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A review by nnneato
Winter Town by Stephen Emond
3.0
Winter Town was a surprisingly light book, despite the summary. I checked this out expecting an extremely depressing novel full of introspective writing and long descriptions. What I got was nothing like that.
Winter Town is more of a light novel than a standard novel. A light novel in Japan is a relatively short book with illustrations every few pages. However, light novels usually comes in a series, which Winter Town isn't.
Getting that out of the way, it was a good book, but fell short of being great for a few reasons...
The Art
While Stephen Emond is great at backgrounds, he could improve on his faces. Compare the pre-change Lucy on the spread before chapter 1 to her portrait before chapter 9. If you took away those giant lips, she could be someone completely different. I mostly attribute this to the weird cheek-line that's slapped on the side of her mouth. Where did that come from? It makes her look like she's 40 years old... ha.
I'll go easy on the art from the little comics spread out throughout the book, since I assume they're supposed to have been drawn by Evan. I've skimmed, read, and shortly looked at a bunch of webcomics during my years on the internet, and Evan's little thing is pretty much the mediocre 80% of them.
The story
Lucy and Evan were both very believable characters.
While did want to slap Lucy for doing the whole "change my outside to match my inside" thing, she had a reason for changing. Unfortunately, her reason is one that many children and teenagers have. All of her stupid decisions were expected, and unlike a lot of books dealing with an "emo" character, her making them didn't lead me to resent her.
Evan is a nice guy, and also one of those people who just can't say no. One one hand, I wanted to slap him too for not standing up to his father. On the other hand, I thought he was the best child ever for never acting out.
Speaking of the father, he was a douchebag. He was a douchebag at the beginning of the book and he was a douchebag at the end of the book. Again, unfortunately, many fathers are like this.
The writing
It was very simple. Since I was expecting a deep, introspective book, it bordered on too simple, but it worked for the story.
The references used will be out of date in a few years, but that's what happens with every book that tries to implement elements from pop culture.
One minor error or oversight I noticed is... (which isn't really a spoiler, but it happens about 3/4 of the way in)
The ending
The ending was very disappointing for me.
I honestly found myself thinking "how can someone be so naive?" when Evan rejected Lucy after her confessions. Why would you push someone away after you hear what they've been through, especially when you've been friends for so long? That was just.. cold. It ruined all the love for Evan that I'd built up throughout the story.
It was very predictable that he'd go to art school... It's also unclear how long it is before Evan sees Lucy again. I assume he's already graduated, but I wonder what happened to Lucy in that time. That's my real problem with the ending. I want to know what happens to Lucy after she knocks on her mother's door.. not Evan.
So...
I'm giving this book three stars. One star is knocked off for the iffy, rushed and/or sloppy artwork, and one star is knocked off for the ending and Evan's reactions. All in all, it's worth reading, and is not a terrible book by any means. I'd recommend it to anyone who's lived the life of a fantasy geek and likes to draw.
Winter Town is more of a light novel than a standard novel. A light novel in Japan is a relatively short book with illustrations every few pages. However, light novels usually comes in a series, which Winter Town isn't.
Getting that out of the way, it was a good book, but fell short of being great for a few reasons...
The Art
While Stephen Emond is great at backgrounds, he could improve on his faces. Compare the pre-change Lucy on the spread before chapter 1 to her portrait before chapter 9. If you took away those giant lips, she could be someone completely different. I mostly attribute this to the weird cheek-line that's slapped on the side of her mouth. Where did that come from? It makes her look like she's 40 years old... ha.
I'll go easy on the art from the little comics spread out throughout the book, since I assume they're supposed to have been drawn by Evan. I've skimmed, read, and shortly looked at a bunch of webcomics during my years on the internet, and Evan's little thing is pretty much the mediocre 80% of them.
The story
Lucy and Evan were both very believable characters.
While did want to slap Lucy for doing the whole "change my outside to match my inside" thing, she had a reason for changing. Unfortunately, her reason is one that many children and teenagers have. All of her stupid decisions were expected, and unlike a lot of books dealing with an "emo" character, her making them didn't lead me to resent her.
Evan is a nice guy, and also one of those people who just can't say no. One one hand, I wanted to slap him too for not standing up to his father. On the other hand, I thought he was the best child ever for never acting out.
Speaking of the father, he was a douchebag. He was a douchebag at the beginning of the book and he was a douchebag at the end of the book. Again, unfortunately, many fathers are like this.
The writing
It was very simple. Since I was expecting a deep, introspective book, it bordered on too simple, but it worked for the story.
The references used will be out of date in a few years, but that's what happens with every book that tries to implement elements from pop culture.
One minor error or oversight I noticed is... (which isn't really a spoiler, but it happens about 3/4 of the way in)
Spoiler
when Evan and Lucy get tattoos. I thought they were supposed to be 17? Maybe there's a different law where they live. Who knows.The ending
The ending was very disappointing for me.
Spoiler
At first, I was angry with Evan for not trying to patch things up, but then I realized that many people would have done the same thing. It's easy to say what you need to do to salvage a relationship. It's harder to actually do it.I honestly found myself thinking "how can someone be so naive?" when Evan rejected Lucy after her confessions. Why would you push someone away after you hear what they've been through, especially when you've been friends for so long? That was just.. cold. It ruined all the love for Evan that I'd built up throughout the story.
It was very predictable that he'd go to art school... It's also unclear how long it is before Evan sees Lucy again. I assume he's already graduated, but I wonder what happened to Lucy in that time. That's my real problem with the ending. I want to know what happens to Lucy after she knocks on her mother's door.. not Evan.
So...
I'm giving this book three stars. One star is knocked off for the iffy, rushed and/or sloppy artwork, and one star is knocked off for the ending and Evan's reactions. All in all, it's worth reading, and is not a terrible book by any means. I'd recommend it to anyone who's lived the life of a fantasy geek and likes to draw.