Bryce
The structure of showing the same man's death at different points in his life is an interesting one. It's enough to make an engaging and possibly thought-provoking book.
And in some cases, the right people can run with that concept and turn it into a brilliantly profound work.
The art, first off, is great. It evokes emotion and life, and it's just plain nice to look at. The story, the thoughts on life and death and stories themselves, that's what makes this graphic novel a brilliant piece of fiction. It's powerful, aided by pitch-perfect writing. It's memorable and beautiful and is as hopeful as it is melancholy. I loved this book.
I'm still not sure what parts actually happened, or what was solely in the mind of Ruth, the book's unreliable narrator.
A great read. The writing is excellent, the characters feel developed in the first 50 pages. The atmosphere is unsettling, though at first it's quite hard to pinpoint exactly what seems so off.
This would be a great book if it was from an experienced author; the fact that it's a debut makes it so much more impressive.
After reading (and loving) “Death of a Family”, I thought I would read the classic Joker story. This one is more focused on the Joker's past, but it gives a chilling example of his insanity as well. I'd say it's more powerful than the much more recent Scott Snyder story, as I felt a bit shaken after reading it.
It's great writing. Great art. A great graphic novel.
I don't read comic books. Graphic novels, yeah, but I feel like I never have time to get into a serialized comic series. So I can say that this is my first modern Batman comic.
I think I would have got even more out of it if I were to have read the other comics in this series, but as a standalone, it's still gripping and horrific. The writing, showing a lot of Batman and the Joker's relationship, is wonderful. The art as well, a lot of the scenes and images in this book will likely stick with me.
It's a sharply-written, memorable, and altogether great work. No previous experience with Batman (or comics in general) is necessary to appreciate this smart and haunting story.
Quirky. Quiet. Quaint.
It feels like Wes Anderson a bit, not as good, but sharing a similar feel. It's charmingly weird, but it seems more focused on being odd than actually telling a story or doing anything all that interesting.
[sort-of spoiler] Despite the information on it in the beginning, the title's namesake ends up as just an odd running joke, and absolutely nothing happens with that little detail. It gets more annoying when a new detail about Bushman's location is introduced, and then the most that comes from that is the vague implication of the boat traveling there at the end. [End of sort-of spoiler]
It's got the character types and humor down, it just needs an actual story.
Maybe I'm cynical, but I just found Yotsuba annoying. These sorts of cutely-naive kids in fiction are best in small doses. Supporting characters, appearing to deliver some comic relief or show some sweet bonding between them and an older family member, maybe. But as main characters, I really find them annoying.
It had some interesting thing to say beyond all the pretentious rambling. It felt authentic, and it was admittedly sweet.
YA romance is not a genre I like very much, I'm not sure why I keep reading them. For every one like this, pretentious and arty teenagers fall in love and act like every little moment they spend with the other person is some sort of perfect gift, there are some truly smart and memorable ones.
It wasn't bad. I'm glad it was short.
The world-building is great, the OASIS is quite fun to imagine, as is all the related tech. The world outside, and the complications that arise from the game, are not very fun to imagine at all. It's unusually cheerful dystopia.
The pop culture references invading every page are never very well-integrated into the story. As others mentioned, it's mostly there to pander to nostalgia. They are fun at times, but a good 50% could have been cut, let's be honest.
The characters were pretty bland, but by the end I was admittedly invested in their fates. The twist related to Aech surprised me, and I really wish the book would have delved into that a bit more. It would have made a much more three-dimensional character, and there would have been opportunities for some poignant scenes.
Despite all of this, I gave the book 4 stars. Mostly for its entertainment value, and pure imagination. With a slightly leaner plot and deeper characters, this could have been both fun and genuinely great. Alas, it's just fun.
I usually rate books based on how much I enjoyed them. This book would probably have one star if I did that here.
It was graphic, painful, depressing. I felt drained once I reached the end. (For some reason, I have a habit of reading really emotionally intense books all at once. Maybe it's easier to swallow that way?)
The POV shifts were confusing and didn't give as much room for character depth as I would have liked. A lot of my issues with the book have been covered by other reviewers here, I won't go over them all. The most important thing I have to say is that this book is brutal, and very important. It treats its subject with unflinching realism. It made me, at points, feel dirty myself. I imagine this was intentional, and even if it wasn't, it worked.
For teenagers especially, this is an important read. The saddest thing was that I began to understand why they were lead into prostitution as the story unfolded, and it felt like a path that was all too easy and understandable for these kids (and many kids in real life) to take.
I found all the characters kind of annoying and over-dramatic. So... A teenager basically. (I'm kidding, don't worry)
But yeah, I just found it to be annoying. The art isn't really charmingly crude, it's just appears poorly-drawn, to me at least. I wasn't impressed with this graphic novel at all. Bleh.
Gerald is easily one of the most interesting characters I've seen lately. He's far from perfect, but it's easy to understand and sympathize with him, and I found myself getting invested pretty quickly.
The book itself is engaging, sometimes intense, sometimes funny. It's always honest, often depressingly so, and definitely has a fair bit of emotional heft.
And Tasha made me so much angrier than is probably reasonable.
First off, let me just say that my local librarian nailed it in suggesting this book for me. I worry that she may know me a little too well at this point.
Anyway, I was completely engaged throughout every one of these stories. They're funny, mysterious, sometimes moving, often unsettling, and always well-written. Sometimes they're too mysterious and vague, to the point where I really just want some answers. The worst offenders, at least for me, were the seagull story and the scarecrow story. (I'm sorry, I don't know the names and I'm far too lazy to look.) The rest were appropriately odd, and raised more questions than they answered, but in a way that didn't feel frustrating.
I'm beginning to love short stories, and these were right up my alley. Give this book a shot. I haven't stopped thinking about it.
I just couldn't connect to the characters. I couldn't get involved, I didn't care as much as I should have.
Certain lines are beautiful, or heartbreaking, or both. There are chapters where the book easily reaches five-star quality. Those pieces will stick with me, I'm sure. But the book as a whole will not.
I doubt I would have given this a second look if I wasn't purposefully looking for something I wouldn't normally read. But I'm glad I did. Not every story is a winner, I've read enough short story collections to expect at least a few duds. It is, however, very consistent. Consistently charming and well-written and even insightful.
I was impressed by how invested I could get in a lot of these characters, despite some of their stories being 15 pages or less. Considering I've read a few novels with 300+ pages recently that were populated with bland and unlikeable characters, this is quite a feat.
Good job, Mr. Levithan. This was way better than I expected.
I found it to be charming and amusing, up until about the last 40 pages. And then it became thoughtful, and poignant in a way. The characters are unique and get some nice development.
I was all ready to give it three stars, for being entertaining but not overly memorable. Then the end made me reconsider, and I gave four stars. I'm fairly certain I'll remember it.
This book is flawed. It gets pretentious sometimes. It jumps around from story to story a little too much. But you know what? It's funny and moving and entertaining, topped with wit and social commentary. I can't give it less than 5.
Every character is achingly real, distinct, and well-written. The dialogue is sharp, powerful, and often very funny. The writing is great, and it never draws attention to itself, letting you enjoy the story and characters.
Meh. It's a slightly above-average book. The trademark Lemony Snicket wit is here, and it makes the book much more fun. As a whole, though, it feels forgettable and pretty mediocre. There are some colorful characters, as you will typically find in a Snicket book, and I can see them growing weirder and more interesting in the next few books.
I've heard the next book is better, I'll give it a shot.
I don't read this kind of stuff. “Quirky” sort-of-romance. I think it's usually cloying and tries too hard to be clever and cute. But you know what? I loved this book.
It's funny, poignant, and despite the premise being admittedly far-fetched, honest and real. I got invested in these characters, because they felt real.
Maybe it's not a five-star book. I give it a solid 4 for quality writing and storytelling. The extra star is for how much I enjoyed it.
It's a good premise, backed by solid writing. I read it in one sitting.
I read it in one sitting not because I was loving it. It was suspenseful, yes. Though that feels like the wrong word for this. Suspenseful makes me think of the best mysteries and thrillers. I read this in one sitting out of a need to just have it end, and I frequently wanted it to be over. Likely, this was due to the basic theme hitting too close to home, therefore not a problem with the book itself.
Her reasons, as pointed out by other reviews, are not exactly believable. They are more believable when placed in the context of a teenager's life, where every emotion seems to feel so much stronger than it should, be it good or bad. I bought it enough to get invested, and I found the story as a whole emotionally powerful.
Why three stars, then? Simple. I am not a professional reviewer, I don't review books based on how good they are objectively. I review them based on how much I like them, how they make me feel. For whatever reason, this book made me feel bad. Frustrated, at both the flaws in the book and the fact that not one person saw the signs and helped. I don't know. That's often true in real life, people miss the signs and things happen. I have seen that happen, unfortunately.
Still, I got nothing out of this book. It wasn't a happy book, making me feel good. It wasn't an honestly poignant and emotional book that made me feel something genuine. It was sad. Just sad, but not the right mix of sad and poignant. Just sad. Despair. Angst. Not for me.
