Review: Graphic Novels Part Two

Hey everyone! I figured that since I had a fair amount of things to say about quite a few different graphic novel standalones and series, I'd split it up into two reviews. This is part two!

Here is the link for part one!

Saga Vol 1-8 by Brian K. Vaughan
       I've seen everyone on booktube reading Saga on and off for the past few years, so I figured I'd give it a go and see how it was, and just, WOW.
The artwork in the series is absolutely amazing. It's consistent, and all the characters are drawn beautifully. (This series is definitely a mature series, however).
The storyline is completely perfect. It's a story about aliens in space, travelling the galaxy, as well as a war happening between a planet and its moon, and how everyone in the galaxy can be affected in a negative way because of it. It's a story about war, sadness, and guilt, but also about love and how anything can be overcome by it.
The characters are amazingly well thought of. Every single character is weird and different (as they should be - they ARE aliens), but they are also so well developed, and they still develop a lot throughout the story. Everyone is connected in some way, and even though some characters only see each other once in awhile throughout the volumes, they still are all connected and are affecting each other in some way or another.
Overall, every single volume is amazing, and I know I'm going to be reading and rereading them time and time again.
Overall - ★★★★★

Archie Vol 1-4 by Mark Waid
       I used to read the Archie comic books when I was a kid, and I have such fond memories of going to flea markets at the cottage and buying boxes of old Archie comics, and I'd sit on the porch or in the woods by a stream and spend the rest of my time at the cottage reading them. With the new Riverdale TV show that came out (and yes, I do watch it - a guilty pleasure of mine) I missed the Archie comics, so I figured I'd pick up the new graphic novels.
The artwork is the same idea as the original comics, but there is a modern spin on it. I liked how they stayed true to the characters (Betty and her cars, Jughead and his crown, etc.) and how they didn't change anything massive or drastic.
The plots of the graphic novels, the storylines themselves, are different from the original comics, but in a good way. They all focus around one massive problem, and it is usually solved by the end of the novel, and another problem occurs. I enjoyed the plots themselves because they reminded me of the originals and they still had a bit of a modern spin on them.
The artwork itself was also enjoyable, and just like the plots, is similar to the original comics but with a bit of a twist on it.
Overall - ★★★★☆

Paper Girls Vol 1-3 by Brian K. Vaughan
       The first novel of this series I had a lot of mixed feelings about. I knew going into them that they were supposed to be strange and that the reader was supposed to struggle a little bit in the first volume, but honestly, I had zero idea of what was happening. The only reason the first volume for me got two stars instead of one was because the art work was really pretty and I loved the style.
That being said, going into the second volume was a lot easier, because I had some idea of what was happening, and I knew it was going to be super weird. The second volume was better than the first because I was able to follow it a lot better, and the third was better than the second for the same reason.
The only problems I have with this series is that they are so fast paced, that something will happen and you don't have a chance to understand what is happening before something else crazy happens. I personally love fast paced novels, but these are on a whole different level.
The art work in this series is the only reason that I kept reading them after the first novel. The art work is futuristic while being older, and I love the style. Also, as I said above, I LOVE Saga, and knowing that Brian K. Vaughan had his hand in this series really helped to keep me reading.
I'm going to keep reading this series as it comes out, and see where it goes and how my views change as I get further into the series.
Volume 1: ★★☆☆☆
Volume 2: ★★★☆☆
Volume 3: ★★★☆☆.5

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

The 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

       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 - ★★★★☆
     
Alex 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!

Review: Meddling Kids by Edgar Cantero

Title: Meddling Kids

Author: Edgar Cantero

Genre: Mystery/Thriller

Pages: 366 (Hardcover)

Publisher: Doubleday Books
Publication date: July 11th, 2017

Synopsis from Meddling Kids' Goodreads page

For fans of John Dies at the End and Welcome to Night Vale comes a tour de force of horror, humor, and H.P. Lovecraft. The surviving members of a forgotten teenage detective club (and their dog) must reunite as broken adults to finally solve the terrifying case that ruined them all and sent the wrong man to prison. Scooby Doo and the gang never had to do this!

1990. The teen detectives once known as the Blyton Summer Detective Club (of Blyton Hills, a small mining town in the Zoinx River Valley in Oregon) are all grown up and haven't seen each other since their fateful, final case in 1977. Andy, the tomboy, is twenty-five and on the run, wanted in at least two states. Kerri, one-time kid genius and budding biologist, is bartending in New York, working on a serious drinking problem. At least she's got Tim, an excitable Weimaraner descended from the original canine member of the team. Nate, the horror nerd, has spent the last thirteen years in and out of mental health institutions, and currently resides in an asylum in Arhkam, Massachusetts. The only friend he still sees is Peter, the handsome jock turned movie star. The problem is, Peter's been dead for years.

The time has come to uncover the source of their nightmares and return to where it all began in 1977. This time, it better not be a man in a mask. The real monsters are waiting.

With raucous humor and brilliantly orchestrated mayhem, Edgar Cantero's Meddling Kids taps into our shared nostalgia for the books and cartoons we grew up with, and delivers an exuberant, eclectic, and highly entertaining celebration of horror, life, friendship, and many-tentacled, interdimensional demon spawn.

THOUGHTS

I picked up Meddling Kids on a whim. I saw the cover and absolutely loved the colour scheme and it so vividly reminded me of Scooby-Doo and watching those cartoons when I was a kid. Needless to say, for a random book I found on the shelf, I had pretty high expectations for it.
The beginning was strange, but in a good way. It was a bit confusing and mysterious, and that's how a good mystery should start.
Meddling Kids centers around a group of adults that, when they were kids, solved mysteries just like the Scooby-Doo gang. However, in this book, the kids are all grown up and they have to confront their past and one of the mysteries that they believed they had solved, but really hadn't.
This book was dark. It had monsters and death and gore and blood. But it was also good in that it involved growing up, and what that entailed. It showed that kids and adults alike can have issues, but those issues don't define who they are, or who they become.
Parts of this book were very good, and other parts were okay. I found some parts to lag, and other parts to be too short for what was happening, and I wish there had been more. The writing style was also a little different, as it would tell like a story, and then suddenly parts would turn into almost a play script.
The characters were something that I absolutely loved about this book. The characters were all likeable, even the bad guys, and they all had a human element (except for, well, the nonhuman creatures). They all had their own faults, issues, and difficulties, but I enjoy reading about characters that have a difficult time with some things, because it makes them easier to connect to and with. These characters definitely had no light and easy issues, but they were all wonderful in their own ways and were great to read about.
Overall - ★★★☆☆.5

Review: Falling Kingdoms by Morgan Rhodes

Title: Falling Kingdoms
Series: Falling Kingdoms #1

Author: Morgan Rhodes

Genre: Fantasy

Age group: Young adult

Pages: 412 (Hardcover)

Publisher: Razorbill

Publication date: December 11, 2012

Synopsis from Falling Kingdom's Goodreads page

In the three kingdoms of Mytica, magic has long been forgotten. And while hard-won peace has reigned for centuries, a deadly unrest now simmers below the surface.

As the rulers of each kingdom grapple for power, the lives of their subjects are brutally transformed... and four key players, royals and rebels alike, find their fates forever intertwined. Cleo, Jonas, Lucia, and Magnus are caught in a dizzying world of treacherous betrayals, shocking murders, secret alliances, and even unforeseen love.

The only outcome that's certain is that kingdoms will fall. Who will emerge triumphant when all they know has collapsed?

It's the eve of war.... Choose your side.

Princess: Raised in pampered luxury, Cleo must now embark on a rough and treacherous journey into enemy territory in search of magic long thought extinct.

Rebel: Jonas, enraged at injustice, lashes out against the forces of oppression that have kept his country cruelly impoverished. To his shock, he finds himself the leader of a people's revolution centuries in the making.

Sorceress: Lucia, adopted at birth into the royal family, discovers the truth about her past—and the supernatural legacy she is destined to wield.

Heir: Bred for aggression and trained to conquer, firstborn son Magnus begins to realize that the heart can be more lethal than the sword.... 

THOUGHTS

Going into Falling Kingdoms, I had some SUPER high expectations. Everyone I know who has read them has absolutely loved the series so far, and all of the book bloggers and booktubers I follow and watch have also loved it.

I found the beginning of this book extremely hard to follow and to get into. Falling Kingdoms takes place in three different kingdoms on the same island, and is written from three different characters' perspectives from these three kingdoms. That alone was extremely hard to follow, because the author delves right into the book and you have to try and remember who is related to who, where they come from and how each character affects and is affected by each other character.

Once I began to follow the characters and I got well into the book, I found it a bit easier to enjoy the story, because I wasn't spending all my time trying to remember who was who and where they lived, which affected their entire lives. As this got easier and I actually started to read the book for the plot, I started to enjoy it. It took almost half the book for this to happen though, and although I want to say that this book was amazing and all the hype was correct...I found it a bit disappointing.

Falling Kingdoms wasn't as good as I had hoped it to be, yet I still gave it 4/5 stars, albeit a very hesitant 4/5 stars, because I know that this series will become much better. Falling Kingdoms was used entirely to set up the characters, to begin to create turmoil and problems in the characters' lives, and to create the world, history, and the politics of the kingdoms.

For what this book was used to do, and how it was used to set up four different characters lives in three different kingdoms, it was done extremely well. If the rest of the series is like the ending of Falling Kingdoms, I know that I will have nothing but good things to say about it and nothing but good reviews.

Rating - ★★★★☆ 

Top Ten Tuesday (9): Top Books I Want to Read: Summer 2017 Edition

Hello everyone!
I'm going to be honest here - this post was SUPPOSED to be a Top Ten Tuesday, but since I had a final exam today I totally forgot what day it is, so here's a Top Ten...Wednesday I guess?
This summer is going to be filled with reading for me, and since I have a very large stack of 10 very large books staring at my on my desk, I figured I might as well make a blog post out of it, because why not?

1. Lady Midnight by Cassandra Clare
2. A Darker Shade of Magic by V. E. Schwab
3. Red Rising by Pierce Brown

      4. The Hero of Ages by Brandon Sanderson

      5. Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas
      6. Falling Kingdoms by Morgan Rhodes

      7. Three Dark Crowns by Kendare Blake
      8. The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller

      9. A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas
     10. To All the Boys I've Loved Before by Jenny Han

2017 Reads

2015 Reads | 2016 Reads 

Last updated: December 31st, 2017

January

1. ★★★☆☆.75 Cinder (The Lunar Chronicles #1) by Marissa Meyer
2. ★★★★☆      Been Here All Along by Sandy Hall

April

1. ★★★★★      Strange the Dreamer (Strange the Dreamer #1) by Laini Taylor
2. ★★★★★      Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

June

1. ★★★★☆      You Are Here by Jennifer E, Smith
2. ★★★★★      Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon
3. ★★★★☆      The Rest of Us Just Live Here by Patrick Ness
4. ★★★☆☆.5   Where Things Come Back by John Corey Whaley
5. ★★★★★      The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller

July

1. ★★★★★      Lady Midnight (The Dark Artifices #1) by Cassandra Clare
2. ★★★★☆      Milk and Honey by Rupi Kaur
3. ★★★★☆.5   Three Dark Crowns (Three Dark Crowns #1) by Kendare Blake
4. ★★★★☆      Falling Kingdoms (Falling Kingdoms #1) by Morgan Rhodes
5. ★★★★★      The Woman in Cabin 10 by Ruth Ware

August

1. ★★★★☆      The Princess Saves Herself in this One by Amanda Lovelace
2. ★★★★☆      In a Dark, Dark Wood by Ruth Ware
3. ★★★★☆      A Darker Shade of Magic (Shades of Magic #1) by V.E. Schwab
4. ★★★★☆      Kalahari (Corpus #3) by Jessica Khoury
5. ★★★★☆      The Lying Game by Ruth Ware
6. ★★★☆☆      The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins
7. ★★★★★      Our Dark Duet (Monsters of Verity #2) by Victoria Schwab
8. ★★★★☆      Reasons to Stay Alive by Matt Haig
9. ★★★☆☆      The Game of Love and Death by Martha Brockenbrough
10. ★★☆☆☆      Living Dead Girl by Elizabeth Scott

September

1. ★★★★★      The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
2. ★★★☆☆.5   Fierce Kingdom by Gin Phillips
3. ★★★★☆.5   The Last Namsara by Kristen Ciccarelli
4. ★★☆☆☆.5   The Last Star Burning by Caitlin Sangster
5. ★★★★☆      Moxie by Jennifer Mathieu

October

1. ★★★☆☆.5   Everyone's a Aliebn When Ur a Aliebn Too by Jomney Sun
2. ★★★★☆      Nimona by Noelle Stevenson
3. ★★★☆☆      Fishbowl by Bradley Somer
4. ★★★★☆      The Sun and Her Flowers by Rupi Kaur
5. ★★★☆☆.5   Meddling Kids by Edgar Cantero
6. ★★★★☆      One Dark Throne (Three Dark Crowns #2) by Kendare Blake

November

1. ★★★☆☆      Slasher Girls and Monster Boys by Various Authors
2. ★★★★★      Turtles All the Way Down by John Green
3. ★★★☆☆      The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery
4. ★★★★★      Very Good Lives by J. K. Rowling
5. ★★★★☆      Archie Vol 1 by Mark Waid
6. ★★★★☆      Archie Vol 2 by Mark Waid
7. ★★★★☆      Archie Vol 3 by Mark Waid
8. ★★★★☆      Archie Vol 4 by Mark Waid
9. ★★★★☆      The Child Finder by Rene Denfeld
10. ★★★★☆      Make Good Art by Neil Gaiman
11. ★★★☆☆      The Terrible and Wonderful Reasons Why I Run Long Distances by Matthew Inman

December

1. ★★★★☆.5   The Kiss of Deception (The Remnant Chronicles #1) by Mary E. Pearson
2. ★★★★☆      The Wicked + The Divine Vol 1: The Faust Act by Kieron Gillen
3. ★★★★☆.5   The Wicked + The Divine Vol 2: Fandemonium by Kieron Gillen
4. ★★★★☆      Seconds by Bryan Lee O'Malley
5. ★★★★☆      Into the Water by Paula Hawkins
6. ★☆☆☆☆      The Wicked + The Divine Vol 3: Commercial Suicide by Kieron Gillen
7. ★★★★☆      The Wicked + The Divine Vol 4: Rising Action by Kieron Gillen
8. ★★★☆☆      The Wicked + The Divine Vol 5: Imperial Phase 1 by Kieron Gillen
9. ★★★★☆      Alex + Ada Vol 1 by Johnathan Luna
10. ★★★★☆      Alex + Ada Vol 2 by Johnathan Luna
11. ★★★★☆      Alex + Ada Vol 3 by Johnathan Luna
12. ★★★★☆      The Heart of Betrayal (The Remnant Chronicles #2) by Mary E. Pearson

Books read this year: 58/52