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saidtheraina's review
2.0
Young's come a long way. My ten-year-old and I LOVED Young's [b: The Dragon Path: A Graphic Novel|54776520|The Dragon Path A Graphic Novel|Ethan Young|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1605574552l/54776520._SX50_.jpg|85448933], so I was excited when I saw my library owned copies of Young's earlier autobio stuff.
The illustrations are impressive, and I can see the bones of emerging greatness, but overall it didn't hang together as much as I expected/wanted it to. The animal superhero thing that's all over the cover is barely a motif, lots of plot threads get dead dropped. I loved the parts about what it's like to work in an animal... shelter? vet clinic? I forget which... in NYC, and wish that had been more of the focus. The loosey-goosey approach is fine for a webcomic, but I was expecting more editing/polish on something bound and published.
Young's definitely worth watching, but this first thing was a shrug for me.
The illustrations are impressive, and I can see the bones of emerging greatness, but overall it didn't hang together as much as I expected/wanted it to. The animal superhero thing that's all over the cover is barely a motif, lots of plot threads get dead dropped. I loved the parts about what it's like to work in an animal... shelter? vet clinic? I forget which... in NYC, and wish that had been more of the focus. The loosey-goosey approach is fine for a webcomic, but I was expecting more editing/polish on something bound and published.
Young's definitely worth watching, but this first thing was a shrug for me.
tasharobinson's review
2.0
Enjoyed the sharp, stylish black-and-white art and the superheroic-animal fantasy sequences, but the focus on the protagonist's self-pity and unending hostility toward the world got pretty tiresome. By the end of the book, he's just starting to realize he's an asshole (his actual word for himself), but readers will know it a lot earlier by his hateful inner monologue and the explosive way he reacts to things like being dumped by the girl he didn't like much, didn't treat well, and by his own admission was only staying with because he didn't want to die alone. At the point where he decides his big problem in life is that he isn't devoting enough time and attention to himself, I wanted to scream. This is definitely a book about the self-absorption and naiveté of youth, but knowing that doesn't make it any easier to take when he's obsessing about what an opportunity he missed when he didn't tell his ex "So's your FACE!" when she told him it would be pathetic for him to moon over her.
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