Gwyn J.

Volume 4 of Snow and Ink is one of those I enjoy the least. But it’s not for the story, characters or plot. The problem I have is that I hate when a volume ends with major drama, with nothing resolved. That is what irritates me.

But this is also a good way of writing because it makes you ask the questions: “What will happen next? How will they get out of the situation?” That’s also what makes it a good story- it makes you want to find out as soon as possible. But out of everything, what annoys me is the next volume won’t come out until late December. After Volume 5’s release, we probably won’t see another release for a good few months. But that happens with a lot of manga series obviously.

In this volume, Neneo gets a full glimpse of how Freya is treated by family and acquaintances. He realizes too, that Freya is able to take all the abuse thrown at her and she is much stronger than Neneo realized.

Neneo had come up with an idea on how he could go with Freya to her old home, and protect her as well from any people that may attack her somehow. So he suggests going as a slave, since Freya did, after all, buy him before he could be executed. Freya doesn’t like the idea, and suggests maybe she should go on her own. Neneo refuses that right away.

Halvard takes it into his own hands to prepare Neneo for his trip, which is going to be full of wealthy people. They decide to have it so Neneo is unable to speak, as Halvard points out, because he is quick to pick a fight. Without having a voice, the chance of him picking a fight lowers slightly.

Once they arrive at Freya’s old home, we see more of Curie and Freya’s sister Anna. There is also an introduction to Dred Nought, Anna’s fiancé. He comes across as having a bright, likeable personality. But that is not the case later on in the story. Freya’s storyline is definitely not as interesting as Neneo’s, so it feels a bit long and drawn out. But Neneo and we as readers get to see how bad it was for Freya to run her father’s company. People took advantage of her, and Neneo even thinks that she may have been set up to fail.

Halvard is concerned for Freya’s safety so he sends Foch in to investigate on Dred Nought and his motives with Anna and the company. Besides Curie, Nought is one of the most unlikeable characters in the story. And his intentions are more discussed in Volume 5.

A whole lot of things happen in Volume 4 and some that make Freya question Neneo’s loyalty to her, despite the fact Neneo had reassured her multiple times that he would not do anything to lose her trust, or to hurt her. But a woman named Olga Larson has a motive to get closer to Freya, and this actually causes a friction between Neneo and Freya after all. She makes a move on Neneo, and he cannot say anything at all since he still has to keep up the charade of not talking. Freya catches this moment, and gets extremely angry. She slaps Neneo and begins to leave- which this causes a big friction between them because despite wanting to explain what happened, Neneo cannot do it. Volume 4 pretty much ends with Freya angry with Neneo and running into Halvard, and Neneo, along with Foch, getting into serious trouble with Dred Nought.

Volume 4 is a decent read, it just is very different compared to Neneo’s storyline. As mentioned, it’s more drawn out, and the characters at the household are very unlikeable. But we do get to see and understand why Freya is the way she is and how she was when she first came across Neneo. Both characters are flawed, suffering from depressing moments in their lives and all they are trying to do is rebuild their lives, and that is with one another. I definitely recommend keeping up with the series. I have gotten Volume 5 and am reading it, so a review for that will be coming shortly.