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4.1 AVERAGE
4.1 AVERAGE
adventurous
lighthearted
mysterious
fast-paced
I love Scott Pilgrim.
The style of the artwork, the irreverent humour, and the over-arching story across all six books in the series, makes all of the Pilgrim books rank high among my favourite books of all time.
(Plus, y'know, there's the awesome Edgar Wright movie adaptation, as well. (Its failure at the box office remains utterly criminal.))
So it's safe to say that with those books, Bryan Lee O'Malley has successfully hooked me for life, making it so that I will always look forward to seeing what he writes next.
Enter Seconds.
A wonderful little self-contained modern fable about a young woman named Katie, and the lengths she goes to to make her life perfect, Seconds is - from page one onwards - very much an O'Malley joint.
A narrator that wryly comments on the story as it happens, while occasionally interacting with the main character?
Check.
Some sort of subtle video game aesthetic (in this case, mushrooms being reminiscent of Super Mario Brothers, plus the ability to gain a new life, go back and change things you got wrong beforehand being reminiscent of...well, every video game ever made ever...not to mention Groundhog Day)?
Check.
Hilarious ironic arrows popping up to point out little details?
Check.
A rather lovable, but undoubtedly flawed and self-centered protagonist, who makes bad decisions again and again, never quite realising the damage they do, and who must learn the hard way how to become a better person?
Check check check.
Make no mistake, though - even though this book shares more than a few strands of thematic DNA with Scott Pilgrim (never more so than in a simply sublime moment where one of the funniest jokes from SP makes its way into a conversation scene, and it is glorious), Seconds is decidedly darker, more mature, and scarily surreal.
There are images that emerge from this sweetly strange (and strangely sweet) story that rival anything committed to film by David Lynch.
And beware the brilliant, bright and breezy opening stretch of the book, as it will sucker you in to a seriously disturbing and quietly tragic mini-parable about addiction. (It's not for nothing that mushrooms play a big part in the proceedings...)
Overall, I loved every page and every panel of Seconds, and like with all six of the Pilgrim books, it all ended far too soon, as I couldn't help but devour it far too quickly.
This shall call for many a re-reading session.
And honestly, I cannot wait...
=))
The style of the artwork, the irreverent humour, and the over-arching story across all six books in the series, makes all of the Pilgrim books rank high among my favourite books of all time.
(Plus, y'know, there's the awesome Edgar Wright movie adaptation, as well. (Its failure at the box office remains utterly criminal.))
So it's safe to say that with those books, Bryan Lee O'Malley has successfully hooked me for life, making it so that I will always look forward to seeing what he writes next.
Enter Seconds.
A wonderful little self-contained modern fable about a young woman named Katie, and the lengths she goes to to make her life perfect, Seconds is - from page one onwards - very much an O'Malley joint.
A narrator that wryly comments on the story as it happens, while occasionally interacting with the main character?
Check.
Some sort of subtle video game aesthetic (in this case, mushrooms being reminiscent of Super Mario Brothers, plus the ability to gain a new life, go back and change things you got wrong beforehand being reminiscent of...well, every video game ever made ever...not to mention Groundhog Day)?
Check.
Hilarious ironic arrows popping up to point out little details?
Check.
A rather lovable, but undoubtedly flawed and self-centered protagonist, who makes bad decisions again and again, never quite realising the damage they do, and who must learn the hard way how to become a better person?
Check check check.
Make no mistake, though - even though this book shares more than a few strands of thematic DNA with Scott Pilgrim (never more so than in a simply sublime moment where one of the funniest jokes from SP makes its way into a conversation scene, and it is glorious), Seconds is decidedly darker, more mature, and scarily surreal.
There are images that emerge from this sweetly strange (and strangely sweet) story that rival anything committed to film by David Lynch.
And beware the brilliant, bright and breezy opening stretch of the book, as it will sucker you in to a seriously disturbing and quietly tragic mini-parable about addiction. (It's not for nothing that mushrooms play a big part in the proceedings...)
Overall, I loved every page and every panel of Seconds, and like with all six of the Pilgrim books, it all ended far too soon, as I couldn't help but devour it far too quickly.
This shall call for many a re-reading session.
And honestly, I cannot wait...
=))
It was an extremely quick read. I finished it in 2 days, but it was a damn fun go. It didn't feel like I was reading a graphic novel half the time, but a made for adults picture book with the lesson of dealing with what you have now and not looking back. We can't change the past. The past is what makes us who we are. Just keep on going forward and build on the person that you are becoming. This is Bryan Lee O'Malley's bread and butter, but he does it well.
There are some criticisms. Things really sort of start to become muddled towards the end, and it seemed like there was either a rush to finish or just too many ideas working against each other. The imagery was great, but it was just a lot for a one off story. Perhaps if Seconds was given another book to build off of what it was working on, things could have finished a little more cleanly.
Still, I really enjoyed this book and would recommend it to any fan of Bryan Lee O'Malley's previous work.
There are some criticisms. Things really sort of start to become muddled towards the end, and it seemed like there was either a rush to finish or just too many ideas working against each other. The imagery was great, but it was just a lot for a one off story. Perhaps if Seconds was given another book to build off of what it was working on, things could have finished a little more cleanly.
Still, I really enjoyed this book and would recommend it to any fan of Bryan Lee O'Malley's previous work.
This is one of the best graphic novels I have read. I loved the characters and their backstories, I loved the setting, and I loved the plot. The art style was quirky and fun with a coloring that complimented everything. Katie was a great girl who just wanted to fix her mistakes.
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
mysterious
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
funny
mysterious
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I really enjoyed this graphic novel, it is only the second one I have read (which is fitting!) I love the art, the style is really beautiful and makes me excited to read more graphic novels. I liked where the story went and how it wasn't at all predictable.
2.75, maybe. I liked the coloring and the artwork and the setting, but the story and the main character's actions were disappointing. Katie is a successful chef in her late twenties, trying to open a second restaurant. While at work in her first restaurant, she encounters her ex and has a pretty bad evening because of it. Then she discovers a tiny notebook and a mushroom, and instructions that tell her to write down her mistake, eat the mushroom, and go to sleep. She does this and when she wakes up her past has been changed.
Spoiler
A lot of my problem with this was Katie's short-sightedness and how I couldn't figure out *why* she chose just this random shitty event to be the mistake she wanted to erase. In a lifetime, don't people have bigger regrets? And I didn't like the ending.
4.5. Really loved this! The art was so cute and lovely and I absolutely loved how dark and mysterious the story was! I'm totally checking out his other books! :)