Scan barcode
nichole1988's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
magsmaenad's review
dark
emotional
hopeful
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
blairconrad's review
4.0
It took me a little while to catch onto the special twist here (I've commented before on my difficulties differentiating characters in comics), but I like it. The overall story and interactions between the characters have drawn me in. I'm disappointed that the story is set in the United States (and that so far the only indication that it's so is a weather report on the radio; the location could've been left neutral), but I'm looking forward to volume 2.
ppetropoulakis's review
4.0
Jeff Lemire created a very intimate story that takes a mundane topic of a small town family and turns it to work of art. The first volume introduces the reader to Royal City, the characters and some of its mysteries. The art matches the intimacy that Lemire wanted to convey with this work. It is a warm, soft style that elevates character expressions.
lisalikesdogs's review
5.0
I love Jeff Lemire and can't wait to read the rest. I've never been so completely drawn in by a graphic artist.
helpfulsnowman's review
4.0
Good stuff! Family drama, but a heightened. It's not just the typical reuniting of a family who doesn't get along. There's more complicated, almost supernatural elements to it, and that's what makes it something special.
There was a portion in here I really identified with. One character is talking about leaving a small town and becoming a new person, and how it's hard to come home because he wanted to be this new person, but to everyone at home he's still the same guy.
Growing up and still living in the same town, this is a thing, but I don't know if it's a bad thing. It would be a bad thing if you were the same person you were at age 14, but I don't know if it's a bad thing that other people think that. It's not always fun when you have some pretty public family stuff go down and run into people who ask about it, but maybe it's not the worst thing in the world that you can't just cast that stuff off, that you really have to decide how you feel about it and how you're going to deal with the very real stuff of the past.
I think the idea of leaving home may be a bit overrated. Some people need to, some people want to, but I've always felt this sense of superiority from people who leave.
The thing is, you still have to remake yourself when you stay in the same place. And there's something actively resisting that change. So you'd better be sure, and you'd better do a good job.
Anyway, Royal City. Good times!
There was a portion in here I really identified with. One character is talking about leaving a small town and becoming a new person, and how it's hard to come home because he wanted to be this new person, but to everyone at home he's still the same guy.
Growing up and still living in the same town, this is a thing, but I don't know if it's a bad thing. It would be a bad thing if you were the same person you were at age 14, but I don't know if it's a bad thing that other people think that. It's not always fun when you have some pretty public family stuff go down and run into people who ask about it, but maybe it's not the worst thing in the world that you can't just cast that stuff off, that you really have to decide how you feel about it and how you're going to deal with the very real stuff of the past.
I think the idea of leaving home may be a bit overrated. Some people need to, some people want to, but I've always felt this sense of superiority from people who leave.
The thing is, you still have to remake yourself when you stay in the same place. And there's something actively resisting that change. So you'd better be sure, and you'd better do a good job.
Anyway, Royal City. Good times!
daniellemarie's review
mysterious
reflective
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
saramarie08's review
4.0
Royal City is your average Americana working-class town where everyone is employed by a pollution-belching factory, and the standard of living is low. The story focuses on the Pike family and their different struggles. You have Patrick, who used his younger brother's journals to make a best-selling novel, but now finds himself without ideas for another, and in a failing marriage. Then there's Tara, a real estate agent with a plan to make Royal City a great vacation destination, but at the expense of her husband's job at the factory. Patti, the matriarch, deals with her relationship with her husband, who suffers a stroke. Lastly, there's Richie, a drug addict and gambler who burns every member of the family who tries to help him. The entire Pike family has to come to terms with their individual struggles, all while dealing with their version of events in the death of the youngest Pike.
This story is gritty, honest, and thoughtfully laid out. I feel the struggles of each of the Pike family members as they feel them. Lemire has capture some of the basic struggles of Americans and represented them in each of the characters. The art style is jarring at first, but once the jagged nature of the characters becomes evident, the art style comes to represent part of their struggles. Image rates this M for mature, and it is mostly due to the language (lots of F-bombs). There is some drug use, and some adult situations, but most of that happens off the page.
Sara's Rating: 8/10
Suitability Level: Grades 11-12
Read more graphic novel reviews at www.graphiclibrary.org.
This story is gritty, honest, and thoughtfully laid out. I feel the struggles of each of the Pike family members as they feel them. Lemire has capture some of the basic struggles of Americans and represented them in each of the characters. The art style is jarring at first, but once the jagged nature of the characters becomes evident, the art style comes to represent part of their struggles. Image rates this M for mature, and it is mostly due to the language (lots of F-bombs). There is some drug use, and some adult situations, but most of that happens off the page.
Sara's Rating: 8/10
Suitability Level: Grades 11-12
Read more graphic novel reviews at www.graphiclibrary.org.
nglofile's review
5.0
Lemire is an artistic and narrative talent, no question, but what takes my breath away with each new venture is his insight into heartache and self-recrimination and family dynamic. Admittedly, none of these elements make for the most appealing of taglines or pull quotes, but it is the universality of these life struggles that compels the reader into the story's thrall.
There are times when we read for escapism, to cheer ourselves, or to take part in popular conversation. However, there is equal interest in reading to help make sense of the unexpected in life, of what doesn't turn out as we believe it might when we are children. This is one of those stories.
Forgive me if I paint the story as depressing. That wouldn't be fair. Melancholy, yes, but this is also a constellation of starting points. We meet the personalities where they are, learn their pain, and see the roads diverging in the wood ahead of them. We want them to find peace, perhaps even one day happiness, but we don't yet know where their feet will take them.
Each character is struggling individually with trials and disappointment, but what unites the cast beyond familial relationship is that each also is projecting a specific coloring of loss onto.
The frame of an industrial town reduced to a whimpering shadow of what it once was establishes both texture and realism. Much to explore.
The art is skillful and evocative, not in a showy way, but in a manner which best marries with story, tone, and theme. Stark line drawings (the few youth are pure and minimal; the older or world-weary are harsh and near-ghoulish) are set against pastel and grey-infused ink washes which add ethereal notes to the scenes. This isn't a collection I would seek out for its graphic style, but when I pause to notice I can't help but be a bit in awe.
There are times when we read for escapism, to cheer ourselves, or to take part in popular conversation. However, there is equal interest in reading to help make sense of the unexpected in life, of what doesn't turn out as we believe it might when we are children. This is one of those stories.
Forgive me if I paint the story as depressing. That wouldn't be fair. Melancholy, yes, but this is also a constellation of starting points. We meet the personalities where they are, learn their pain, and see the roads diverging in the wood ahead of them. We want them to find peace, perhaps even one day happiness, but we don't yet know where their feet will take them.
Each character is struggling individually with trials and disappointment, but what unites the cast beyond familial relationship is that each also is projecting a specific coloring of loss onto
Spoiler
the presence of a son/brother who had long ago passed away, whose hauntings are both welcome and utterly revealingThe frame of an industrial town reduced to a whimpering shadow of what it once was establishes both texture and realism. Much to explore.
The art is skillful and evocative, not in a showy way, but in a manner which best marries with story, tone, and theme. Stark line drawings (the few youth are pure and minimal; the older or world-weary are harsh and near-ghoulish) are set against pastel and grey-infused ink washes which add ethereal notes to the scenes. This isn't a collection I would seek out for its graphic style, but when I pause to notice I can't help but be a bit in awe.