chelseamartinez's review
3.0
Jumps back and forth among stories of a pre-teen midwestern kid, his little brother, his mom, and a random elderly trucker guy. You see the brother's relationship from multiple perspectives, either missing or feeling deeply the embarrassment of being seen as a little kid; how family members are affected with a parent with migraines, etc. There are detours into comic-within-a-comic advice columns and ads, but I liked the stories themselves better.
shmole's review
dark
funny
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
brittneycloyd's review
2.0
I can't for the life of me remember why I wanted to read this book. It was OK.
ponycanyon's review
3.0
Cotter's Skyscrapers is not without its charms; it's a nice stew of cute, sad, and surreal, with robot hobos, robot kitten angels, and all protagonists rendered in a stylized, Fritzlike cat-people manner. Cotter's style is scratchy and moody in a way that casts a funky, nostalgic melancholy over his stories of the epic tragedy that is childhood. Unfortunately, however, this often tips over into unchecked miserablism ultimately feels showy and unearned; in spite of its chunky girth, the entire book feels like one sadistic "remember when adolescence made you want to die?" setpiece after another. Like Chris Ware, Cotter often incorporates fake advertisements, other comics, and letters pages, but as Cotter isn't even a tiny fraction of the draftsman and designer that Ware is, leading these elements to play most often like cheap and hollow gags. On the other hand, one of my favorite things about Skyscrapers is that there's not a redundant inch in the entire book, and even single lines in the "letters page" or fine print of advertisements will be referenced and recalled later on.
seanwpace's review
3.0
Overall I thought this book was a little scatterbrained. I didn't know necessarily what Cotter was trying to say with this story, and some of the symbolism was totally lost on me. I can sympathize with him because I was a fat kid myself, but all I felt leaving this book was sorry and unsure about Cotter. Some of the satire in the book is brilliant, but it's mostly below the surface and you have to read some of the fine print (literally) to find it. The sarcasm and satire present in the panels themselves, though, came across as shallow and childish. I realize this is told from the perspective of a 5th grader, but it's him looking back on it as an adult.
Rating is 2.5 out of 5, right down the middle. This was really nothing special to me. Perhaps the best description is the quote from Warren Ellis on the back, "This is one odd f**king book." However the good humor hiding in the shadows was enough to save it from a rating too low.
Rating is 2.5 out of 5, right down the middle. This was really nothing special to me. Perhaps the best description is the quote from Warren Ellis on the back, "This is one odd f**king book." However the good humor hiding in the shadows was enough to save it from a rating too low.
samypants35's review
3.0
The story didn't do much for me but the art was pretty good. I'd say it was most like an alternate universe where R. Crumb grew up in the midwest and instead of big legged women, was obsessed with robots.
melissamilazzo's review
4.0
By far one of the weirdest books I've ever read. Just pick it up and try to make sense of it yourself.
plaidbrarian's review
5.0
There's a lot going on here, most of which defies conventional description... sometimes it's dark comedy, sometimes it's intensely uncomfortable tales of adolescence, and sometimes it's just really, really odd. It wasn't unusual to laugh out loud one page, nearly cry the next, and be intensely creeped out on the third. Definitely a reading experience that'll stick with me a while, even if I don't think I got it all. I need to read this again sometime. I look forward to reading this again sometime. I dread reading this again sometime.
ursulamonarch's review
I liked the artwork but the first 30 or so pages were just too brutal for me to keep reading this book. The part that I read, at least, is not too violent or gory or anything - just tremendously cruel in realistic ways that were beyond cringe-worthy to me.
edididie's review
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Everyone growing up in the midwest should read this