It was like a nightmare. It’s painful for me, because nobody wants to die too fast. Remember the day of grief. Now it’s strange for me. I could see your face, I could hear your voice. Remember the day we met. Let’s stand guard with Garrison Girl, by Rachel Aaron.
Synopsis:
A novel of adventure, romance, and monsters…set in the dystopian world of Attack on Titan, the mega-hit manga and anime series.
An original novel, with all-new characters and a new story set in the world of Attack on Titan! Fans of the series and readers alike will enjoy this immersive and engaging experience of the pop culture phenomenon and manga mega-hit.
With the last vestige of the human race threatened by unstoppable carnivorous giants, a brave young woman decides to defy her wealthy family and join the military to fight against humanity’s enemies. But Rosalie Dumarque soon finds out that bloody sword fights with monsters aren’t the only dangers faced by the Wall Rose Garrison. Can she earn the trust of her fellow soldiers, stand up to a corrupt authority, navigate a forbidden romance…and cut her way out of a titan’s throat?
Source: Goodreads
SPOILERS BELOW
Attack on Titan is a very good manga series. Very popular, too. So popular, in fact, that it has managed to score an OEL young adult novel. (That’s Original English Language, for those of you not hip to the lingo). Well, I couldn’t very well resist checking that out, could I?
The novel I focused on the young noblewoman Rosalie Dumarque, who has an arranged marriage coming up and decides to spend her remaining independent months as a soldier in the Trost garrison. Since the beginning of the book establishes that these events are taking place about five years after the fall of Wall Maria, you can probably guess that this means she will be present for a certain significant event and happen to bump into a few cameoing canon characters. In the meantime, though, she has to struggle with her romantic feelings for her squad commander, a brooding man with a dark reputation and troubled past…
Okay, hold a moment. You might think from that description that this is really just a typical romance story dressed up in Attack on Titan clothing; but many of the details it’s concerned with actually tie in quite well with the manga’s rich and detailed setting. The arranged marriage thing, for instance – you probably think they tossed that in just because it’s a dime-a-dozen romantic cliche; but if you took a moment to consider, you’d realize the implications of Rosalie being from a noble family. As revealed in the Uprising arc, the highest-ranking nobles are all from different ethnic groups than the majority Eldian population of the Walls; so of course they would have arranged marriages as the norm, to avoid contaminating their lineage with the tainted blood of those who are the “descendants of devils”. Can’t risk their descendants being subject to the Coordinate, after all. See? It all ties together!
Now, are there slight continuity hiccups here and there? Of course, as can only be expected from a tie-in work produced while the source material is still ongoing and each new chapter of the manga could contain a revelation that upends everything we thought we knew. But it’s nothing too bad, really. Rosalie thinks that the gas that fills 3DMG tanks is compressed air rather than gas from iceburst stones; but that could be put down to her just not knowing about iceburst stones and making an incorrect assumption. A bit harder to finagle is the point where Rosalie reads The Count of Monte Cristo, which should not exist in Attack on Titan’s world. Maybe… it was originally “The Count of Marley Cristo”, and when it was brought within the Walls the censors changed “Marley” to the fictional “Monte”…. or, um, something like that…?
Okay, okay, I admit it! It really is just a typical romance story with Attack on Titan trappings: you’ve got the privileged girl rebelling against her strict and snobby family, who meets a dangerous bad boy who acts like a total asshole towards her including endangering her life, she finds his dickishness and occasional attempted murder to be super hot, and ultimately breaks off her arranged marriage in favor of him. Blech. Fortunately, the previously-mentioned Attack on Titan trappings that find their way into the story include the tone, so when the climax comes around we get to see a lot of characters die horribly to wash away the lingering bad taste left in our mouths by the romance portion. Where the book really shines, though, is when it focuses on exploring an important element of the Attack on Titan universe that was mostly relegated to set-dressing in the main series: cannon usage. Cannons in the manga seem to exist mostly to be shown plinking away ineffectively in the background while our heroes do the real work; but Rosalie, having trained as a cannoneer, shows how they can be employed to real effect even against such formidable enemies as the Titans. Bravo to the book in that regard.
So, yeah: while this book had its weaknesses, I enjoyed its original take on the Attack on Titan setting, and I wouldn’t be averse to more of these in the future
Final Rating: 3/5
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