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bluepigeon's review
3.0
The Grave is the story of three boys finding a mysterious buried trunk full of personal items during a camping trip before high school starts. The boys like comics and sci fi and have discussions about their stories and so on. The story goes back and forth between the boys who found the trunk and the story of the person who owned the trunk. Eventually, both stories converge.
The story is told in storyboard mode, where an image is narrated with text. There are no speech or text bubbles. The drawings are certainly the highlight of the book. The story itself is fine, but the writing certainly needed some serious editing. Perhaps it is OK to storyboard a film and write things like "...his thoughts begin to wander into introspection. He begins to think about the summer past..." but in a graphic story this is just too clunky. Also, there were a few tangents that didn't really go anywhere, like the story of the guy who eats anything for money. These either needed more or to be removed to make room for more of the stuff that mattered. The ending certainly is a big twist, but one that is really out of the blue and I'm not sure if it really makes a big difference. Perhaps it would be more meaningful if there was an anticipated mystery to be solved, but just as it is, it falls a bit flat.
Overall, I'm glad I read The Grave. With tighter writing, it would be better. Just the art and the circus story is worth checking it out for. Recommended for those who like tigers, bats, pocket knives and big trees.
The story is told in storyboard mode, where an image is narrated with text. There are no speech or text bubbles. The drawings are certainly the highlight of the book. The story itself is fine, but the writing certainly needed some serious editing. Perhaps it is OK to storyboard a film and write things like "...his thoughts begin to wander into introspection. He begins to think about the summer past..." but in a graphic story this is just too clunky. Also, there were a few tangents that didn't really go anywhere, like the story of the guy who eats anything for money. These either needed more or to be removed to make room for more of the stuff that mattered. The ending certainly is a big twist, but one that is really out of the blue and I'm not sure if it really makes a big difference. Perhaps it would be more meaningful if there was an anticipated mystery to be solved, but just as it is, it falls a bit flat.
Overall, I'm glad I read The Grave. With tighter writing, it would be better. Just the art and the circus story is worth checking it out for. Recommended for those who like tigers, bats, pocket knives and big trees.
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