Friday, December 22, 2017

Review: Graphic Novels Part One

Hey everyone! It's been awhile since I've posted anything but...university finals are no joke. However, now that I am OFFICIALLY on my winter break, I'm hoping to read a lot, post a lot, and not buy a lot of books, but we all know how that goes, especially since I work in a bookstore, being surrounded by books is not very helpful for a book buying ban.
To start coming back into blogging, I've decided to write a few mini reviews on some graphic novel series that I've read while I was trudging through finals. Without further ado, here we go!

PART ONE

Image result for the wicked and the divineThe Wicked + The Divine Vol 1-5 by Kieron Gillen

       This series is currently still being written, but I have read the first 5 novels. This is a series about gods that have been reincarnated as teenagers, and they live for 2 years before they die and then are dormant for 90 years, where they then come back to life.
The premise for this series was very interesting, so I jumped right into it without knowing anything other than that little bit. I'd seen it all over the place, and with the first 5 books out, I figured, why not?
Overall, the books were weird, in good and bad ways. At some points the story line is very hard to follow, and at other times, the story line was super easy to follow. The problem with this is that I was reading some parts knowing exactly what was happening, before I got to the next part and I was completely lost. This made reading it hard, because I had to constantly keep reading and re-reading everything in order to remember what was happening.
The art style for this was also very weird. Each novel was broken into separate sections, with each section focusing on one of the gods or goddess. The problem with this is that each section was drawn by a different artist. This means that there were some slight variations between some sections, and such drastic ones between others that I had NO idea who the characters were, which is strange, especially when this was occurring in the 5th novel. The series started well, hit a far low at novel 3, and is starting to pick itself up again with the art, as well as with the story line itself.
Overall - 1 - 4 

Seconds by Bryan Lee O'Malley
Image result for seconds bryan lee o'malley
       This one is a standalone graphic novel, but I loved it so I figured I would include it here!
Seconds is about a woman who owns a restaurant, but has made some decisions regarding it and her personal life that she regrets. Then a strange woman arrives in her home, and she gives our main character the opportunity to change one thing about her life, anything that she wants.
From here, the main character finds a way of being able to repeat this a multiple amount of times, and she begins to do things in her life that she would never do, only to undo them the next morning. This creates a lot of problems for her, and her life is drastically changed.
I loved this graphic novel, the ideas behind it were some things that I've always considered in my life; what if I could change something? What would I change? How would that affect the person I've become, the person I am now? I think this novel was a real eye opener, showing how that we take so many small things for granted, and that any tiny decision we make and every little thing we do can have a drastic affect on who we are as people, as well as our lives and the people around us.
I really liked the art work for this novel, the drawing was consistent throughout the entire novel, and it is a big one too! All the characters were drawn carefully, they all had good expressions, and they all seemed like they belonged in the story line and were carefully thought of.
Overall - ★★★★☆
     
Image result for alex and adaAlex and Ada Vol 1-3 by Johnathan Luna

       This was a series that I picked up on a whim. It follows our main character Alex, who is gifted Ada, who is an android, from his grandmother. This story takes place in a futuristic world where everyone has an android, as either someone who does everyday tasks like cooking or cleaning, or as a lover or friend.
I liked the concept behind this story, as I personally am a HUGEEE fan of science fiction. Robots? Count me in.
With this series thus far, I've really enjoyed the story line. There is more text in this graphic novel series than any that I have read thus far. Having the larger amount of text was really nice, because it made the novel seem more like a book than a novel. The story line was easy to follow and interesting, the characters were realistic without seeming overdone, and the artwork was beautiful.
This is a series that I didn't have any massive problems with. The story was an interesting idea that I haven't seen before in graphic novels, and the artwork was nice to look at, as well as being a style that I also hadn't seen before.
Overall - ★★★★☆

Here is the link for part two!