Bryce

Oh, Mr. Gaiman. I don't think it really matters what you write, I will immediately love it. I read this in about 30 minutes, and yet I felt like I read a whole novel. It definitely feels as if you're going on a wild and imaginative journey, like the best children's books do.

The drawings are fun and creative, and they add even more whimsy. I had a good time reading this.

This book, like the incredible blog of the same name, is hysterically funny and also quite poignant. For anyone looking for a funny but also very accurate and easy-ish to understand description of depression, look no further than the two-part Depression chapters.

The writing is fast and funny, honest and pleasant to read. The art is crude but oddly charming, and it conveys a lot more in its simple lines than anyone would expect.

The art isn't bad, and a story that has some promise but does little with it. I didn't really get this book. There are little plot points scattered throughout, but they have no resolution or follow-up, and then it ends.

I received this book from a First Reads giveaway.

I really only started to like it in the last two chapters. The rest was exposition upon exposition, telling instead of showing. It seems like an extended prologue, but it had some promise, and I might give the next book in the series a shot.

There are some typos and punctuation errors, and the writing is fine at best. I'm glad I was able to try it without paying and being disappointed.

Utterly captivating, powerful, and honest. There's something so real about it, that makes every poignant moment that much more so. The art is detailed and expressive, and it really helps set this book apart from others like it. This isn't a new story at all (not much in the coming-of-age sub-genre is), but it feels fresh.

And I think it says a lot that I read this 600-page graphic novel all at once, refusing to stop.

I got this book from a First Reads giveaway.

It's not an awful book, and I'm sure the right person will like it as a gag or quick diversion. But I don't even find it worthwhile as a diversion. I didn't find it very clever or funny, it was actually quite dull. The illustrations are charming, and the writing is tolerable (though there are a few typos and punctuation mistakes scattered throughout). I just didn't enjoy it.

There's definitely a minimalist beauty to this simple story about Ivan and his friends.

It's a quick read, though it's fully satisfying and powerful. I enjoyed it quite a lot.

The characters annoyed me so much, especially Russell. The book itself was solidly written at times, but at others felt bloated. The story is aimless and I didn't realize what the book was even about until I finished. It started as one thing, changed to another, and changed again.

It was just mediocre and a lot of it outright annoyed me. Some parts entertained me, and I thought that maybe it would get better. But then it just kept... I don't know. It kept being itself.

A lot of people mentioned this book felt like a travelogue with a sci-fi twist. I didn't really understand that until I read it.

The pace is slow, almost relaxing. Conflict arises, but it's dealt with quickly and things continue. The premise and first few chapters hint at action and drama and excitement, but the book never really delivers it. I can't say that's my main problem; my main problem with this story is that I just didn't care much about the characters or anything that happened to them. I didn't care about the Long Earth, or the troll migration, or Happy Landings.

The worst thing I can say about this book is that it's underwhelming, and I imagine I'll soon forget it. It's not a bad story, and I was entertained. The entire book just feels like a prologue to the real story.

I got tired of the angsty main character very quickly. The art is nice, the story is solid and the book had its moments. But it felt like it was trying too hard for some deeper symbolic meaning that just did nothing for me.

I liked this book a lot more than most people seemed to.

I was really interested in the characters and setting, though the story didn't really captivate me until the guests in question arrived. Then it went in a direction I wasn't expecting, and I loved it.

However, once the major conflict was resolved, the book went on for a while longer. One of the last scenes, with youngest daughter Smudge and a family horse, was completely anticlimactic and uninteresting to me. I really could have done without that scene. The other scenes toward the end worked very well, offering a satisfying conclusion to a few loose ends.

I liked I Feel Bad About My Neck more, but this wasn't a bad book at all. It was interesting, just not really funny. I read it in an hour or two, and it worked well as a bit of light entertainment.

(And here I am, changing this book's rating to five stars. It's because, months after I've read it, I've thought of certain parts and they made me laugh out loud all over again. I can't not give this 5 stars.)

The writing is messy (though in a very relatable and charming way) and the essays/anecdotes inside rarely flow.

That's about all the negative things I can say about this book. It's no masterpiece, but it's incredibly funny. It's absurd and awkward, though there's something really human and personal about it as well.

I received a copy of this book through NetGalley.

I'm not going to give this a star rating because I gave up at 53%. Maybe it was my fault, but I just couldn't follow the shifting timelines and I found myself bored, even as I recognized the nice writing and interesting plot elements. I don't think this is a bad book (it might be a good one, I wouldn't know), but it definitely was not for me.