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jstilts's reviews
62 reviews
She-Ra: Legend of the Fire Princess by Gigi D.G.
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
mysterious
reflective
sad
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? Yes
3.75
If you've not seen the She-Ra Netflix show this will be a little inaccessible (so go watch it, it's genuinely great), but this graphic novel would have been a perfect early Season 2 episode.
It's absolutely spot-on to where the characters are at that point in their lives and their interpersonal relationships - yes, including the tense love/hate/frenemy triangle between Adora, Catra and Scorpia. Catra and Scorpia especially are given some space to have some moments that ring true and tug at the heartstrings.
Once the first few pages of info-dump are done it's fun, it's funny, it's touching, and while it slots in perfectly with the show the final few pages still manage to give Adora a deft bit of character development that wasn't ever quite addressed in the show so explicitly, but doesn't contradict anything either.
The art style is very close to the cartoon - my only complaints are the lettering is hard to read and the speech balloons sometimes have two people's words but only one pointer. Minor niggles!
It's absolutely spot-on to where the characters are at that point in their lives and their interpersonal relationships - yes, including the tense love/hate/frenemy triangle between Adora, Catra and Scorpia. Catra and Scorpia especially are given some space to have some moments that ring true and tug at the heartstrings.
Once the first few pages of info-dump are done it's fun, it's funny, it's touching, and while it slots in perfectly with the show the final few pages still manage to give Adora a deft bit of character development that wasn't ever quite addressed in the show so explicitly, but doesn't contradict anything either.
The art style is very close to the cartoon - my only complaints are the lettering is hard to read and the speech balloons sometimes have two people's words but only one pointer. Minor niggles!
Content Warnings
Moderate: Toxic relationship and Toxic friendship
Incredible Hulk by Jason Aaron, Volume 1 by Marc Silvestri, Jason Aaron, Mike Choi, Whilce Portacio
dark
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.0
Pretty lame stuff. Bruce Banner and the Hulk are finally seperated both physically and mentally into two discrete beings. Banner cartoonishly loses his mind. That's about it.
The art style is at first somewhat gristly but otherwise aimed at hormonal teens, then swaps artists to become simply a bit rubbish instead.
Cannot recommend this book at all.
The art style is at first somewhat gristly but otherwise aimed at hormonal teens, then swaps artists to become simply a bit rubbish instead.
Cannot recommend this book at all.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore, Cancer, Animal cruelty, Body horror, and Violence
Moderate: Gun violence, Fire/Fire injury, Medical trauma, Self harm, Terminal illness, Medical content, and Toxic relationship
Minor: Child abuse
Sherlock Holmes - The Labyrinth of Death by James Lovegrove
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
While I have had serious issues with most of Titan's "New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes", this mercifully is one of the better ones (see also Mark Latham's "The Red Tower").
James Lovegrove delivers a novel that eschews the steampunk and supernatural conceits that often blight this series, instead promising a tale that puts Watson in the spotlight as the duo investigate a missing persons case. The case leads them to a commune of sorts where Ancient Greek society and mythology is revered, including it's more macabre aspects. It doesn't really put Watson in the spotlight much more than usual - there were plenty of missed opportunities for that, even to the point of sidelining out heroes for a Holmes stand-in for much of the tale where instead Watson could have been written in - but everything on the page was good, so no complaints here.
It's not quite the mystery I was hoping for - the plot is relatively straightforward and solved before the third and final part, leaving the rest of the book as something of a thriller, but one where Holmes uses his brain to ensure their survival.
Lovegrove writes nicely in the expected style, and has created a very engaging page-turner that's generally quite good fun. A little lacking in the criminal deductions department, but this was too enjoyable a read for me to complain.
James Lovegrove delivers a novel that eschews the steampunk and supernatural conceits that often blight this series, instead promising a tale that puts Watson in the spotlight as the duo investigate a missing persons case. The case leads them to a commune of sorts where Ancient Greek society and mythology is revered, including it's more macabre aspects. It doesn't really put Watson in the spotlight much more than usual - there were plenty of missed opportunities for that, even to the point of sidelining out heroes for a Holmes stand-in for much of the tale where instead Watson could have been written in - but everything on the page was good, so no complaints here.
It's not quite the mystery I was hoping for - the plot is relatively straightforward and solved before the third and final part, leaving the rest of the book as something of a thriller, but one where Holmes uses his brain to ensure their survival.
Lovegrove writes nicely in the expected style, and has created a very engaging page-turner that's generally quite good fun. A little lacking in the criminal deductions department, but this was too enjoyable a read for me to complain.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cultural appropriation
Moderate: Animal death, Death, Murder, Confinement, and Kidnapping
Minor: Suicide attempt, Gun violence, and Injury/Injury detail
World War One: 1914-1918 by Alan Cowsill
dark
informative
medium-paced
1.0
It probably seemed like an interesting challenge to condense the entirety of World War One into a 100 page graphic novel - but it was a mistake to think the result would be readable or engaging.
Frankly half the time this reads like a Wikipedia page, and while many of the subjects covered are worthy they are sped over. The book is supposedly narrated by one of the characters, but there is scant opportunity to experience anything from his point of view.
It's no "Charley's War" but I'm sad to say it does seem to borrow very freely from some of it's highlights - but without any of the character or depth that singular series excelled at. Very disappointing.
The art is passable.
Frankly half the time this reads like a Wikipedia page, and while many of the subjects covered are worthy they are sped over. The book is supposedly narrated by one of the characters, but there is scant opportunity to experience anything from his point of view.
It's no "Charley's War" but I'm sad to say it does seem to borrow very freely from some of it's highlights - but without any of the character or depth that singular series excelled at. Very disappointing.
The art is passable.
Content Warnings
Graphic: War
Moderate: Gun violence and Death
R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots) by Karel Čapek
dark
funny
informative
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
In short: surprisingly funny critique of capitalism with a sharp awareness of the societal upheaval the arrival of genuinely useful robots could present.
This Czech play from the 1920s is famous for coining the term "Robot" from the Czech words for serf labour. The titular Robots (human in appeance but much simpler on the inside) are being manufactured with the lofty goal of entirely freeing humans from labour - while making a lot of cash for the manufacturer, and saving lots of cash for the purchasers in unpaid labour. However, as this social revolution is set to take decades, the human workers faced with suffering unemployment through this lengthy change take arms against the robots - and so both Industry and Goverments arm the robots against the humans.
The play covers before, during and after the war - all from the perspective of those running Rossum's Universal Robots, and some of the robots themselves. It's a darkly comical play that critiques Capitalism, Industrialisation, Slavery, and to my surprise Misogyny - although it could be mistaken as only a reflection of the times it was written in depending on how the play is performed (however playwright Karel Čapek' politics point to it as a critique).
The epilogue is fascinatingly dark, and while the last lines became a mid 20th Century sci-fi cliche hoary enough to make my eyes roll, be aware this play was probably the very first to do it - and probably only did so to rescue the play from being utterly bleak, although I imagine people at the time found it so anyway!
This Czech play from the 1920s is famous for coining the term "Robot" from the Czech words for serf labour. The titular Robots (human in appeance but much simpler on the inside) are being manufactured with the lofty goal of entirely freeing humans from labour - while making a lot of cash for the manufacturer, and saving lots of cash for the purchasers in unpaid labour. However, as this social revolution is set to take decades, the human workers faced with suffering unemployment through this lengthy change take arms against the robots - and so both Industry and Goverments arm the robots against the humans.
The play covers before, during and after the war - all from the perspective of those running Rossum's Universal Robots, and some of the robots themselves. It's a darkly comical play that critiques Capitalism, Industrialisation, Slavery, and to my surprise Misogyny - although it could be mistaken as only a reflection of the times it was written in depending on how the play is performed (however playwright Karel Čapek' politics point to it as a critique).
The epilogue is fascinatingly dark, and while the last lines became a mid 20th Century sci-fi cliche hoary enough to make my eyes roll, be aware this play was probably the very first to do it - and probably only did so to rescue the play from being utterly bleak, although I imagine people at the time found it so anyway!
Content Warnings
Moderate: Body horror, Slavery, Misogyny, Sexism, War, Classism, and Death
The Door-To-Door Bookstore by Carsten Henn
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
relaxing
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
What I took at first for a charming short read in fact takes a number of slightly shocking turns along the way that had me absolutely gripped. After reading the first few chapters over a number of short sessions, I read the final 3/4 of the book in one go to the wee hours of the morning!
This tale is about an elderly employee of a book store who has been hand-delivering books around his German town for decades, and absolutely lives for the job. Circumstances put his ongoing employment in doubt, just as he is joined on his rounds by a disruptive but sweet schoolgirl - and it's as much their story as it is about the people they deliver books to.
This tale is about an elderly employee of a book store who has been hand-delivering books around his German town for decades, and absolutely lives for the job. Circumstances put his ongoing employment in doubt, just as he is joined on his rounds by a disruptive but sweet schoolgirl - and it's as much their story as it is about the people they deliver books to.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Domestic abuse and Physical abuse
Minor: Death of parent, Alcohol, and Grief
Where Is Anne Frank by Lena Guberman, Ari Folman
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
slow-paced
1.0
Hate to give this a 2 star rating, but for what it is trying to achieve (according to the afterword: depict the holocaust and reflect current events where millions of children are displaced by war to diminishing numbers of countries willing to give refuge), it's simply not very good.
The plot is an incoherent mess, the art style is variable (even between characters in the same panel), and there's that crushing sense that a very worthy subject has been squandered. It tries to be reverential - ironically while critiquing such reverence - it's almost offensive in it's failure.
Additionally, I can't imagine who this book is aimed at. Perhaps it hopes to encourage those who have never read Anne Frank to do so, but I think they'll be baffled. For those who have read Anne Frank, I think they'll find this much as I did - an unworthy addition full of random nonsense, with a germ of an idea that went nowhere interesting.
The plot is an incoherent mess, the art style is variable (even between characters in the same panel), and there's that crushing sense that a very worthy subject has been squandered. It tries to be reverential - ironically while critiquing such reverence - it's almost offensive in it's failure.
Additionally, I can't imagine who this book is aimed at. Perhaps it hopes to encourage those who have never read Anne Frank to do so, but I think they'll be baffled. For those who have read Anne Frank, I think they'll find this much as I did - an unworthy addition full of random nonsense, with a germ of an idea that went nowhere interesting.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Hate crime, Kidnapping, Murder, Confinement, Deportation, Classism, Genocide, Antisemitism, Grief, War, Child death, Death, and Racism
Nick and Charlie by Alice Oseman
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Short enough to read in one sitting, which is probably ideal as the chapters swap between Nick and Charlie's perspective (while remaining entirely linear); each chapter informs what was REALLY going on with the other person in the previous chapter, and maintaining this is vital to the flow of the narrative.
For fans of the series, this one has some shocks - but by the end you'll realise it's still good wholesome stuff that would be good to put in the hands of someone facing similar emotional experiences. It's almost a fictional handbook in illustrating how not everything is always the way it appears - especially when you are catastrophising!
This isn't a graphic novel like most of the Heartstopper series to date (although there are a few sweet panels), and at first it seems like it doesn't translate well to prose: Nick and Charlie's voice seems off, and Charlie sounds way too mature - until I realise, this is their inner monologue and not the way they present themselves to the outside world. Sure enough, when they talk or text - same old Nick and Charlie. While in no way a criticism of the excellent graphic novels, this book definitely enriches their characters in a way the graphic novels were never going to - and that's more down to the creative decision to have almost every thought in the graphic novel presented in a conversational way.
For fans of the series, this one has some shocks - but by the end you'll realise it's still good wholesome stuff that would be good to put in the hands of someone facing similar emotional experiences. It's almost a fictional handbook in illustrating how not everything is always the way it appears - especially when you are catastrophising!
This isn't a graphic novel like most of the Heartstopper series to date (although there are a few sweet panels), and at first it seems like it doesn't translate well to prose: Nick and Charlie's voice seems off, and Charlie sounds way too mature - until I realise, this is their inner monologue and not the way they present themselves to the outside world. Sure enough, when they talk or text - same old Nick and Charlie. While in no way a criticism of the excellent graphic novels, this book definitely enriches their characters in a way the graphic novels were never going to - and that's more down to the creative decision to have almost every thought in the graphic novel presented in a conversational way.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Grief
Minor: Eating disorder
The Memory of Babel by Christelle Dabos
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Very different to the previous books: Ophelia has gone from hiding in shadows to making her mark, and after the last cliffhanger (and a few years basically sulking) is now imbued with drive and purpose to solve eons-long mysteries that threaten her world, her missing husband, and herself.
Set almost entirely in Babel following a single quest, this book greater focus on the rich detailed world building of Babel society allows the overall plot to become fluffier and more mysterious, frankly treading water a little to spoon-feed us the fantasy set-up for the final volume. This isn't criticism as such, it's a very deft bit of furniture moving that's so pleasant an experience I can hardly complain.
It's not however quite as compelling as the second volume, as really you feel Ophelia could just shrug her shoulders and walk away from her troubles for the first three quarters of the book - driven mainly by her desire to reunite with Thorn, which is hard to fathom as while we saw Thorn fall in love with Ophelia in the last book - believable only because I'll accept any insight I to the inscrutable oaf - Ophelia has hardly had reason to do likewise, especially as we're privy to her thought and feelings that she STILL finds hard to quantify (after years!) that her love is a bit hard to believe. I can only put it down to the desperate need to connect during and after disaster, which they experienced together at the end of book two.
Looking forward to the final volume nevertheless - this one was strangely simultaneously better and worse than the previous books, so in a way an interesting diversion on the journey, a side quest and a breather before the finale.
Set almost entirely in Babel following a single quest, this book greater focus on the rich detailed world building of Babel society allows the overall plot to become fluffier and more mysterious, frankly treading water a little to spoon-feed us the fantasy set-up for the final volume. This isn't criticism as such, it's a very deft bit of furniture moving that's so pleasant an experience I can hardly complain.
It's not however quite as compelling as the second volume, as really you feel Ophelia could just shrug her shoulders and walk away from her troubles for the first three quarters of the book - driven mainly by her desire to reunite with Thorn, which is hard to fathom as while we saw Thorn fall in love with Ophelia in the last book - believable only because I'll accept any insight I to the inscrutable oaf - Ophelia has hardly had reason to do likewise, especially as we're privy to her thought and feelings that she STILL finds hard to quantify (after years!) that her love is a bit hard to believe. I can only put it down to the desperate need to connect during and after disaster, which they experienced together at the end of book two.
Looking forward to the final volume nevertheless - this one was strangely simultaneously better and worse than the previous books, so in a way an interesting diversion on the journey, a side quest and a breather before the finale.
Content Warnings
Minor: Ableism, Emotional abuse, Murder, Toxic relationship, Physical abuse, Dementia, Death, and Violence
Sherlock Holmes - The Devil's Dust by James Lovegrove
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
Titan Books "New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" series (apparently so named, although not on their distinctively foggy covers) sucked me in with Mark Latham's excellent book "The Red Tower", and I"ve been reading the series with little success. "The Devil's Dust" is by James Lovegrove, and it's better than most of this series - although with some extreme reservations.
The problem for me is the books in this series are mostly well written to a point about three quarters the way through where they become trite - this turning point being when they fully engage with whatever highly un-Sherlockian conceit the plot has been saddled with: Frankenstein, for instance. "The Devil's Dust" has a similar structure, but it is saved by the conceit being more grounded in Holmes' world than usual: Sherlock and Watson meet, spar and sleuth alongside H Rider Haggard's character Alan Quartermain of "King Solomon's Mines" fame.
It's not a terrible pairing, and the forays into magic, visions and alternative philosophies are held nicely to account by Holmes while still being an entirely plausible alternative to his scientific perspective - it's quite well handled without sacrificing Holmes and Watson's characters nor belittling Quatermain's world.
However Quartermain still derails what could have been a neat mystery - brought to them by Mrs Hudson no less, so promisingly novel a start! Worse than this, situations are resolved with gunfire rather than brains - except when Holmes weaponises both racism and body shaming to defeat a foe.
Unfortunately bringing Quartermain into the mix brings weighty issues of racism, colonialism and cultural appropriation, and the literary shortfalls of the White Saviour amongst Noble Savages - and instead of avoiding these the author tries to make clever use of them. To be fair James Lovegrove mostly succeeds at this, but it's no less of a mistake for being successful - it's often pretty distasteful.
In the end this feels like another potentially great Holmes plot with quality writing wasted for a central conceit that just doesn't work with the character.
The problem for me is the books in this series are mostly well written to a point about three quarters the way through where they become trite - this turning point being when they fully engage with whatever highly un-Sherlockian conceit the plot has been saddled with: Frankenstein, for instance. "The Devil's Dust" has a similar structure, but it is saved by the conceit being more grounded in Holmes' world than usual: Sherlock and Watson meet, spar and sleuth alongside H Rider Haggard's character Alan Quartermain of "King Solomon's Mines" fame.
It's not a terrible pairing, and the forays into magic, visions and alternative philosophies are held nicely to account by Holmes while still being an entirely plausible alternative to his scientific perspective - it's quite well handled without sacrificing Holmes and Watson's characters nor belittling Quatermain's world.
However Quartermain still derails what could have been a neat mystery - brought to them by Mrs Hudson no less, so promisingly novel a start! Worse than this, situations are resolved with gunfire rather than brains - except when Holmes weaponises both racism and body shaming to defeat a foe.
Unfortunately bringing Quartermain into the mix brings weighty issues of racism, colonialism and cultural appropriation, and the literary shortfalls of the White Saviour amongst Noble Savages - and instead of avoiding these the author tries to make clever use of them. To be fair James Lovegrove mostly succeeds at this, but it's no less of a mistake for being successful - it's often pretty distasteful.
In the end this feels like another potentially great Holmes plot with quality writing wasted for a central conceit that just doesn't work with the character.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gun violence, Death, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Cultural appropriation, Drug use, Chronic illness, Medical content, Ableism, Classism, Colonisation, Violence, Xenophobia, Body shaming, Animal death, Child death, Murder, Racism, Confinement, Grief, Gun violence, Torture, Gaslighting, and Kidnapping