Garrison Girl - Attack on Titan
Garrison Girl: An Attack on Titan Novel is an young adult fiction (YA) novel based on the Attack on Titan manga series written and illustrated by Hajime Isayama. The novel itself was originally written in English by the American author Rachel Aaron and was first published by Quirk Books on August 7, 2018. The novel was later translated into Japanese by Kodansha as Attack on Titan: Roses on the Wall on April 4, 2019. This new story is set in the dystopian universe of Attack on Titan and includes many adventures, romances, and battles. It features completely characters and would likely be considered to be a parallel story that occurs at the same time as the original Attack on Titan story.
Summary
The original Attack on Titan story introduces a dystopian world where humanity has to live behind tall, impenetrable walls to protect themselves from the Titans, which roam the land outside of the walls. These giant, vaguely humanoid creatures continuously attempt to devour any human in their sight and have regenerative powers. For the past 100 years, humanity has lived relatively peacefully behind these walls, but one day everything changed.
In this novel, the story focuses on Rosalie Dumarque, a young noblewoman living in the rich city behind the fortified Wall Sina. She belongs to a wealthy aristocratic family. Her father has a wide range of political influence and she often engages with one of humanity’s most respected aristocratic families. However, Rosalie does not feel happy with this kind of life and desires to contribute to the protection and safety of humanity directly. She wants to make a change that would make her family feel proud of her. As such, she really desires to join the military and fight against the monstrous Titans that threaten the future of humankind. Rosalie uses her family’s connections to get a position with the Garrison Regiment that guards Wall Rose. In the years following the Titan invasion of the Shiganshina District, the Garrison has been provided with the worst supplies and the least recognition among all three divisions in the military.
From her very first day in the Garrison Regiment, Rosalie has to deal with incredibly harsh battles against the Titans. During this time, she attempts to get closer to her other squadmates, especially her commanding sergeant Jackson Cunningham (who also goes by “Jax”). Throughout the events of the novel, she also starts to question her own identity as a young woman and her role and responsibilities within her family.
As the daughter of a noble family, Rosalie has to endure the prejudice and discrimination of her fellow recruits. Since she was raised in a comfortable life free of hardships and danger, she is often bullied by those around her, particularly her commanding sergeant Jax. Despite this drastic change in her life, Rosalie attempts to overcome her shortcomings and become stronger to fight against Titans whenever they make their inevitable assault on humanity.
About the Author
The writer of Garrison Girl: An Attack on Titan Novel is Rachel Aaron. She is an author of young adult fantasy and science-fiction novels. One of her novels, Nice Dragons Finish Last reached number one on Audible’s best-seller list. Likewise, One Good Dragon Deserves Another debuted at the top of Amazon’s Fantasy and Urban Fantasy categories. Her educational e-book 2k to 10k: Writing Faster, Writing Better, and Writing More of What You Love also offers practical writing advice for those who want to increase their daily writing output.
Releases and Production
Unlike the series’ other Japanese spin-off novels that were later edited in English, Garrison Girl: An Attack on Titan Novel was originally written in English by an American author. According to Aaron’s words, Kodansha reached out to Quirk Books with the objective of producing an Attack on Titan novel that could attract America’s YA novel market. Hence, as a cross-cultural and cross-media adaptation, Garrison Girl is a unique novelty. As Aaron explains, Isayama himself provided his official stamp of approval and sent the American team notes and feedback to make sure that the book kept to the same timeline as the original manga to prevent contradictions between the two.
In fact, Aaron herself describes her Garrison Girl: An Attack on Titan Novel book as being an “official Attack on Titan fanfiction”. As such, Garrison Girl is a distinctly Western take on a product that is originally Japanese -- a young adult fiction novel starring almost an entirely original cast that can only interact with the original main characters and story of Attack on Titan in a very limited way. This approach is done by introducing characters with different personalities and backgrounds that bring in some connections that are related to the main Attack on Titan story and allows the reader to learn a previously unknown history of the different regions that still take place in the original Attack on Titan universe.
Links
Quirk Books Official
Official Kodansha of the Collector’s Edition