Adam
Why was this so erotic? Like, what did the necrophilia add to the story? The art was distinct and interesting, but not enough to bring me back on board. A “dark, twisted” Snow White is how a lot of others have described this. Sure. A vampire story stapled to the framework of the Snow White story is closer to it. I don't know, I was grateful it was as short as it was because this could have been dark or “sexy” but trying to be both felt like it was just trying too hard. A “Twilight” Snow White maybe?
Read for the YA Reading Challenge 2020
Picked this up as Hoopla thought it might be something I'd downloaded something else (I think the GN of Calamity Jane's biography) and it was only ok. It's just a really bland western that leans on some stereotypes and doesn't seem to have a lot driving it. This was only like 58 pages long and it's a European translation piece, so this might be better if there were more here. I don't know, it was pretty uninspired, but I'll say the art was great and was what kept me reading till the end.
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Not great, not terrible. This is like a 3.5 star book, it's just hard to get invested in some of these characters I've never met before. It was fairly fun for a rag-tag team of misfits type book. This is “War of the Realms” adjacent, but not being current on that story line didn't take me out of this one. I didn't realize that there was a frog with the power of Thor, but I'm here for it. This was a nice distraction and a fun space-book.
read for the YA Reading Challenge 2020I've been trying to read more books that are farther away from my personal experience. This won a lot of awards and critical praise, so I had it on my radar and was genuinely curious. It fell pretty flat for me, but mostly because I had a hard time connecting to the age of some of the characters in contrast with the problems/experiences they were having. - I'm sure this is the real life experience some kids are having somewhere, they just seemed young to me and I'm sure that says more about me than these characters. Others have said it and I'll repeat it: the art of this book is really brilliant and probably the main selling point. [a:Rosemary Valero-O'Connell 14204613 Rosemary Valero-O'Connell https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1532469408p2/14204613.jpg] provides a masterclass in simple-pallet beauty. It's a flowing, immersive story thanks to the way the art takes you by the hand and floats you along. I'm sure this is an incredibly appealing story for other readers, but it was either kind of heavy handed or the characters acted sort of unbelievably. Mixed bag for me is all.
read for YA Reading Challenge 2020
Brian Michael Bendis took this opportunity to get his hands on as many DC characters as possible. I didn't hate it. The conversational dialogue didn't always feel true to form for most Bat-books I've read, but it was what I would have expected from BMB.
This was a fairly trippy adventure and I can appreciate coming in to a Batman story and wanted to try something big and different. It's fun, doesn't take itself deadly seriously, and is really well paced.
Totally worth picking up.
read for the YA Reading Challenge 20202This was a far more interesting biography than I would have thought going into it and I really enjoyed it! [a:Christian Perrissin 907698 Christian Perrissin https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png] feels really invested in Martha Jane and her story. I totally get that as I'm generally a huge of of the larger-than-life characters from the American west/frontier. There is something really fascinating about what it took to both brave and survive that world and here we're presented with Jane's own truly unbelievable account of her life and the sadder, more tragic version of the tales history can actually back up. The art in this book reminded me of something I can't exactly place my finger on. It's reminiscent of Lone Wolf and Cub, but not quite the same. It's a soft sort of watercolor or ink wash look that, for me anyway, really matched the feel of the story. It was a good pairing at any rate that I felt helped the storytelling. This feels like a longer graphic novel, but because it's a linear look at her life I didn't mind. It is pretty dense, but it never exhausted me. It was more a problem with my availability to sit and read at anytime that made this take as long. I found it to be a page-turner.
read for the YA Reading Challenge 2020
This volume ramps up what started in the first book in all the right ways. I'm excited by all the different ways Pak has ratcheted up the tension here. I mistakenly thought this was the end of this story line and I am both excited there is more to come and sad I cannot read it right now.
I may have been on the fence earlier, but I can wholeheartedly recommend this series so far.
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I like Greg Pak's work generally, but he's not someone who always hits home runs for me. I came in to this with guarded optimism and I was rewarded with a similar feeling Firefly tale, but with a take I haven't really seen from this world. What if Mal and Zoe had more in their war-torn past than we previous knew about? That's the jumping off point here and while there is a whole 2nd volume to this story I'm excited to pick up, this book does a good job giving most of the crew something to do. Everyone plays their role's predictably, but that's ok because the story is going to open up some questions that will give us catalyst to move the story forward.
See you all for Vol 2 where we find out of this thing can pay itself off.
Read for YA Reading Challenge 2020 (and IRCB b.o.t.m.)
The art in this book was fine, but not necessarily inspiring and the woman who comprised the team were more sexy curves than athletic warriors. I think if I was a younger audience member or less familiar with the Birds of Prey backstory this might have been a more interesting read, but the story was kind of a bland, “getting the band back together” story. The dialogue was a little stilted at times and there were puns and bad jokes I couldn't get past. Some of that is just picky reader problems, but this was largely a Batgirl story with very little Black Canary and enough Huntress to try and get you invested in the character.
DC needs to calm down with the constant continuity resetting.
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This volume opens with a monster scooping Garo up and carrying him to safety before Bang, Bomb and Genos can finish him off. If any of that gibberish made sense to you, congratulations, you're going to enjoy this book. One of the biggest monsters in a while shows up and in turn on of the biggest monster fights too. There are plenty of teasers in the end: the rescue plan starts firming up, SEVERAL new monsters are introduced, Hellish Blizzard is recruiting again and Zombieman starts his story arc.
Overall, top notch and setting up a lot of really interesting plot points to come.
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This volume is almost entirely about Garo and his journey into the heart of the Monster Association hive. Child Emperor is trying to figure out who to trust and how to rescue the hostage, but I can't tell if the payoff in that story line is going to worth it, low stakes so far. - Monster King Orochi's back story comes up here and we learn a lot about how the Monster Association came to be, so that's nice detail to see get filled in.
Overall, this has been an interesting arc, but I'm really hoping vol 20 or 21 starts to wrap up the kidnapping plot so we can move forward.
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Garo gets a new form, Saitama loses his wallet, Zombieman confronts his past and we learn about what really happened with the House of Evolution. This volume has some great monsters and pretty good fights. It's also still building towards whatever the Monster Association's end game is.
There is also quite a club hanging out at Saitama's apartment and something about those scenes is really funny to me.
Read for the YA Reading Challenge 2020
This was surprisingly good. I don't mean to disparage the author, who is new to me, I just don't have a lot of faith in the Inhumans as a property. I know Warren Ellis was writing Karnak for a while, but that was the only other time I think I had any interest. - Enter Saladin Ahmed and his take on Black Bolt and what might be possible in his world. I can say that this was easy enough to jump in to without any real background as to where this character currently was in cannon and I had no trouble getting on board with the story.
Also, Christian Ward's art was TOP NOTCH. It really goes a long way towards making this a great book. I think it would be 5 stars for me if I had any idea what was going on in BB's world outside of this. It's totally worth the read even if it's a little schmaltzy in some of the Crusher Creel sections, but hey, you gotta squeeze some heart into 120 pages somehow, right?
Ready for YA Reading Challenge 2020
Oof. Grant Morrison, for me anyway, is either hit or miss. When it hits: hold on to your hat it's about to be amazing. When he misses it's still passable work, but I find myself confused because it's trying so hard to be cerebral. Also, fwiw Frank Quitely is a great detail artist who draws human faces I find impossible to look at. So many amazing things can happen in a panel and I'm still like “why's that dude's neck so weirdly large and every chin so square?”
Lois is just a collection of lady parts here in barely pajamas. It feels like a shame. - I read the author's notes to understand where this was coming from and Morrison lays out plenty to show what his intentions were. Looking at old Superman stories and trying to project a future without him etc....
I think my bigger issues is I am not a fan of most Superman stories and this one didn't really have anything to change my mind. Again, not the worst comic I've ever read (I did find the take on Jimmy Olsen interesting), but it was a lot to take in both in scope and structure. - Gonna go read RIP Batman to restore my faith in Morrison.
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I knew this was an award winning book that had been recommended repeatedly, so I had no concerns going in, but I had no idea how much I was going to enjoy it. The story is inventive, funny, weird and touching all at once. The art has a distinct feel that was enjoyable in its own right. It started life as a webcomic and it's pretty satisfying to read it collected here.
This will be an easy one to recommend for any read who wants a comic that's not all superheroes or tights. There is action, there is drama, there is humor and there is heart. It may be about a villain, but beneath the surface it's about relationships and trust.
read for YA reading challenge 2020
This is a fantastic book that looks at a small family and their ghosts, while dealing with much larger questions of personal identity and self-worth.
Brandt revisits his grandparent's ancestral home in Japan from America where his marriage is falling apart. The story is only about 100 pages, but Curnow seems to get a lot of heart and sorrow in that space. It's a well constructed story and the art is really complimentary. It's a softer/muted color pallet and there is a nice flow to the art. This read really quickly for me in the best way as I was genuinely invested and couldn't put it down.
Good non-superhero book about life, love and what happens as we grow older and change as individuals.
Read for 2020 YA Reading Challenge
This is a book that probably shouldn't be read by itself. I like a lot of Donny Cates work and this was a I.R.C.B. yearly challenge book, so I went into this optimistic. I think my mistake was not reading any of the Venom run before this or at least trying to figure out how the book got here. Eddie Brock is in the suit, but there isn't a lot to frame this story with outside of that.
The story itself is trying to feel grand and thrilling, but for me it never really lived up to it's ambition. I may go back and try to figure out what was supposed to come before this, but I cannot recommend reading this by itself as it's almost silly it's so over-the-top.
I've ready better Venom books I guess is the bottom line.
Read for the 2020 YA Reading Challenge
This was more interesting than I expected and at the same time the ending kind of ruined it? Going into it I didn't realize that this was based on real events as I read nothing about the book before hand. I knew a lot of people praised it and that it was a good one to recommend to non-superhero readers and YA audiences looking for non-standard fair.
Talking animals, no problem. Social structure and hierarchy meant to reflect the world we know, sure. Larger questions about freedom and liberty... I'm going to give it to BKV, but begrudgingly. This reads very quickly and the end caught me completely off guard. - Honestly, I think my issue is with how Niko Henrichon frames the few pages. It felt, I don't know, heavy handed? I'm having a hard time parsing how I feel about it and will likely revisit this review later, but I'm glad I finally read this and can recommend it.
We get a pretty satisfying conclusion to the story in this volume, even if it feels a little quick. (potentially a little easy too, but that's just me being picky) [a:Sarah Vaughn 7372180 Sarah Vaughn https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/f_50x66-6a03a5c12233c941481992b82eea8d23.png] has crafted a fantasy world that is easy enough to absorb in the limited time we get with it, but that doesn't mean it feels lacking. [a:Leila del Duca 17435349 Leila del Duca https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png] illustrates this story with great texture and weight. It feels lived in and detailed, it kept me invested in this story. I saved vol 2 for the YA Reading challenge because I really do believe this is a great recommendation for 11-16 year old readers who say they aren't looking for Superheroes or that they like fantasy or want something with court intrigue and royal affairs. It feels unique, to me anyway, in both art and tone and I'm glad I know about it.
I'm all kinds of on the fence about this one and I may be having trouble putting my finger on it.
Pros: Great Fantasy tropes, enjoyable characters, clearly setting up a larger world and story
Cons: Not always easy to follow the logic of the characters, feels like the plot is lacking for progress at times, plods a long then rushes forward in story telling
I could see tons of potential early and was very intrigued. The let down really started when the adventure was just starting to get going. There were times when the threat to the characters felt a little thin and the like an assistant-pig-keeper couldn't really be harmed. I don't know, it's like I wanted there to be a chance someone in the story could be killed so that there were stakes, but it never really felt like they couldn't jump the General Lee over the marching armies of Mordor and make it to safety. It took me out of the story I guess with how miraculous a lot of their escapes were and how good they suddenly became at combat or espionage.
Even if the protagonists managed a lot of improbable escapes and had (literally) unbelievablegood luck, I'm likely to read book 2. Like I said, TONS of potential here and maybe this saga just needed to get warmed up a bit. Here's hoping.
Ironically, I read the e-book of this title which is listed as 144 pages long. That's probably 100 pages too many. It's variations on the same four or five ideas that apparently are supposed to unite all book lovers. Dear god, how many times can she talk about smelling books? (so many)
This got 2 stars because I began skimming before I was half way through looking to see if there was anything in here she hadn't already done. If you read these separately they may have been palatable, but collected it was just too much to take.
This was bad, but I kept waiting for it to be a little more. It starts out with a lot of promise, but it's almost like it slowed down intentionally. Plot wise, I was in and I would gladly come back to read more. The art though, for me, had like a “75% of the way done and then just out of time” feel. It's only one person's opinion, but it just felt unfinished to me. I didn't understand why the women were 1/2 naked while the men were bundled up in furs... is it cold or not?
Again, the characters and story set-up: interesting and easy to invest in. The art: not really complete enough, kept pulling me out of the story as it felt like none of us should be bothered.
I enjoyed this book, but it didn't set my world on fire. The thing to remember is that Jimmy is still a young man and wrote this book at 31. It's not like reading someone like Ron Pearlman's autobiography where there are decades of stories to tell, but that doesn't mean it's not a very unique story with some pretty hilarious turns.
Jimmy's life story picks up when his family moves to America when he was 13 and carries through to the present. He was a strip club DJ, stand up comic, used car salesman, barely college graduate, and, again, most of that happened in like 15 years. It's an immigrant's story told with humor and the perspective of someone who really lived through the culture shock of trying to fit in during the most formative years when most of us are starting to figure out our identities. That's maybe the best take away from the book, the explanation of “How to American” and what it means to someone trying to make it as an outsider.
-It's a pretty quick read and it's light. Good for a break in your regularly scheduled reading.
This wound up feeling pretty disappointing. I think it was that Jemisin's next series, The Broken Earth, came so highly recommended that it messed with my expectations for her as a writer. I grabbed this because it was the only book available digitally when I was looking the other day, I figured let's give it a try. It started pretty strong too, I was optimistic.
About half way through this turned into a YA fantasy novel and I was not at all into it. The end felt like 5 kinds of cop-out too. All the sudden there was a sexy “dark lord” character, the main heroine goes through an awakening (sexual and otherwise), there is a “evil step-sister” analog in the way of a cousin, all kinds of family secrets and problems are suddenly illuminated... It was rough.
I am 100% willing to give the author a 2nd chance and I'm going to make an effort to start the next round with the first book in the series I was originally looking for.