Graphic Novel Review - Scarlet by Brian Michael Bendis and Alex Maleev (4/5 stars)

Reading level: Adult
Genre: Graphic Novel/Superhero
Size: 184 pages
Publisher: Marvel
Release Date: July 20, 2011
ISBN: 978-0785152514
Stand Alone or Series: 1st in a series
Source: Gift for Xmas
Rating: 4/5 stars


I got a copy of this graphic novel for Christmas. It was a good read, it is dark and gritty. Full of lots of action with a great anti-hero type of heroine that you can't help but root for.

Scarlet fell in love once; then her boyfriend was brutally murdered by a cop gone wrong. Now Scarlet has a vendetta...to eliminate all of the dirty cops in the Portland and to destroy the system that lets them get away with their evil deeds. All she needs is a huge ass sniper rifle and a little support in the form of a flash mob...

This was an interesting read. The illustration is very dark with muted colors and a sketched out look to it. It matches the tone of the story perfectly; dark, gritty, and a bit rough looking. I enjoyed it.

I also enjoyed that Scarlet talks directly to the reader at a number of points; this was creative and was very well done. Scarlet as a character has a great background and draws the reader into the story. Parts of the book, for instance where you get Scarlet's whole life history in a series of still pictures with minimal caption, were incredibly well done and told a lot of story in a unique way.

The story itself was pretty typical of superhero stories in general. Scarlet has been hurt by the evil authority and has nothing to lose and will take them all out. I did like that a woman is featured as the butt-kicker in this series and I enjoyed her sniper skills as well as how ballsy she was.

I am curious to see where this series goes. Basically Scarlet is able to get support from the general populace but is going against authority in general. This opening collection didn't have anything super creative and super out of the box. The story was generally well done as was the artwork, so I do see a lot of potential for something amazing here.

Overall a great read with great illustration. This is a well done story and it is unique to have Scarlet talk directly to the reader. I enjoyed it overall, although the plot doesn't seem to be anything all that special. Still, there is a lot of potential here and I am interested to see where the next installment in this graphic novel series takes us.

Review - The Man Who Loved Books Too Much by Allison Hoover Bartlett (2/5 stars)

I thought this sounded like an awesome book.  It discusses the world of Bibliomania in general and specifically two men who are deep into the industry (one who steals rare books and the man whose mission it was to find him).  I love books and love learning about them and was excited to learn more about this industry.  Overall I was not impressed with this book.  The author jumps around between stories, different points of view, and her personal experiences kind of willy nilly.  She also doesn't ever really give or get any intriguing insight into why people do these things; besides the conclusions that anyone could make with a couple minutes of thought.

I listened to this on audio book, which I would not recommend, the lady who read the story kind of mumbled and didn't differentiate between characters at all.

From what I gathered Bartlett started researching this topic as a newspaper article and it grew into a book.  You can definitely tell.  This would have been find as a newspaper feature but as a book it left a lot to be desired.  Bartlett mainly focuses on John Gilkey, a reknown rare book thief, and Ken Sanders, a Bibliodick set on catching book thieves.  

The most positive part of this book is the look into the world of rare book dealing.  Some of this information is very interesting.  Unfortunately for me that was the most positive part of this book.

Bartlett switches between Gilkey's stories and Sanders' stories without much organization or reason.  Then she intersperses sections on how she feels she fits into the world of bibliomania and what her thoughts on the whole issue are.  She spends quite a bit of time sympathizing with Gilkey and not nearly enough time discussing the impacts of his book theft.  Towards the end of the book there is one lady whose story she tells briefly, that gives you a bit of an idea of what kind of impact stealing a $5000 book has on a rare book store, but that's it.

I failed to find Gilkey as intriguing as the author did.  Gilkey was a plain old stupid criminal, the only thing that sets him apart are his calm attitude and his complete lack of morality.  Although I guess a lot of criminals lack morality.  Gilkey wasn't even clever and most of the time seemed to be just plain old lucky.  I was hoping for a tale of clever deception and what I got was a tale of a criminal with some luck who was up against an inefficient system of law that has bigger things to worry about than stolen books.

Sanders was a more interesting person and he really seemed to make some changes in the overall system that helped catch book thieves.

The conclusions that Bartlett draws are less than awe-inspiring.  Basically people collect things because they want people to admire them.  I was disappointed that the whole build up in this book leaves us with that basic message.  I know this is a non-fiction book but the closure of it was also pretty...well...lame.  At the end of the book not much had changed from the beginning.  As the reader we know a smidge more about rare book collecting and some might learn more about collecting as a type of disability.  Personally I didn't learn anything I didn't already know about people who are crazy about collecting things.

Overall, this short book seemed like a much longer read than books twice its length.  There is some interesting information; but it is bogged down by constant switches in who is telling what story, a lack of empathy for the people being stolen from, and only minimal insight into why people do the things they do.  Basically I thought it was boring and a waste of time.  I almost stopped listening to it on more than one occasion but kept telling myself "really it's not that long, you should be able to get through this...".  I will not be picking up any of Bartlett's future works.

This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
- The 100+ Book Reading Challenge

 

Review - White Cat (The Curse Workers, Book 1) by Holly Black (3/5 stars)

I got an advanced reading copy of this book through the Amazon Vine program.  I was really excited to read this book because I am a huge Holly Black fan. I loved Black's Modern Fairy Tale series, loved the Spiderwick Chronicles and have enjoyed her graphic novel series The Good Neighbors.  This book was okay, but not nearly as engaging as I was hoping for.

Cassel comes from a family of curse workers, but is not a Curse Worker himself.  Curse workers can do things and specialize in a single area (emotions, physical, memory, dreams, transformation).  Cassel's family is involved with the Curse Worker equivalent of the Mafia.  When Cassel start having disturbing dreams and begins to be trailed by a white cat, he starts thinking that things are not what they seem to be.  He begins to worry that his brothers are keeping secrets from him and are more deeply involved in the Curse Worker Mafia than he originally thought.  He need to figure out what is going on before his dreams end up killing him.

I am not sure what I expected from this book, but whatever I expected, this book wasn't it.  The majority of this book is about conning people, confidence schemes, and the Mafia.  There is magic involved (in Cursing) but it is overshadowed by all the political maneuvering and scheming.  So, if you are into reading about Mafia type setups and con-men then this is the book for you.

I usually find Black's characters very engaging, but that was not the case in this book.  It's very hard to like Cassel or to feel bad for him.  He states many times that he is not a nice person, and even in his ignorance, he isn't.  His friends are in the story only a small amount, and as such aren't well defined.  His brothers are flat-out jerks.  Even the girl from his past, Lila, is not a character that you can really like.

The plot was fine and moved along at a fast clip.  There are a number of twists and turns that will keep the reader guessing.  Some of the twists at the end of the book are humorous and ironic.  The writing style was very readable, but lacked description.  The writing style was also more simplistic than I am used to from Black's previous works, at least along the lines of complexity and description.

I did find the world with Curse Workers included to be interesting.  I found the concept of "blowback" every time you work a curse to be interesting.  Unfortunately there isn't a lot of background given on Curse Workers and how they interact with the rest of the world.  Some politics behind Curse Working are discussed but not in great detail.  I have a feeling that this is going to be visited in a lot more depth in future novels in this series.

Overall this was an okay book.  The plot and magic system were interesting; I thought characterization and writing were only so-so.  This has potential to become a really interesting series in future books, but this book left me uncertain as to whether or not I will actually read more books in this series.  The concept of Curse Workers itself is creative and intriguing; it just wasn't pulled off in a very exciting way and in general the book left me kind of bored.  Definitely not one of Black's best efforts.  I would check out either her Modern Fairy Tale series or The Spiderwick Chronicles first.

This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
- The Young Adult Reading Challenge
- The 100+ Book Reading Challenge
- 1st in a Series Reading Challenge