying to kill her.

I was terribly disappointed when the series ended. There was so much that was unresolved and it drove me crazy not knowing what happened to Heaven; whether she received her happy ending. This wonder sent me searching for information about the author. For years I searched to see if the author wrote any other books, especially ones about Heaven. I checked the Barnes and Noble website and constantly typed in her name into Google search. And for years I discovered nothing.

Finally, I came upon some interesting information, which would explain why I couldn’t discover anything new about the author or her books. It turned out the Carrie Asai was a pseudonym. Then one day the urge hit me to search again, to try different keywords in Google search and finally I discovered what I had been long looking for. Only, I don’t know if the end result was worth finally knowing the truth. It turned out “Carrie Asai” was a pseudonym for a group of white people at Alloy who collaborated together to work on the series. After the dismal sales of the six books, disbanded and quit work on the series.

I was crushed. This person who I thought was amazingly imaginative, who knew so much about the Japanese and Samurai culture was fake. I had hopes of reading other works by this author and maybe understanding what gave them the inspiration to write the serious. Instead I found that the ideas were commercial gimmicks to fool young girls into buying the series. This does not make the series less entertaining, but it does make the series less impressive. It makes the mind and imagination behind it less profound. What makes me feel a little better is knowing that there are authors who have great imaginations and genuinely want to share their stories with readers. Authors who have a gift of word and are able to captivate the minds of young girls and those looking for a piece of literary Heaven.

Tiara Kittrell