LIGHT NOVEL INFORMATION
TITLE: Nekomonogatari
AKA: Monogagatari
AUTHOR: Nisioisin
ILLUSTRATOR: Vofan
PUBLISHER (English): Vertical
RELEASE DATE (English): February 27, 2018

Purchase Nekomonogatari White – Amazon / Book Depository

PUBLISHER (Japan): Kodansha
RELEASE DATE (Japan): October 27, 2010
VOLUMES RELEASED (Japan to Date): 23 (most recent released July 20, 2017)
ANIME SERIES: 94 episodes + 3 movies (14 volumes adapted to date)

From the back cover:

Launching into new territory that the author hadn’t mapped out when he embarked on the series, NEKOMONOGATARI (White) tells the tale of heroine Tsubasa Hanekawa from her own perspective, in her own voice—if that can hold true for a damaged soul who, depending on who you’re asking, suffers from a split personality or a supernatural aberration.

The bone-chilling brokenness of her household, where father and mother and daughter keep three separate sets of cookware in the same kitchen and only ever prepare their own meals, and the profound darkness nurtured in the genius schoolgirl’s heart, come to life, if that is the word, through her self-vivisection.

As for our customary unreliable narrator, Araragi, we seem to learn revealing tidbits about him now that we have an outside view of him at last, while his lady friends Senjogahara, Hachikuji, et al, freed from his predilection for proudly inane banter, show subtly new faces to us via their female interlocutor. Welcome to the Second Season.

Review of the light novel Nekomonogatari (Black) by Nisioisin
The events of Golden Week are finally revealed!

LIGHT NOVEL INFORMATION
TITLE: Nekomonogatari Black
AKA: Monogagatari, 偽物語 上
AUTHOR: Nisionisin
ILLUSTRATOR: VOFAN
PUBLISHER (English): Vertical
RELEASE DATE (English): December 8, 2017
PURCHASE (Amazon.com): http://amzn.to/2hVtJsX
PURCHASE (Book Depository): http://bit.ly/2DuBjnL

PUBLISHER (Japan): Kodansha
RELEASE DATE (Japan): July 29, 2010
VOLUMES RELEASED (Japan to Date): 23 (most recent released July 20, 2017)
ANIME SERIES: 94 episodes + 3 movies (14 volumes adapted to date)

From the back cover:

Following up on the high note of family ties on which the previous installment concluded, but preceding it chronologically, we find Araragi and his little sister Tsukihi, the heroine of the last volume, in full sibling rivalry mode as they bicker about love. The conversation that cannot end unfolds in its unabashed original glory herein.

Like KIZUMONOGATARI, which delved into our narrator’s disastrous spring break, Cat Tale (Black) is a prequel about another catastrophe, mentioned often yet never recounted even in a foregoing chapter dedicated to Miss H.: namely, the model student’s rampage over Golden Week, a string of holidays starting at the end of April.

Closing out what has come to be known as the “First Season” of the series, this episode of ’GATARI, as rich as ever in silly banter and poignant profundities, richer than usual in snide meta comments about the anime, will make you laugh and cry, or just put a grownup smile on your face, maybe, but is guaranteed to stay with you forever.