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moreadsbooks's review against another edition
3.0
Well, for a vampire who's been shut up in a cave & not allowed to eat for decades, that Mimteh sure has retained her bosom, hasn't she? This is a pretty fair fourth installment of this series, although I found the Mimteh storyline & the lady bubble-bottom contained within to be kind of unintentionally hilarious. Even when I slow down & read carefully, there are still some panel inconsistencies in Albuquereque's artwork that bug me, but maybe that's more Snyder's fault than his? I absolutely love Travis the teenage vampire killer. The artwork that accompanies the story of his formative years, especially the big-eyed baby boy hiding under the cabinet while his parents are being murdered - good grief, but that bit got to me. I'm a pretty big fan of Calvin Poole, too, especially that scene in the hotel pool. I will now just patiently wait on the fifth book since there's not nearly enough Pearl here to keep me satisfied.
ginamac36's review against another edition
5.0
I loved this volume with lots of back story and details about these characters I'm really growing to love.
velocitygirl14's review against another edition
3.0
This sort of disappointed me. The vampire hunter angle is usually the weakest done in this books, mainly because despite tying up some loose ends, has the same predictable pattern that we have seen in all vigilante books, movies or comics. Pearl is the one decent character that is well written. She's decent and just trying to live her life quietly with the man she loves, but has to keep fighting to preserve that. The vampire hunters are just self serving zealots bent on revenge under the guise of a mission and that is bs and basically never ends well.
inferiorwit's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
fast-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Cursing, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Racial slurs, Racism, Violence, Forced institutionalization, and Blood
thegoblinempress's review against another edition
4.0
3.5 Stars.
Considering how much I enjoyed Volume 3 (reviewed here!) of American Vampire I was bound to pick up the next instalment as soon as I could afford to - I love graphic novels and I'm happy to pay a little more for them than I would for any other book, but when you need to catch up on a series and buy three at once it gets pretty pricy pretty fast!
A part of me was hesitant to pick up Volume 4 because I loved Volume 3 so much, I was worried I'd somehow find this volume hugely disappointing because it wasn't the previous one, but I ended up enjoying it quite a lot. After the sheer awesome that was the previous volume, I think Snyder's decision to take a break from those characters was wise; instead our first story in this volume shows us James Book and Skinner Sweet in their youth - it was nice to see a pre-vampire Skinner and a not-dead Book! - the second took us to the '50s and introduced another new character: Travis Kidd, and the third showed us something of Calvin Poole and the racial tensions in mid-20th century America, with just a brief glimpse of Pearl and Henry.
My favourite story in this volume would have to be Travis Kidd's, which surprised me. I was a little wary going in that Travis was going to be a very typical character; a Skinner Sweet in miniature, only with less fangs. Instead he was an interesting character with an interesting set of wooden teeth, and I loved the James Dean, rebel without a cause vibe to his story which really suited the era it was set in. I look forward to seeing what he gets up to next.
I'm still not entirely sure how I feel about the first story which explored the history between Book and Skinner. I feel like too many enemy stories start out with two guys who were 'once like brothers', so I was a little disappointed Snyder decided to go down that route for these two, but having said that the two of them once being like family does make their inevitable war against one another all the more bittersweet.
I would like to see more of Mimiteh in future, a Native American vampire who seems like a cool, but lethal, lady. I'd love to know if she and Skinner have ever crossed paths.
I liked the way Calvin's story played around with prejudice, and also introduced us to what seems to be a new species of vampire. Snyder just keeps on expanding this world he's created, and I love how his imagination works.
My main criticism of this volume, and the reason I didn't rate it as highly as the previous, was simply because there weren't enough ladies in it for me. I wasn't too keen on the fate of Piper, Travis's 'girlfriend', and there were times when I felt Mimiteh was rather sexualised, but that could just be me being very picky. Pearl and Felicia usually have quite a bit of 'screen time', so I suppose it's only fair the boys get some, too!
I'm still loving this series, and I'm looking forward to seeing what happens in the next volume!
Considering how much I enjoyed Volume 3 (reviewed here!) of American Vampire I was bound to pick up the next instalment as soon as I could afford to - I love graphic novels and I'm happy to pay a little more for them than I would for any other book, but when you need to catch up on a series and buy three at once it gets pretty pricy pretty fast!
A part of me was hesitant to pick up Volume 4 because I loved Volume 3 so much, I was worried I'd somehow find this volume hugely disappointing because it wasn't the previous one, but I ended up enjoying it quite a lot. After the sheer awesome that was the previous volume, I think Snyder's decision to take a break from those characters was wise; instead our first story in this volume shows us James Book and Skinner Sweet in their youth - it was nice to see a pre-vampire Skinner and a not-dead Book! - the second took us to the '50s and introduced another new character: Travis Kidd, and the third showed us something of Calvin Poole and the racial tensions in mid-20th century America, with just a brief glimpse of Pearl and Henry.
My favourite story in this volume would have to be Travis Kidd's, which surprised me. I was a little wary going in that Travis was going to be a very typical character; a Skinner Sweet in miniature, only with less fangs. Instead he was an interesting character with an interesting set of wooden teeth, and I loved the James Dean, rebel without a cause vibe to his story which really suited the era it was set in. I look forward to seeing what he gets up to next.
I'm still not entirely sure how I feel about the first story which explored the history between Book and Skinner. I feel like too many enemy stories start out with two guys who were 'once like brothers', so I was a little disappointed Snyder decided to go down that route for these two, but having said that the two of them once being like family does make their inevitable war against one another all the more bittersweet.
I would like to see more of Mimiteh in future, a Native American vampire who seems like a cool, but lethal, lady. I'd love to know if she and Skinner have ever crossed paths.
I liked the way Calvin's story played around with prejudice, and also introduced us to what seems to be a new species of vampire. Snyder just keeps on expanding this world he's created, and I love how his imagination works.
My main criticism of this volume, and the reason I didn't rate it as highly as the previous, was simply because there weren't enough ladies in it for me. I wasn't too keen on the fate of Piper, Travis's 'girlfriend', and there were times when I felt Mimiteh was rather sexualised, but that could just be me being very picky. Pearl and Felicia usually have quite a bit of 'screen time', so I suppose it's only fair the boys get some, too!
I'm still loving this series, and I'm looking forward to seeing what happens in the next volume!
strikingthirteen's review against another edition
4.0
Three awesome stories, the middle one with Travis in the 50s being my favourite, but all haunting and brutal in their own way.
nerdlibrarian's review against another edition
5.0
Great graphic novel series about different types of vampires. This one was another great read.
youfelinedevil's review against another edition
4.0
This was a lot of disturbing, twisty, absurd comic book fun. I absolutely love the art in this volume, and my inner taxonomist is thrilled by the direction this series is taking.
One issue I have with this series is the sexualization of the female characters; it’s definitely not great that two of like the only female characters of color are drawn totally nude. Especially considering the oversexualization and exploitation of native and black women.
Some questions, and spoilers!:
In which war did the Fighting Canines serve? I guess I’m just confused about timing and where they would have been stationed.
Why did Piper sell out Travis? Because he said what they had wasn’t real?
What’s with the timing during the Death Race storyline? It begins at night, close to dawn, then flashes back to “earlier that morning”, when Travis kills the two suburban vamps and ditches Piper. Ok, fine. But then supposedly after that, when Travis runs into Piper again at the motel, it’s marked in the book as 24 hours ago, and Piper refers to earlier that morning as “the other day”. I don’t know, am I totally missing something or misreading it?
What happened to Shay in Cal’s flashback? Those were weird teeny tiny bite marks, weren’t they?? Don’t tell me if the storyline continues! No spoilers, please. I was just wondering in case they were the same bite marks as left by the Carpathians and I just forgot what they looked like.
One issue I have with this series is the sexualization of the female characters; it’s definitely not great that two of like the only female characters of color are drawn totally nude. Especially considering the oversexualization and exploitation of native and black women.
Some questions, and spoilers!:
In which war did the Fighting Canines serve? I guess I’m just confused about timing and where they would have been stationed.
Why did Piper sell out Travis? Because he said what they had wasn’t real?
What’s with the timing during the Death Race storyline? It begins at night, close to dawn, then flashes back to “earlier that morning”, when Travis kills the two suburban vamps and ditches Piper. Ok, fine. But then supposedly after that, when Travis runs into Piper again at the motel, it’s marked in the book as 24 hours ago, and Piper refers to earlier that morning as “the other day”. I don’t know, am I totally missing something or misreading it?
What happened to Shay in Cal’s flashback? Those were weird teeny tiny bite marks, weren’t they?? Don’t tell me if the storyline continues! No spoilers, please. I was just wondering in case they were the same bite marks as left by the Carpathians and I just forgot what they looked like.
cakehatwombat's review against another edition
2.0
Gosh they really love outdoing their own racism and misogyny! If the story doesn't involve Pearl it'll be handled terribly.
I'm in it to finish at this point.
I'm in it to finish at this point.