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mxhermit's reviews
949 reviews
Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
1.0
Dystopian fiction be a fascinating genre, a look into what our world could be like if one thing goes wrong or if a chain of events leads to a horrific outcome. Young Adult Dystopian novels have been popular for a long time and while they're not my favorite, I thought I'd give more titles from the genre a chance.
Black & White was not the good first step I had hoped it would be for several reasons, starting with the characters.
Ezmerelda, one of the main characters, felt like a bit of a smarmy person. She made incredible leaps in logic, bordering on a know-it-all personality that was insufferable. It was an annoying trait that didn’t seem to have a basis or to have been earned. Her deductions were luck. One quote in particular felt particularly silly:
"...I refuse to believe we’re the only ones who feel like this - it’d be too much of a coincidence that we’re the same age and in the same school.”
In the entire city of Whitopolis, with all of the children attending the same school, this is not that much of a coincidence and her making it seem like a grand deal had me shaking my head at how proud she acted of coming to the conclusion that it was a clue of some sort.
Wellesbury, the primary character, was a bland character that I don’t think had anything to do with the sterile whiteness of his society. I didn’t feel much personality coming from him, not even as an annoying know-it-all like Ezmerelda. Something else that was off about his character was his having knowledge throughout the story about things that he shouldn’t know, like what straw was early on when he went to Fusterbury or near the end of the novel when he knew the name of the country that Fusterbury was located in when it had never been revealed to him and he had no way of learning it on his own. These slipups in the narrative gave Wellesbury a bit of confusion to his name, but that doesn’t bulk up a personality.
I will admit that the language that Wellesbury uses to describe the things he sees in Fusterbury are accurate to what I'd think he'd use, if a little overly simplistic. He didn’t have much of an imagination; illustrating this with his brevity of word use was a good tactic on the author's part.
For as important as Mallinger seems in the summary of the novel, the mysterious boy that appears in Whitopolis one day, he doesn’t have that much time on the page. The ultimate reveal of his character was, to me, meant as a shock factor meant to prop up an otherwise dull story because it felt like it came out of nowhere regarding a character that hadn’t done much or been around much the entirety of the story. I had no real time or opportunity to care about Mallinger, so why would the ending’s shock value have any real meaning for me?
There were other characters in the novel, such as Ezmerelda’s father and the doctor that ends up helping Wellesbury and Ezmerelda, but even the adults in the book didn’t seem to be very bright. A lot of what they did or why they did it felt like pure spur of the moment or luck. No one had meaning behind their motivation other than it being convenient to the plot at the moment. I couldn’t get behind anyone’s ideas.
As for the people of these parallel “worlds”, with the amount of surprise at the possibility of another world in Whitopolis, I was shocked at the lack of any kind of reaction from the people in Fusterbury. There didn't seem to be any shock, any reaction to Wellesbury and Ezmerelda's questions other than "You really aren't from around here, are you?" No one was suspicious of these strangers, of the possibility that they harmed Mallinger; they just went along with their appearance and quest for information.
In a dystopian book, I’d expect to feel some kind of dread of the world to come, some kind of genius from the bad guys, or something to inspire from the revolutionaries aka the good guys in all the mess. Considering they were the main characters, Wellesbury and Ezmerelda were both incredibly lucky and incredibly naïve about their own revolutionary idea. I couldn’t believe they were able to get away with half of what they did with little to no repercussions in the end. I really couldn’t believe the doctor that helped them turned out to actually be truthful, or that any of the things he revealed about Whitopolis and Fusterbury. These last minute revelations felt stuffed in to extend the series, one of the worst things a book can do in my opinion.
I wasn’t pleased with the book for the above reasons nor, sadly, with the writing style either. A book with nothing happening in it besides real life can be enjoyable if the writing it gripping and the characters done well, but Black & White wasn’t able to do it for me.
I received a copy of this book from the author in exchange for an honest review.
Black & White was not the good first step I had hoped it would be for several reasons, starting with the characters.
Ezmerelda, one of the main characters, felt like a bit of a smarmy person. She made incredible leaps in logic, bordering on a know-it-all personality that was insufferable. It was an annoying trait that didn’t seem to have a basis or to have been earned. Her deductions were luck. One quote in particular felt particularly silly:
"...I refuse to believe we’re the only ones who feel like this - it’d be too much of a coincidence that we’re the same age and in the same school.”
In the entire city of Whitopolis, with all of the children attending the same school, this is not that much of a coincidence and her making it seem like a grand deal had me shaking my head at how proud she acted of coming to the conclusion that it was a clue of some sort.
Wellesbury, the primary character, was a bland character that I don’t think had anything to do with the sterile whiteness of his society. I didn’t feel much personality coming from him, not even as an annoying know-it-all like Ezmerelda. Something else that was off about his character was his having knowledge throughout the story about things that he shouldn’t know, like what straw was early on when he went to Fusterbury or near the end of the novel when he knew the name of the country that Fusterbury was located in when it had never been revealed to him and he had no way of learning it on his own. These slipups in the narrative gave Wellesbury a bit of confusion to his name, but that doesn’t bulk up a personality.
I will admit that the language that Wellesbury uses to describe the things he sees in Fusterbury are accurate to what I'd think he'd use, if a little overly simplistic. He didn’t have much of an imagination; illustrating this with his brevity of word use was a good tactic on the author's part.
For as important as Mallinger seems in the summary of the novel, the mysterious boy that appears in Whitopolis one day, he doesn’t have that much time on the page. The ultimate reveal of his character was, to me, meant as a shock factor meant to prop up an otherwise dull story because it felt like it came out of nowhere regarding a character that hadn’t done much or been around much the entirety of the story. I had no real time or opportunity to care about Mallinger, so why would the ending’s shock value have any real meaning for me?
There were other characters in the novel, such as Ezmerelda’s father and the doctor that ends up helping Wellesbury and Ezmerelda, but even the adults in the book didn’t seem to be very bright. A lot of what they did or why they did it felt like pure spur of the moment or luck. No one had meaning behind their motivation other than it being convenient to the plot at the moment. I couldn’t get behind anyone’s ideas.
As for the people of these parallel “worlds”, with the amount of surprise at the possibility of another world in Whitopolis, I was shocked at the lack of any kind of reaction from the people in Fusterbury. There didn't seem to be any shock, any reaction to Wellesbury and Ezmerelda's questions other than "You really aren't from around here, are you?" No one was suspicious of these strangers, of the possibility that they harmed Mallinger; they just went along with their appearance and quest for information.
In a dystopian book, I’d expect to feel some kind of dread of the world to come, some kind of genius from the bad guys, or something to inspire from the revolutionaries aka the good guys in all the mess. Considering they were the main characters, Wellesbury and Ezmerelda were both incredibly lucky and incredibly naïve about their own revolutionary idea. I couldn’t believe they were able to get away with half of what they did with little to no repercussions in the end. I really couldn’t believe the doctor that helped them turned out to actually be truthful, or that any of the things he revealed about Whitopolis and Fusterbury. These last minute revelations felt stuffed in to extend the series, one of the worst things a book can do in my opinion.
I wasn’t pleased with the book for the above reasons nor, sadly, with the writing style either. A book with nothing happening in it besides real life can be enjoyable if the writing it gripping and the characters done well, but Black & White wasn’t able to do it for me.
I received a copy of this book from the author in exchange for an honest review.
Nyxia by Scott Reintgen
2.0
An interstellar journey sounds like a terrific premise. Secrets, training, all sorts of things before this team of teenagers can make it to another world and harvest something only they, as young people revered by the inhabitants of the planet, can get.
In actually, what I found was a rather dense book with an overabundance of details portrayed in a painstakingly slow manner that became a burden at 48%.
The story is told from Emmett's perspective and about a quarter of the way through, I started feeling like Nyxia wasted an opportunity. Emmett's views of his fellow travelers started feeling flat ten days into their space journey of a year. Repetitive observations made for a boring reading experience; I wondered what it would be like if we'd had multiple points of view. That is a method that can be confusing if the voices aren't unique enough, but the writing so far was decent enough to make me think that Reintgen could've made a good example of multiple p.o.v.s. done right.
There were a lot of details drawn out through the book. Things about how they had to train and then those instances broken down even further; time spent going over nyxia, the resource the company Babel is over that can be manipulated into anything; "romantic" relationships that never felt real; and so on. There was too much focus on what felt like minutiae to be exciting. It felt like reading a textbook with some brief moments of human connection.
Emmett's battle with his moral compass versus the amazing financial opportunity that Babel offers because he's willing to travel to a new planet (Eden) was interesting. There were flashbacks to his childhood when his grandmother taught him how to control his anger with a mental filing system. His father and mother, though we barely hear from them in the book, are guideposts for him during horrible tests that pit him against the other teens of Genesis I and, eventually, Genesis II. This wavering between right, wrong, and what that means to him was one of the facets of the story that remained relatively intriguing throughout.
If you like details and having battles happen over and over again in a spaceship to see who gets to go planet-side, then I think Nyxia will be a good match for you. I didn't care for it as an overall work because I don't think the writing made up for lackluster plot elements and I got bored.
I received a copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
In actually, what I found was a rather dense book with an overabundance of details portrayed in a painstakingly slow manner that became a burden at 48%.
The story is told from Emmett's perspective and about a quarter of the way through, I started feeling like Nyxia wasted an opportunity. Emmett's views of his fellow travelers started feeling flat ten days into their space journey of a year. Repetitive observations made for a boring reading experience; I wondered what it would be like if we'd had multiple points of view. That is a method that can be confusing if the voices aren't unique enough, but the writing so far was decent enough to make me think that Reintgen could've made a good example of multiple p.o.v.s. done right.
There were a lot of details drawn out through the book. Things about how they had to train and then those instances broken down even further; time spent going over nyxia, the resource the company Babel is over that can be manipulated into anything; "romantic" relationships that never felt real; and so on. There was too much focus on what felt like minutiae to be exciting. It felt like reading a textbook with some brief moments of human connection.
Emmett's battle with his moral compass versus the amazing financial opportunity that Babel offers because he's willing to travel to a new planet (Eden) was interesting. There were flashbacks to his childhood when his grandmother taught him how to control his anger with a mental filing system. His father and mother, though we barely hear from them in the book, are guideposts for him during horrible tests that pit him against the other teens of Genesis I and, eventually, Genesis II. This wavering between right, wrong, and what that means to him was one of the facets of the story that remained relatively intriguing throughout.
If you like details and having battles happen over and over again in a spaceship to see who gets to go planet-side, then I think Nyxia will be a good match for you. I didn't care for it as an overall work because I don't think the writing made up for lackluster plot elements and I got bored.
I received a copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Catch Me If You Can: The True Story of a Real Fake by Frank W. Abagnale, Stan Redding
3.0
Rating: 3.5 Stars
Trigger warning: racism
Part Murder, She Wrote episode, part Clue, this full cast production audiobook of Catch Me If You Can begins as any good, classic mystery might: in a dark and stormy night. Lois, a young woman out "snorkeling", is caught in a category four hurricane and washed ashore, only to be rescued by a guest of the manor house where some sort of gathering is occurring. It isn't long before it is clear that Lois isn't the only one to be wary of; everyone is suspicious whether outwardly brash Bob or one of the more "innocent" seeming guests.
My first impressions were thus: 1. These guests and the story's circumstances reminded me of the movie Clue, what with everyone running about, and 2. Lois is not the innocent lead she seems, as evidenced by the first few scenes of chapter two.
The vocal cast was well chosen. Their voices were neither too grating nor too monotone. Ranging from, I'm guessing, 30-40's up to a few elderly guests, there was a wide variety of personalities. Each was well defined, which is a plus. There were two that were a bit exaggerated: Bob, the brash man that was around for most of the story and a supposed investigator of some sort; and Andy, a reporter who shows up near the end of the story, who sounds like a two-bit gangster from a twenties flick.
With an audiobook narrated by a single person your expectations may be limited, but those expectations rise when more people are brought into the mix. There's more drama, more ways to stretch the material. The expanded vocal cast combined with the sound effects, heavy handed as they were at times, made it easy to see them in my head, to picture them sniping at each other, moving about the rooms of the manor house, etc.
One of the difficulties I did encounter right from the start with sound quality were the noises from the storm. It was too loud in parts, obscuring parts of dialogue and making it difficult to understand what the characters were saying. The roaring of the wind, the lashing of the rain at the windows, it was too much.
The mystery of the story, the murders that take place within the manor house under the cover of the storm (Hurricane Brian, in fact), was moderately interesting. It was simple enough to follow along, even as more victims appeared. I was wondering at some points whether the point would be gotten to, but I believe that all questions were answered by the end. There were some twists that I starting guessing at, but I didn't guess the final ones at the end, which was nice. As much as I try to see the ending coming, it's fun to not see it coming 100% of the way.
There was a bit of a romance between Lois and one of the guests, which I was not really meshing with, for at least two reasons: 1. Instalove is very much not my thing and even if it was 2. it was not written believably. Lois and this person get together far too easily/quickly for much about their relationship, if you want to call it that, to be believable. I'd believe her adopting the dog in the book more than I'd believe her ending up with the guy.
Something that I think would have made the book a whole lot better would have been for the casual racism in the book to have been wiped out. Not that there's ever a need for it to be in a book, but if the characters had at least been called out on it, it would have been something. There were several examples that annoyed me because there was nothing added to the story by the author including them.
Early on, when Tia is introduced, there is a comment on how Lois can tell she's Asian because of her hair and such, but she can't tell the difference between Chinese, Japanese, and Taiwanese.
Later, Victor makes a comment about Tia's reaction to Mike (note: Mite? I couldn't hear the name clearly) the dog, asking don't all Chinese like dogs and she replies "only on a menu". No one says anything about this and the only reaction we get, so to speak, is Lois wondering if Tia meant it as a joke, but not thinking so.
There's also a time when the group is waiting out the night in a room and most are sleeping while Lois, Tia, and Cookie are keeping watch. Under the guise of girl talk to keep boredom at bay, Cookie presses Tia to reveal her heritage, where her parents, her ancestors are from, and wondering why she's ashamed of revealing it. She even says she's not ashamed to say she's Irish and English: English because of her coloring, Irish because of her fiery temper. The racism toward Tia and defense of it with European stereotyping was irritating and unnecessary in the course of the story.
Jared, one of the other guests, tells Lois she should thank "their Asian friend" for saving her from an incident. Later, when files are recovered on the guests that managed to get to the manor, Tia's revealed that she arrived via a flight from Beijing and Cookie exclaims that at least they now know she's Chinese. This was annoying and arrogant; just because she came on a flight from one country doesn't mean she's of that country's ethnicity.
Then there is Lois's suspicion of Rajah, a fellow guest, of one of the subsequent murders, primarily because he's Iranian and aren't "they sworn enemies of Americans" rather than a simple fact like he had opportunity. His race/ethnicity had nothing to do with it. It's later revealed he isn't even Iranian (not that that excuses her hasty, racist judgement; he was judged by his appearance, lumping all Asians together.
The romance between Lois and Victor felt flimsy and forced. It wasn't necessary for the story and the places were it was shoehorned in felt quite awkward, especially when they were in the garage and we were getting an info dump of their theories about the murderer(s).
As far as a mystery goes, I liked it well enough and I would recommend it for fans of the genre. I wouldn't pick it up if you read the synopsis and went into it thinking the characters were game enthusiasts like I did, was lead to believe. That part of the story was wholly unimportant and could have been switched out for any other kond of convention, sadly.
I would caution that it would be best listened to in as short a time as possible so as to keep characters, motives, and what not straight, and also that there are racist comments that really have no place in the story.
I received a copy of this book from the Audiobookworm Promotions in exchange for an honest review.
Trigger warning: racism
Part Murder, She Wrote episode, part Clue, this full cast production audiobook of Catch Me If You Can begins as any good, classic mystery might: in a dark and stormy night. Lois, a young woman out "snorkeling", is caught in a category four hurricane and washed ashore, only to be rescued by a guest of the manor house where some sort of gathering is occurring. It isn't long before it is clear that Lois isn't the only one to be wary of; everyone is suspicious whether outwardly brash Bob or one of the more "innocent" seeming guests.
My first impressions were thus: 1. These guests and the story's circumstances reminded me of the movie Clue, what with everyone running about, and 2. Lois is not the innocent lead she seems, as evidenced by the first few scenes of chapter two.
The vocal cast was well chosen. Their voices were neither too grating nor too monotone. Ranging from, I'm guessing, 30-40's up to a few elderly guests, there was a wide variety of personalities. Each was well defined, which is a plus. There were two that were a bit exaggerated: Bob, the brash man that was around for most of the story and a supposed investigator of some sort; and Andy, a reporter who shows up near the end of the story, who sounds like a two-bit gangster from a twenties flick.
With an audiobook narrated by a single person your expectations may be limited, but those expectations rise when more people are brought into the mix. There's more drama, more ways to stretch the material. The expanded vocal cast combined with the sound effects, heavy handed as they were at times, made it easy to see them in my head, to picture them sniping at each other, moving about the rooms of the manor house, etc.
One of the difficulties I did encounter right from the start with sound quality were the noises from the storm. It was too loud in parts, obscuring parts of dialogue and making it difficult to understand what the characters were saying. The roaring of the wind, the lashing of the rain at the windows, it was too much.
The mystery of the story, the murders that take place within the manor house under the cover of the storm (Hurricane Brian, in fact), was moderately interesting. It was simple enough to follow along, even as more victims appeared. I was wondering at some points whether the point would be gotten to, but I believe that all questions were answered by the end. There were some twists that I starting guessing at, but I didn't guess the final ones at the end, which was nice. As much as I try to see the ending coming, it's fun to not see it coming 100% of the way.
There was a bit of a romance between Lois and one of the guests, which I was not really meshing with, for at least two reasons: 1. Instalove is very much not my thing and even if it was 2. it was not written believably. Lois and this person get together far too easily/quickly for much about their relationship, if you want to call it that, to be believable. I'd believe her adopting the dog in the book more than I'd believe her ending up with the guy.
Something that I think would have made the book a whole lot better would have been for the casual racism in the book to have been wiped out. Not that there's ever a need for it to be in a book, but if the characters had at least been called out on it, it would have been something. There were several examples that annoyed me because there was nothing added to the story by the author including them.
Early on, when Tia is introduced, there is a comment on how Lois can tell she's Asian because of her hair and such, but she can't tell the difference between Chinese, Japanese, and Taiwanese.
Later, Victor makes a comment about Tia's reaction to Mike (note: Mite? I couldn't hear the name clearly) the dog, asking don't all Chinese like dogs and she replies "only on a menu". No one says anything about this and the only reaction we get, so to speak, is Lois wondering if Tia meant it as a joke, but not thinking so.
There's also a time when the group is waiting out the night in a room and most are sleeping while Lois, Tia, and Cookie are keeping watch. Under the guise of girl talk to keep boredom at bay, Cookie presses Tia to reveal her heritage, where her parents, her ancestors are from, and wondering why she's ashamed of revealing it. She even says she's not ashamed to say she's Irish and English: English because of her coloring, Irish because of her fiery temper. The racism toward Tia and defense of it with European stereotyping was irritating and unnecessary in the course of the story.
Jared, one of the other guests, tells Lois she should thank "their Asian friend" for saving her from an incident. Later, when files are recovered on the guests that managed to get to the manor, Tia's revealed that she arrived via a flight from Beijing and Cookie exclaims that at least they now know she's Chinese. This was annoying and arrogant; just because she came on a flight from one country doesn't mean she's of that country's ethnicity.
Then there is Lois's suspicion of Rajah, a fellow guest, of one of the subsequent murders, primarily because he's Iranian and aren't "they sworn enemies of Americans" rather than a simple fact like he had opportunity. His race/ethnicity had nothing to do with it. It's later revealed he isn't even Iranian (not that that excuses her hasty, racist judgement; he was judged by his appearance, lumping all Asians together.
The romance between Lois and Victor felt flimsy and forced. It wasn't necessary for the story and the places were it was shoehorned in felt quite awkward, especially when they were in the garage and we were getting an info dump of their theories about the murderer(s).
As far as a mystery goes, I liked it well enough and I would recommend it for fans of the genre. I wouldn't pick it up if you read the synopsis and went into it thinking the characters were game enthusiasts like I did, was lead to believe. That part of the story was wholly unimportant and could have been switched out for any other kond of convention, sadly.
I would caution that it would be best listened to in as short a time as possible so as to keep characters, motives, and what not straight, and also that there are racist comments that really have no place in the story.
I received a copy of this book from the Audiobookworm Promotions in exchange for an honest review.
The Scarecrow Princess by Andrea Colvin, Federico Rossi Edrig
1.0
I looked for this on NetGalley at the recommendation of someone close to me who had seen it somewhere and thought it might be interesting. Luckily it was on NetGalley as a Read Now option, so here we are. With the line "for fans of Coraline..." in the synopsis, I thought it might be interesting enough. That's one of my favorite books and movies, after all.
Morrigan is, right off the bat, described as "always moody" in the synopsis. From what I could tell, however, she acted like a teenager that had had her life disrupted in what she thought was an unfair way: because of the job of her mother and bother, novelists that chase myths and legends. While her snark toward the new landlady was a bit biting and obviously rude, I understand where she was coming from and rather felt like she was being painted as a brat when she was simple reacting as one would expect her to have in such a situation. That doesn't mean I liked her, as such, but I understood her bratty-ness.
Sophie and Edgar Moore were an odd pair of characters. I didn't get much of a sense of personality from them, besides that of absentminded authors. What I'm still wondering about it, why mother and brother? There wasn't enough detail about them to flesh them out and see them as such. To be honest, without the brief mention of his being her brother at the beginning, I would have thought Edgar was her father. He and their mother came off as absentminded author parents, really, rather than a brother working with his mum. Plus the language used to talk about them, "your folks", is most often used for parental figures.
The King of Crows was by far the creepiest, most perverted character in the book. I disliked his mannerisms, his way of speaking; for a thousands year old creature, he sounded like an entitled modern man full of arrogance. I hated him when he started making sexual advances toward Morrigan, our fourteen year old heroine, and nothing is said in the text about it. He's a bad guy because he took her parents, not because he's trying to seduce her or because he made a comment about a four panel page scene earlier in the book when, after escaping from his kingdom, she pleasured herself. What. The. Hell. was that about??
The final battle between Morrigan and the Crow King further feeds into this creepiness because both characters are completely naked at the end. The Crow King has his lower half covered by crows/shadows, but Morrigan? The child in this book? Not a stitch, nothing. It was a rude scene change in the narrative and added nothing that I could see. If the mantle of the Scarecrow turning evil and needing to be stripped away was so important, I feel like the author could easily have managed this without parading Morrigan around like he did. It made a read that was somewhat dull into one that was downright uncomfortable.
The book is touted as being for fans of Coraline and I can almost see that, but I think it shared a bit too many similarities with Coraline to really stand out as a unique work of fiction that might appeal to fans of both books. If you didn't use names or the details about the crows, I think people might not be able to tell the difference very well and that seems a problem for me because this could have been wonderful. The idea of a Crow King haunting a small English town sounds eerie and mythical. It was a bit sad that it didn't quite reach that level for me.
The art seemed rather rough around the edges, like static on a television. Then, the coloring. It was quite flat and didn't seem to flesh out the story. It was like filling out a coloring book page with one colored pencil or paint pen and not doing much in the way of shading or layering.
Ultimately, even if the art had been of a higher quality, I don't think I could rate this higher because of the story and gratuitous nudity.
I received a copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Morrigan is, right off the bat, described as "always moody" in the synopsis. From what I could tell, however, she acted like a teenager that had had her life disrupted in what she thought was an unfair way: because of the job of her mother and bother, novelists that chase myths and legends. While her snark toward the new landlady was a bit biting and obviously rude, I understand where she was coming from and rather felt like she was being painted as a brat when she was simple reacting as one would expect her to have in such a situation. That doesn't mean I liked her, as such, but I understood her bratty-ness.
Sophie and Edgar Moore were an odd pair of characters. I didn't get much of a sense of personality from them, besides that of absentminded authors. What I'm still wondering about it, why mother and brother? There wasn't enough detail about them to flesh them out and see them as such. To be honest, without the brief mention of his being her brother at the beginning, I would have thought Edgar was her father. He and their mother came off as absentminded author parents, really, rather than a brother working with his mum. Plus the language used to talk about them, "your folks", is most often used for parental figures.
The King of Crows was by far the creepiest, most perverted character in the book. I disliked his mannerisms, his way of speaking; for a thousands year old creature, he sounded like an entitled modern man full of arrogance. I hated him when he started making sexual advances toward Morrigan, our fourteen year old heroine, and nothing is said in the text about it. He's a bad guy because he took her parents, not because he's trying to seduce her or because he made a comment about a four panel page scene earlier in the book when, after escaping from his kingdom, she pleasured herself. What. The. Hell. was that about??
The final battle between Morrigan and the Crow King further feeds into this creepiness because both characters are completely naked at the end. The Crow King has his lower half covered by crows/shadows, but Morrigan? The child in this book? Not a stitch, nothing. It was a rude scene change in the narrative and added nothing that I could see. If the mantle of the Scarecrow turning evil and needing to be stripped away was so important, I feel like the author could easily have managed this without parading Morrigan around like he did. It made a read that was somewhat dull into one that was downright uncomfortable.
The book is touted as being for fans of Coraline and I can almost see that, but I think it shared a bit too many similarities with Coraline to really stand out as a unique work of fiction that might appeal to fans of both books. If you didn't use names or the details about the crows, I think people might not be able to tell the difference very well and that seems a problem for me because this could have been wonderful. The idea of a Crow King haunting a small English town sounds eerie and mythical. It was a bit sad that it didn't quite reach that level for me.
The art seemed rather rough around the edges, like static on a television. Then, the coloring. It was quite flat and didn't seem to flesh out the story. It was like filling out a coloring book page with one colored pencil or paint pen and not doing much in the way of shading or layering.
Ultimately, even if the art had been of a higher quality, I don't think I could rate this higher because of the story and gratuitous nudity.
I received a copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Splatoon, Vol. 1 by Sankichi Hinodeya
2.0
Splatoon, before reading this manga, was simply a game to me. One that my child loves and plays enthusiastically. I requested the book on his recommendation and thought it was very energetic and wild.
The book starts in the middle of things. A turf war is about to begin between Team Blue and Team Yellow-Green. The introduction to characters was good, but they seemed rather settled, one dimensional if you will. Once the first chapter was over, things got a bit better as the characters finally got to interact on a more normal level, but that didn't last long before more Turf Wars began among them and teams that were supposedly increasingly difficult compared to them.
Team Blue is a low ranked Inkling squad, but they make up for their abilities with team work and intensity. Compared to the first team they come up against, their camaraderie is evident, even as Goggles (Inkling Boy) continually drops his pants or pops out of ink naked (all private areas are always covered). His energy was a bit much at times, not altogether off putting, but what I really didn't like about him was when he started pantsing others, such as Rider. It's a childish tact and more than a little unnerving when directed at others.
His teammates (Specs, Bobble Hat, and Headphones) didn't really standout as much as (annoying as he is) Goggles did. If they hadn't been identified by their signature look, it would've been difficult to tell them apart based on their personalities. The fact that their whole identities are wrapped up in these accessories was another tic mark on the Con list. While shopping, Goggles wears a helmet and Headphones says "you're not even Goggles anymore!"
Artistically Splatoon wasn't bad, but it had a plethora of busy scenes that made it difficult to suss out what was happening. Black and white is traditional for manga, but I think this book would have benefited from a color edition since so much of the story line is dependent upon colored inks and competitions to paint an arena.
As far as volume one goes, the chapters with Turf Wars were basically the same. A lack of development made for a somewhat dull majority of this book. Team Blue, supposedly such a badly ranked team, kept beating elite teams with little to no conflict or difficulty to make it interesting. Hopefully some kind of story line will appear in future volumes, because otherwise I can't see it lasting too long as a series.
I received a copy of this book from the publisher via Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review.
The book starts in the middle of things. A turf war is about to begin between Team Blue and Team Yellow-Green. The introduction to characters was good, but they seemed rather settled, one dimensional if you will. Once the first chapter was over, things got a bit better as the characters finally got to interact on a more normal level, but that didn't last long before more Turf Wars began among them and teams that were supposedly increasingly difficult compared to them.
Team Blue is a low ranked Inkling squad, but they make up for their abilities with team work and intensity. Compared to the first team they come up against, their camaraderie is evident, even as Goggles (Inkling Boy) continually drops his pants or pops out of ink naked (all private areas are always covered). His energy was a bit much at times, not altogether off putting, but what I really didn't like about him was when he started pantsing others, such as Rider. It's a childish tact and more than a little unnerving when directed at others.
His teammates (Specs, Bobble Hat, and Headphones) didn't really standout as much as (annoying as he is) Goggles did. If they hadn't been identified by their signature look, it would've been difficult to tell them apart based on their personalities. The fact that their whole identities are wrapped up in these accessories was another tic mark on the Con list. While shopping, Goggles wears a helmet and Headphones says "you're not even Goggles anymore!"
Artistically Splatoon wasn't bad, but it had a plethora of busy scenes that made it difficult to suss out what was happening. Black and white is traditional for manga, but I think this book would have benefited from a color edition since so much of the story line is dependent upon colored inks and competitions to paint an arena.
As far as volume one goes, the chapters with Turf Wars were basically the same. A lack of development made for a somewhat dull majority of this book. Team Blue, supposedly such a badly ranked team, kept beating elite teams with little to no conflict or difficulty to make it interesting. Hopefully some kind of story line will appear in future volumes, because otherwise I can't see it lasting too long as a series.
I received a copy of this book from the publisher via Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review.