Review: Supermarket [Graphic Novel]

Supermarket by Brian Wood, Art by Kristian

November 8, 2008 by IDW Publishing

[Goodreads][Amazon]

Summary:

In the future world of Supermarket, it's the literal truth. Legitimate and black-market economies rule the City, overseen by the vying factions of the Yakuza and Porno Swede crime families. Convenience store clerkette and 16-year old suburban wise-ass Pella Suzuki suddenly finds herself in the middle of it all, heir to an empire she couldn't possibly inherit, but hitmen on both sides aren't taking any chances.

Review:

Okay, I admit it. I'm a huge nerd, geek and what-have-you but this is the bookish world in the internet-universe and I know I'm not the only one who reads graphic novels, comics and manga. I grew up around illustrated stories, got into graphic novels when I was fairly young and I love a good story that's narrated with great art. To those people who aren't giving the comic book world a chance; you're missing out.

Say you love yourself some dystopian fiction, enjoy stories about the mafia, and hell, maybe you secretly love watching those Fast and Furious movies... Supermarket is a mighty fine graphic novel. I want to emphasize the word graphic too, because the art in this book does not follow the standard superhero-graphic-novel style. The colours are bright and well-thought out and each page is eye-catching without being offensive. The drawings themselves are look simply illustrated but in fact have a lot of character. The art reflects well on the urban adventure of the story and the artist has an excellent grasp of design. 

The story is fantastic. Money rules the world that Brian Wood created and Pella Suzuki, the main character, is caught in the middle of a gang war with two crime families. On one end, there's the Yakuza... on the other? Porno Swedes. That's right. You heard that right, Porno. Swedes. Do us all a favour and don't try and Google that, alright? Anyways, I don't want to spoil anything so I'll just say that the elements of story and art are meshed together in holy matrimony and it's a great read. People tend to think that words with pictures are childish but I digress, they stimulate how a story can be told and can even enhance the reading experience. This graphic novel isn't like the Archie comics you read as a kid. It's well-thought out; there's a deep story, there's a message, dark themes and if this were put into motion picture? I would rate it for teens and over considering the violence involved. 

Supermarket is exciting, bold and colourful. 

Rating: 4/5 Bookworms

Review: The Song of Achilles

The Song of Achilles by Madeleine Miller

Published September 20th 2011 by Bloomsbury Publishing 

[Goodreads][Amazon][Chapters Indigo]

Synopsis:

"Greece in the age of Heroes. Patroclus, an awkward young prince, has been exiled to the kingdom of Phthia. Here he is nobody, just another unwanted boy living in the shadow of King Peleus and his golden son, Achilles.

Achilles, 'best of all the Greeks', is everything Patroclus is not — strong, beautiful, the child of a goddess — and by all rights their paths should never cross. Yet one day, Achilles takes the shamed prince under his wing and soon their tentative companionship gives way to a steadfast friendship. As they grow into young men skilled in the arts of war and medicine, their bond blossoms into something far deeper — despite the displeasure of Achilles's mother Thetis, a cruel and deathly pale sea goddess with a hatred of mortals.

Fate is never far from the heels of Achilles. When word comes that Helen of Sparta has been kidnapped, the men of Greece are called upon to lay siege to Troy in her name. Seduced by the promise of a glorious destiny, Achilles joins their cause. Torn between love and fear for his friend, Patroclus follows Achilles into war, little knowing that the years that follow will test everything they have learned, everything they hold dear. And that, before he is ready, he will be forced to surrender his friend to the hands of Fate.

Profoundly moving and breathtakingly original, this rendering of the epic Trojan War is a dazzling feat of the imagination, a devastating love story, and an almighty battle between gods and kings, peace and glory, immortal fame and the human heart."

Review:

I'm going to say now that if you don't know anything about Greek mythology, especially about Achilles and Patroclus, well… let's just say you're missing out on a lot of cool things and there might be some very slight spoilers here.

The Song of Achilles is pretty much what you think it is; a story about Achilles. As in the Achilles... you know the one in The Iliad? The guy with the heel. The spin is, however, that this story is from the perspective of Patroclus, a character in Greek mythology known to be Achilles' most trusted friend, or as many people have argued, lovers. In this story, they are indeed lovers which I'm actually so thrilled about. Why? Well I feel like I just don't read enough books, especially prize-winners, that involve a homosexual relationship. Not that they don't exist but I feel like it's only been recently that I've begun seeing more of them. I love seeing more books talking about sexuality and different kinds of relationships -- am I the only one who's seeing them more only recently?

Despite winning a prize, I honestly thought this book was still only alright. Something I have to praise Miller on is how she wrote the development of the relationship between Achilles and Patroclus. I felt like their connection was so honest and natural as it developed and grew. As much as I loved how well their relationship played out I felt like it focused far too much into it. This was so frustrating for me because parts of it plateaued and dragged on and on. I wanted something to bloody happen and for Patroclus to stop admiring Achille's hot bod. It's really not often I think "somebody die already!" I needed some development, dammit!

Although Miller's language was very thoughtfully used, classical-feeling but read in a very modern state, her take on the characters weren't my favourite. Patroclus was made out to be weak and incompetent as a warrior which is absurd. Patroclus was a pretty able warrior and quite frankly, if you're comrade to Achilles, of course you're going to be weaker in comparison, but on the field? He was as competent as any other non-God warrior. Oh, and let's not mention that Achilles' character in this book is vastly different than how I would imagine him from The Iliad. I always thought he was arrogant and far too self-confident, which, okay, fine, from the perspective of a lover, I understand why that's not as apparent. I feel like the characters weren't really as well-done as their relationship was, and that was disappointing. It's hard following characters that you're not liking quite as much through a story that drags on for ages.

This book is a…decent enough retelling of The Iliad. I felt the characters were rather annoying, and that there was a lot of focus on the romance despite the fact that there was a pretty bloody war going on around the main characters. The in-book-timeframe honestly took forever despite the book only being less than 400 pages long. My only other complaint is that the edition I bought had a foil cover and it flaked on EVERYTHING. My hands were absolutely disgusting every time I picked this book up and there was gold foil bits scattered around the couch I would read on. Annoying.

Rating: 3/5 Bookworms … not horrible, but it wasn't great either.

Review: Lullaby by Chuck Palahniuk

Lullaby by Chuck Palahniuk

Published June 5th 2003 by Vintage (first published July 28th 1999)

[Goodreads][Amazon][Chapters Indigo]

Synopsis: 

"Ever heard of a culling song? It’s a lullaby sung in Africa to give a painless death to the old or infirm. The lyrics of a culling song kill, whether spoken or even just thought. You can find one on page 27 of Poems and Rhymes from Around the World, an anthology that is sitting on the shelves of libraries across the country, waiting to be picked up by unsuspecting readers.

Reporter Carl Streator discovers the song’s lethal nature while researching Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, and before he knows it, he’s reciting the poem to anyone who bothers him. As the body count rises, Streator glimpses the potential catastrophe if someone truly malicious finds out about the song. The only answer is to find and destroy every copy of the book in the country. Accompanied by a shady real-estate agent, her Wiccan assistant, and the assistant’s truly annoying ecoterrorist boyfriend, Streator begins a desperate cross-country quest to put the culling song to rest."

Review:

Let me first off let you all know about how Chuck Palahniuk never, EVER fails to blow my mind. Lullaby was no exception to this rule. I would however like to say that although I did like this book, it's not the best he's ever written. Then again, it's not making itself out to be the best. This book was written as a way for Palahniuk to cope with a tragedy in his life and he wrote this solely for himself -- yes, it's published and shared among readers but in the end, so is this blog. I write solely for the joy of writing, but I also want to share my thoughts and feelings about what I'm writing as well.

So to enlighten those of you who don't know, Palahniuk wrote this book to help him cope with a big decision. In unfortunate tragedy, his father and his father's girlfriend were murdered by the girlfriend's ex-boyfriend. The murderer was caught, and was put on trial, but they gave Palahniuk the opportunity to be a part of a decision; does this murderer live, or die?

This is a large theme in the novel -- the idea of playing God. Who are we to decide who lives or dies? When that power is imparted on us, what do we use it for? There's also the old "sticks and stones" idea. How badly can words hurt? There's also a lot of mention about how much we're influenced by the media; noise from televisions, radio, movies, music and so on and so forth. This book, as strange as any of Chuck Palahniuk's books ring with a lot of things worth thinking about. It's also a story about a merry band of misfits on a road trip, which is also kinda fun.

Lullaby isn't Palahniuk's best work, in my humble opinion, but it isn't bad either. I think if you're a fan of his other stories then you would enjoy this. Although I liked reading this, Invisible Monsters still rings as my favourite from this author. I really liked the themes and ideas that this book portrayed, but I also felt that the direction was disjointed and the characters were difficult to like sometimes. Basically, it was good in places but fell apart in other areas. With that, let's move onto the bookworm rating:

Rating: 3/5 Bookworms

Review: The Magicians

The Magicians by Lev Grossman

Published 2009 Viking/Penguin Books

Synopsis: "Quentin Coldwater is brillant but miserable. He's a senior in high school, and a certifiable genius, but he's still secretly obsessed with a series of fantasy novels he read as a kid, about the adventures of five children in a magical land called Fillory. Compared to that, anything in his real life just seems gray and colorless. 

Everything changes when Quentin finds himself unexpectedly admitted to a very secret, very exclusive college of magic in upstate New York, where he receives a thorough and rigorous education in the practice of modern sorcery. He also discovers all the other things people learn in college: friendship, love, sex, booze, and boredom. But something is still missing. Magic doesn't bring Quentin the happiness and adventure he though it would.

Then, after graduation, he and his friends make a stunning discovery: Fillory is real."

Review: I admit it. I didn't finish this book. I think I made it through about 30 pages before I shook my head, disgruntled, and abandoned trying to read this.

I actually went looking for this book at my local library, was excited to pick it up as I had researched into it. John Green, writer of The Fault in Our Stars and Looking for Alaska actually commented on this book in a Vlogbrothers video, saying that if we enjoyed Harry Potter then this would be an interesting take on the magic school genre. Not that this book is any of John Green's fault but I had heard that this book has been called the "Harry Potter for adults." Well, everyone, I'm sorry to say, but whoever said that originally is a liar, liar pants on fire.

Harry Potter has this charming, quirky quality to it. From the get-go you're engaged with Harry's character, the strange things that happen to him and how he interacts with the world. I think the important thing is that in that first book, you really like Harry. He's humble and genuine - he has good intent.

The Magicians is meant for an older audience (16+, I would say) and no, it's not Harry Potter. I get that.  But if you're going to compare it to that; don't. Even if it's to make a crude comparison. I would have been happy with it just being categorized in the likes of "magic school kind of story."

I feel like Quentin is a poor protagonist. I feel like the writer was trying too hard to make him out to be a horny teenager. In the pages I did read, he whined about how a girl didn't like him and tried to not look down the blouses of two other female characters. Was it necessary to mention it multiple times? Probably not. I get it. He's a young and filled with hormones and I really don't care. I can barely stand people whine about how they can't get the girl/guy in real life, let alone in the beginning of my novel when I'm trying to just get to know the character.

Also, something I really dislike is when writers make "genius" characters and make them extremely pretentious. I also especially questions the logitics of Quentin's characters when he's writing an exam and claims that the stuff happening on his paper was "hi-tech paper" and that it was "hi-res." Hey, genius, have you... I dunno, questioned your whereabouts and what's happening around you or anything? Oh right, you didn't because you're still pretentious.

Does this book get any better? I don't know, and I don't care to find out. Maybe it does get better, maybe the character develops into something more likeable... maybe this read wasn't for me.

Rating: 1/5 Bookworms