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saidtheraina's review against another edition
4.0
Honestly, I kinda don't know where to start.
It follows the adventures of a pretty unlikeable kid in a british place with school uniforms. People create their own "parents" - they're machines. The sky rains knives as a matter of course. TV is replaced with watching "the wheel," which is vaguely kaleidoscopic. Houses have various kinds of "gods," which have functions. The police are elderly people riding around in carriages.
This kid's dad disappears, and he and a couple other kids go on the run to look for him.
The world looks pretty much like ours, although some of the machine/robots & gods look... out of place. But the way that things are structured is very very different. And sometimes words mean different things than they do in our world. And there's also some britishisms thrown in, which do nothing to clarify anything.
I don't think I've ever read anything like it.
And yes, it's confusing, and hard to explain, and not easy to follow.
But, flipping back through it, I feel nothing but admiration. The illustrations are very accessible and lovely. The creatures are downright cool looking.
It reads like one fucked-up dream.
But I think I liked it.
Kind of a lot.
It follows the adventures of a pretty unlikeable kid in a british place with school uniforms. People create their own "parents" - they're machines. The sky rains knives as a matter of course. TV is replaced with watching "the wheel," which is vaguely kaleidoscopic. Houses have various kinds of "gods," which have functions. The police are elderly people riding around in carriages.
This kid's dad disappears, and he and a couple other kids go on the run to look for him.
The world looks pretty much like ours, although some of the machine/robots & gods look... out of place. But the way that things are structured is very very different. And sometimes words mean different things than they do in our world. And there's also some britishisms thrown in, which do nothing to clarify anything.
I don't think I've ever read anything like it.
And yes, it's confusing, and hard to explain, and not easy to follow.
But, flipping back through it, I feel nothing but admiration. The illustrations are very accessible and lovely. The creatures are downright cool looking.
It reads like one fucked-up dream.
But I think I liked it.
Kind of a lot.
georgiar03's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
fast-paced
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
tiffany_aching99's review against another edition
5.0
This graphic novel accepts the darkness we live in denial, like the way we use our parents. We are drawn into this world by its striking symbolism the moment the daggers hit the page. Lines taken out of context are poetic, humorous and novel. The world as we know it is turned upside down to mean mundane lifeless household objects can talk and are worshipped like gods. The world “natural” is an archaic term because in this world people think all creation is manmade. It is a world of accepted tragedy, fate and destiny. We become a part of this as we accept this world’s quirks when nothing is ever explained to us. The reader cannot question. Children create their parents, but no one remembers that. So how do we really know the truth? And are our lives predestined, or is this world not so different to our own? Do all the characters create their own self fulfilling prophecy? “Is truth like a story, something you can only possess when you pass through it? A thing that can’t be owned by time.”
The characters themselves are something special. I could spend the review just talking about them, but, spoilers!! I have said enough. Now go out there, and read it!
The characters themselves are something special. I could spend the review just talking about them, but, spoilers!! I have said enough. Now go out there, and read it!
raechsreads's review against another edition
3.0
Parents don't make children; children make parents. Children have deathdays. Still puzzling the plot out.
gutterpede's review against another edition
3.0
Great art, interesting world and characters, ending fucking SUCKED ok maybe not, it was meaningful I just didn’t like it :/
amysutton's review against another edition
3.0
I'm still figuring out how I feel about this one, but it was a really cool universe.
I feel like the reader can either try to look deeper and find things to prove that the plot is really clever and mysterious, or they can take it at face value and see it as a confusing, meanderig story with a cliffhanger that makes the themes more important than the plot and characters. I feel like truly good books can be enjoyed in both ways - whether you're just reading them for what they are or whether you're looking for a deeper meaning. With this book, I felt like everything was going over my head or like I was trying too hard to make up an explanation for my lack of understanding.
*spoilers below*
So... It was a really creative universe filled with raining knives and trumpets that are dads and lions that guard schools. And I *think* there were certain quotes/ideas that the reader was supposed to pick up on to explain why the story ended and began the same way and why everything the children did seemed futile and controlled by fate. It was weird. It was unsettling. It didn't leave me fully satisfied.
107 - "It wasn't like our circular history books that begin where they end."
134 - "The way to free y'rself from any system of control is to do something useless. But do it as well as you can! That's really what does their heads in."
I feel like the reader can either try to look deeper and find things to prove that the plot is really clever and mysterious, or they can take it at face value and see it as a confusing, meanderig story with a cliffhanger that makes the themes more important than the plot and characters. I feel like truly good books can be enjoyed in both ways - whether you're just reading them for what they are or whether you're looking for a deeper meaning. With this book, I felt like everything was going over my head or like I was trying too hard to make up an explanation for my lack of understanding.
*spoilers below*
So... It was a really creative universe filled with raining knives and trumpets that are dads and lions that guard schools. And I *think* there were certain quotes/ideas that the reader was supposed to pick up on to explain why the story ended and began the same way and why everything the children did seemed futile and controlled by fate. It was weird. It was unsettling. It didn't leave me fully satisfied.
107 - "It wasn't like our circular history books that begin where they end."
134 - "The way to free y'rself from any system of control is to do something useless. But do it as well as you can! That's really what does their heads in."
yes_asha's review against another edition
3.0
This book would have benefited from a prologue. I spent most of it confused and straining to see it's references.