Number 17 - Monstress Vol 2 - Lui & Takeda

 And another cheat read before embarking on an epic road trip with Josh Malerman.

Volume 2 of Monstress proves conclusively that the quality of volume 1 was no fluke.

This is one of the most satisfying series I've read in the graphic novel form.  Whilst I really enjoy most of the graphic novels I've been reading, they're the literary equivalent of a light snack. a sneaky bag of crisps before the main course.

This series so far is the whole meal from aperitif through to a rich and tasty dessert.

The artwork is stunning throughout.  It's gorgeously detailed from the backdrops to the lead characters.  There's never any sense of wondering which character is which as they're so clearly drawn. Next to this, the artwork in  Something is Killing The Children looks functional at absolute best, and like a child's scribbles at worst.

The storyline is as rich and detailed as the artwork.  The worldbuilding here is every bit as good as I've read in any prose novels. I completely lost track of time yesterday because I was so absorbed in reading this.  That level of absorption is rare with me when it comes to this format.  There's a reason I refer to them as cheat reads. It's not just that they only take an hour to get through, they serve as palette cleansers before the next book.

This, however, is just brilliant in every way. Maika Halfwolf is a great central character.  We even got some characterisation on the creature that lives inside her in this volume. The forces hunting her down are gathering. New antagonists are entering the fray, and that thing inside her that she has trouble containing is not making her life easy.

I will certainly be picking up volume 3 at the weekend. This is an intriguing and beguiling tale of cute hybrid human/foxes, warrior princesses, two tailed necroscopic cats and hideous levels of ultra-violence. What more could I possibly want?

Number 16 - Something is Killing the Children - Vol 3

 

After the cliffhanger ending to volume 2, this was very high on my shopping list, unfortunately, the amazon seller was slow in sending it to me or I would have read this at least 3 books back.

Erica Slaughter has grown from just a random badass in town to kill a monster or two, into a more rounded character with a hidden (for now) past and a hate/hate relationship with the secret order of monster slayers she works for.

There are definite similarities to the Buffy/Watchers guild relationship although this is a lot more violent.

This volume is the last in the first story arc of the series, and the ending is suitably dark and gruesome. It could be argued that it's not 100% unpredictable but it plays its cards well enough that the familiar tropes feel fresh.

The storytelling is top notch. The characters are drawn as well as they need to be to and can be in the fast pacing of this series. sadly the artwork isn't always up to scratch.

I've got the hang of spotting which pages need to be read across the double page, and which are read normally (left page then right page) so there were no issues with that this time around.

I have volume 4 sitting waiting for my perusal in the very near future. That is the start of a new story arc and I'm really looking forward to it.

Number 15 - Moonglow - Michael Chabon

 

Michael Chabon writes gorgeous prose.  I read The Yiddish policeman's Union a few years back, and while I'm sketchy on plot details, I remember really loving it.  So much so that I now have 4 more of his books in my TBR.  So I was quite happy when this was chosen for this month's book group (even though it wasn't one of the ones I already had, so it cost me money to go out and buy it)

The meeting was held a week ago last Wednesday and I've only just finished the book today.

I wasn't the only one in the group who hadn't finished.  This book is unique in the history of my book group in that not one person had finished it.

It's a memoir of Michael Chabon's maternal grandfather - or it purports to be. The first person narrator is one Mike Chabon and he's telling us about the stories his grandfather told him from his deathbed.

The old guy apparently had an interesting life.  A decorated veteran of WWII, an ex convict married to a woman with severe mental health issues, a rocket scientist in his spare time, and as he got older, a hunter of killer snakes in his retirement village, trying to avenge the many pets which have gone missing.

I say apparently, because the book is apparently fiction. It's hard to tell what it is. It is filled with Chabon's trademark luscious prose, layered narrative and deeper hidden meanings and metaphor.

On the strength of the quality of writing, I should love this book unreservedly...

The problem is that I don't. And one of the annoying things about this book, is that it makes me feel that it's a ME problem and not the fault of the book that I've actually found it a struggle to get through.

The structure of the book doesn't help.  In a well done attempt to recreate the randomness of memory and recall, the book is very choppy and bitty.  It takes till about page 180 before two consecutive chapters are set in the same timeframe. Every chapter up until that point requires a mental reset and effort to work out where in the timeline we are.  This does help to get across a whole lot of background information and the piecing together of the jigsaw pieces is sometimes quite enjoyable. 

It has made me laugh out loud frequently. It has made me feel sorry for the family. A chapter close to the end dealing with his mother's miscarriage was particularly moving. But this isn't a book I think I would read again, despite the fact that knowledge of the whole story will almost certainly grant more insight to events described earlier on, and to see the myriad of patterns  in the storytelling.

It's frustrating.  I can't fault the book, but it was a real struggle to get through. Your mileage may vary but this is a 6/10 or 7/10 at most for me.