The team at Bury St Edmunds Library share some of their favourite graphic novels and manga stories for adults. Browse our staff picks and pick up a copy from your local library!

Want more suggested books? Take a look at our recommendations or explore more of the National Year of Reading campaign.

The Umbrella Academy

The Umbrella Academy

Gerard Way and Gabriel Bá

In an inexplicable, worldwide event, 47 extraordinary children were spontaneously born by women who’d previously shown no signs of pregnancy. Millionaire inventor Reginald Hargreeves adopted seven of the children. These children form The Umbrella Academy, a dysfunctional family of superheroes with bizarre powers.

Once, the Umbrella Academy was unstoppable. Under the tutelage of their guardian and mentor, its members spent their childhoods fighting evil and honing their extraordinary gifts. Until something went terribly wrong.

Now, nine years later, the estranged members of the Umbrella Academy are reunited by the death of the only parent they’ve ever known and the rise of a new and terrible threat. Will they be able to overcome their history for long enough to save the world one more time?

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Moriarty the Patriot

Moriarty the Patriot

Ryosuke Takeuchi

Before he was Sherlock’s rival, Moriarty fought against the unfair class caste system in London by making sure corrupt nobility got their comeuppance. But even the most well-intentioned plans can spin out of control—will Moriarty’s dream of a more just and equal world turn him into a hero…or a monster?

In the late 19th century, Great Britain rules over a quarter of the world. Nobles sit in their fancy homes in comfort and luxury, while the working class slaves away at their jobs. When young Albert James Moriarty’s upper-class family adopts two lower-class orphans, the cruelty the boys experience at his family’s hands cements Albert’s hatred of the nobility he was born into.

He asks the older of the two boys—who has a genius mind and a killer instinct—to help him rid the world of evil, starting with Albert’s own family!

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Snow and Ink

Snow & Ink

Miyuki Unohana

Sentenced to death for the crime of sadistically killing his entire village, Neneo is all but ready to accept his unfortunate fate when he is mysteriously bought and saved by the wealthy heiress Freya.

Emotionless and numb to the world, Freya is also an outcast, hiding deep wounds of her own. Unfazed by the tales of Neneo’s crimes, she enlists him to accompany her in her exile to the far north.

As this unlikely pair, both shunned by a cold world, venture together into the deep snow, they begin to find warmth in each other. But the past won’t let itself be so easily forgotten.

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The Apothecary Diaries

Apothecary Diaries

Natsu Hyūga

Maomao, a young woman trained in the art of herbal medicine, is forced to work as a lowly servant in the inner palace. Though she yearns for life outside its perfumed halls, she isn’t long for a life of drudgery!

Using her wits to break a ‘curse’ afflicting the imperial heirs, Maomao attracts the attentions of the handsome eunuch Jinshi and is promoted to attendant food taster. But Jinshi has other plans for the erstwhile apothecary, and soon Maomao is back to brewing potions and… solving mysteries?!

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Saga

Saga

Brian K.Vaughan and Fiona Staples

When two soldiers from opposite sides of a never-ending galactic war fall in love, they risk everything to bring a fragile new life into a dangerous old universe.

From New York Times bestselling writer Brian K. Vaughan and critically acclaimed artist Fiona Staples, Saga is the sweeping tale of one young family fighting to find their place in the worlds. Fantasy and science fiction are wed like never before in this sexy, subversive drama for adults.

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Alice in Borderland

Alice in Borderland

Haro Aso

Eighteen-year-old Ryohei Arisu is sick of his life. School sucks, his love life is a joke, and his future feels like impending doom. As he struggles to exist in a world that can’t be bothered with him, Ryohei feels like everything would be better if he were anywhere else.

When a strange fireworks show transports him and his friends to a parallel world, Ryohei thinks all his wishes have come true. But this new world isn’t an empty paradise, it’s a vicious game. And the only way to survive is to play. The first game starts with a bang, but Ryohei manages to beat the clock and save his friends. It’s a short-lived victory, however, as they discover that winning only earns them a few days’ grace period.

If they want to get home, they’re going to have to start playing a lot harder.

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Lore Olympus

Lore Olympus

Rachel Smythe

Persephone, young goddess of spring, is new to Olympus. Her mother, Demeter, has raised her in the mortal realm, but after Persephone promises to train as a sacred virgin, she’s allowed to live in the fast-moving, glamorous world of the gods.

When her roommate, Artemis, takes her to a party, her entire life changes: she ends up meeting Hades and feels an immediate spark with the charming yet misunderstood ruler of the Underworld.

Now, she must navigate the confusing politics and relationships that rule Olympus, while also figuring out her own place – and her own power.

Borrow Lore Olympus →

Fullmetal Alchemist

Fullmetal Alchemist

Hiromu Arakawa

Alchemy: the mystical power to alter the natural world; something between magic, art and science.

When two brothers, Edward and Alphonse Elric, dabbled in this power to grant their dearest wish, one of them lost an arm and a leg… and the other became nothing but a soul locked into a body of living steel.

Now Edward is an agent of the government, a slave of the military-alchemical complex, using his unique powers to obey orders… even to kill. Except his powers aren’t unique. The world has been ravaged by the abuse of alchemy. And in pursuit of the ultimate alchemical treasure, the Philosopher’s Stone, their enemies are even more ruthless than they are…

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Spy x Family

Spy x Family

Tatsuya Endo

Master spy Twilight is the best at what he does when it comes to going undercover on dangerous missions in the name of a better world.

But when he receives the ultimate impossible assignment – get married and have a kid – he may finally be in over his head! Not one to depend on others, Twilight has his work cut out for him procuring both a wife and a child for his mission to infiltrate an elite private school.

What he doesn’t know is that the wife he’s chosen is an assassin and the child he’s adopted is a telepath!

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Something is Killing the Children

Something is Killing the Children

James Tynion IV and Werther Dell’Edera

When the children of Archer’s Peak – a sleepy town in the heart of America – begin to go missing, everything seems hopeless.

Most children never return, but the ones that do have terrible stories – impossible details of terrifying creatures that live in the shadows. Their only hope of finding and eliminating the threat is the arrival of a mysterious stranger, one who believes the children and claims to be the only one who sees what they can see.

Her name is Erica Slaughter. She kills monsters. That is all she does, and she bears the cost because it must be done.

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