I Kill Giants

ow my heart

a very similar reading experience to [b:A Monster Calls|25480342|A Monster Calls|Patrick Ness|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1430763000l/25480342._SY75_.jpg|13492114] (hidden for potential spoilers)

4 giants out of 5

Probably my favorite graphic novel, the story opens on the surface with a young, angsty girl trying to follow her passion for D&D. However, as the story progresses, we find that Barbara and her family are dealing with extra issues out of their control that Barbara personally chooses not to tackle, deciding to hide behind fantasy instead.

Beautiful art and story.

Warning: this graphic novel will give you lots of FEELINGS.

You can also find this review on my blog.
cw: homophobic slurs, parental death

It took me a really long time to pick this one up, but I'm glad I did. It's a really interesting story that ends up packing more of an emotional punch than you expect it to. It's also quite a quick read and a standalone, so you don't have to worry about new books coming out. I really disliked the main character throughout most of the book, but I believe that was the intent of the author. Be prepared for a lot of “I'm not like other girls” nonsense, as well as violence and verbal abuse. If you think you can handle all that, I definitely recommend picking this one up.

Anyone who remembers reading stories like The Bridge to Terabithia knows that fantasy can sometimes be a form of escapism for the characters as well as the reader. In I Kill Giants, Barbara fights to slay giants of both the literal and metaphorical kind.

The story begins with Barbara ignoring the speaker for her fifth-grade class's career day in favor of Dungeons and Dragons manual. Barely a page into the book, I liked her already.

Unlike many young heroes going to school and defending the world on the side, Barabara isn't afraid to keep what she does a secret. She boldly announces in front of her entire class:

I find giants.

I hunt giants.

I kill giants.

5 stars Absolutely loved this. The art is stunning and the story is beautiful. I wasn't expecting this graphic novel to make me so emotional. One of my favourites ever. I'm definitely going to have to get my own copy. Highly recommend!

Whew. I put reading this book off because I knew it was going to wreck me. Reading it a second time, and in one go, was way more gut wrenching. That whole last chapter had me in straight-up tears.

I knew the damn ending and I still cried.

This book sets you up to have fun with some quirks but with a heavy, heavy cloud over head. How we get to the end is the most important part, and watching Barbara lose control, chapter after chapter, is the roughest part of the story. You know something bad looms, and yet she somehow tries to persevere with witticisms and, in most cases, lashing out under the guise of “giant killing.”

I cannot express enough how fantastic of a read this was. Going head-first into this book, not second guessing anything, it is a testament to the fantastic creative delivery made by Joe Kelly and J. M. Ken Niimura's work.

This was a slow burn of beauty and heartbreak. I would recommend it to anyone, especially those seeking to explain grief to a child. So powerful. I can't stop thinking about it

I Kill Giants is one of those graphic novels that will speak to each person who reads it at least once in their lives. No one wants to take a direct look at pain and grief, especially when that pain is in the form of how a child sees the world. But, I Kill Giants tackles grief to show how imaginative children can be without ever dumbing down the content.
It is intense, and once you understand what is going sad and brilliant.

“All things that live, die. This is why you must find joy in the living, while the time is yours, and not fear the end. To deny this is to deny life. To fear this... is to fear life. But to embrace this... Can you embrace this?”

It starts with the protagonist fifth-grader Barbara and her disconnected view of the world. She is everything you would think of an eccentric, intelligent kid of her age should be. She wears bunny ears, doesn't connect with other kids, and goes out and slays giants.

Giants aren't real, right? According to Barbara, they are. Due to her obsession with giants, kids at school are cruel. Which, as someone who survived 8th grade, can attest to is real. Due to her overactive imagination, Mrs. Molle, the school counselor, takes an interest in her and wants to help her. Armed with her bunny ears, Barbara sets traps to catch the giants. And, she bravely believes that she can face the giants and be the hero.

“You are stronger than you think.”

The pain of this story is Barbara's reality. Instead of dealing with the pain of her Dad's departure and her mother's illness, she slays giants. Things she can control. All of this is not immediately obvious. It is a graphic novel; Barbara could be a girl who truly goes out and slays giants. But, this story is deeper and more profound. It is a story about grief and loss and how people channel that. Compartmentation seems like such an adult concept, except that it isn't.

I know that the concepts in this story are not everyone's forte. Dealing with depictions of grief is difficult for some readers, but what I liked most about this story is, sadly, every person in this world will have to deal with grief. Along with joy, grief is one of the most human of emotions. It helps define our lives. And, even though I wanted to take Barbara in my arms during most of the book and tell her that everything will be ok, I couldn't. It wasn't going to be ok; Barbara's mother is going to die. This story is one to get the tears rolling.

Graphically, I Kill Giants has a very crisp exaggerated Manga style. Many of the panels were explosive—Especially those dealing with the giants. The pain in her life is immense, and the giants are too.

I love Barbara, I have been Barbara, and I will someday, sadly, be Barbara again. If you want a well-written story, exciting visuals, and a character that you will empathize with and cheer for, you should read this.

Barbara Thorson is your average sass-talking, D&D playing, bunny-eared, 5th grade giant slayer who wields her titan-killing hammer named Coveleski in a heart-shaped purse.
That's all you should need to know going in. Do yourself a favour and discover the rest for yourself.

Wow. Thats all I can say right now.

The first time I opened I Kill Giants, I read about 5 or 6 pages. The second time, I finished the rest of it. This book has a truly phenomenal sense of character and story. Every aspect is just so fully realized that you immediately are connected to what is going on. I don't want to spoil things or go in to too much detail here, but I was definitely not expecting this book to be such an emotional journey. I'd be lying if I said that I did not completely break down at one point.

But its not just the story that is great. I didn't think much of the art at first, but by the end of the book I realized how perfectly the artwork matched the words that were written on the page. By they time I got to the climax, I was spending far more time enjoying the visuals that the book has to offer.

That combination of story and art are what truly make a great comic or graphic novel. I Kill Giants is a book that fits perfectly in its medium, and would be lesser if it were only words like in a novel or strictly something more visual, like a film. It is a great example of what makes storytelling in comics unique, and I will be lending it out and recommending it to everyone, not just those who read comics already.

Released as a seven-issue, self-contained comic book series, about a teenage girl in the modern day who claims to kill giants. Difficult to expand much on that without spoilers. This book will upset you.

Nothing about this is well-done on a technical level, but I still found it effective. The writing is... okay, but there's very little payoff until the end. The art is not great and sometimes make it hard to tell what's going on.

The creators have pre- and post-issue comic book conversations between each other. These are terrible in both their art and prose and will make you hate them both.

I Kill Giants is an impressive graphic novel. A bittersweet tale of a teenage girl, who's also a D&D geek, dealing with the impending lost of a parent succumbing to cancer. While there's a mix of fantasy and reality in the tale, the story is still grounded in the realities of life, and how one deals with life and lost. Done in black and white, the art is dynamic and simply quite fantastic. A must read.