hoosgracie's review against another edition
4.0
This graphic novel is the story of how Ivy and Rachel meet at the IS. It's a fun story and the illustrations are pretty good.
heathersbike's review against another edition
3.0
Still like the books better, but graphic novels are certainly growing on me.
wilda85's review against another edition
5.0
I can’t believe I waited all these years to read the graphic novels! I love getting to see Rachel and Ivy meet for the first time and to get an inside look into Ivy’s mind. Seeing Kisten with Ivy was weird and sad but bittersweet. I love the edition at the end, I was not expecting the guy to be watching to be __!! It’s crazy seeing everything setting up for the series!
impybelle's review against another edition
2.0
This is probably 2.5 stars but I'm late to this particular party so we'll roll with it. I read the second graphic novel a few years ago, probably shortly after it came out, but somehow never read the first. Since The Hollows is getting another book (pardon me while I scream happily), I figured I should go back and fill in my memory gaps.
Honestly, this one isn't terrible it's just... average? If you love the artwork, you might feel completely differently, btw. It wasn't the worst I've ever seen but it didn't do much for me most of the time. I could work with that if anything about this story felt like it had to be told in graphic novel/comic form. It doesn't. It actually seems far better suited to a regular book, or short story as the format adds nothing to the story for me. I get that for awhile every series seemed to get a comic adaptation for... whatever reason and hell, if it made KH happy to branch out this way, that's fine.
Honestly, this one isn't terrible it's just... average? If you love the artwork, you might feel completely differently, btw. It wasn't the worst I've ever seen but it didn't do much for me most of the time. I could work with that if anything about this story felt like it had to be told in graphic novel/comic form. It doesn't. It actually seems far better suited to a regular book, or short story as the format adds nothing to the story for me. I get that for awhile every series seemed to get a comic adaptation for... whatever reason and hell, if it made KH happy to branch out this way, that's fine.
littlebitofe's review against another edition
4.0
As The Hollows is one of my favorite series, I had to get the graphic novel. I enjoyed it and loved some of the artwork, but didn't love it as much as I thought I would. I can't put my finger on why not though...
connie_flower's review against another edition
3.0
Ad much as I love the Hollows, I'm definitely more of a prose person than a graphic novel one - this took me a couple hours to read. But the artwork was amazing. Theres one page showing Ivy driving through the city on her bike at sunset and I LOVED it.
tkat's review
4.0
Blood Ties is the first graphic novel adaptation of a Hollows short story, that to my knowledge has never before seen the light of day.
This can essentially be seen as the prequel to Dead Witch Walking, as it deals with Rachael first being paired with Ivy before Jenks and their first job together investigating suspected black magic users.
I loved it. It's always so great when characters you've read about on paper are brought to life with pen and ink, and even better when its done well, which is just what happened here. I've seen 3 of my series make the jump from book to graphic novel and I have yet to be disappointed.
Greatly recommended for all Hollows fans.
This can essentially be seen as the prequel to Dead Witch Walking, as it deals with Rachael first being paired with Ivy before Jenks and their first job together investigating suspected black magic users.
I loved it. It's always so great when characters you've read about on paper are brought to life with pen and ink, and even better when its done well, which is just what happened here. I've seen 3 of my series make the jump from book to graphic novel and I have yet to be disappointed.
Greatly recommended for all Hollows fans.
trysarahtop's review
3.0
This graphic novel was just okay for me but I don't think it deserved a lower rating than 3. Here are the reasons why:
1. I loved that we got the chance to see how Ivy and Rachel met, their relationship is huge in the series so it's important to know how it all started.
2. I liked that we got an illustration of what the characters are supposed to look like, even if they don't fit exactly with what I've imagined.
3. It's nice seeing things from Ivy's point of view, and how mixed up she is about her feelings. It shows how much control she has over herself, and what a strong-willed person she is.
The story didn't really do anything for me. It didn't detract from the series but I don't feel like it added significantly to it except for the things mentioned above. If I were a new reader and I only encountered the graphic novel as an introduction into the series, I wouldn't bother reading the series. There wasn't anything there to keep my attention and make me want to read the whole thing. It's a graphic novel, and I found myself skimming pages and only looking at the illustrations. That is not good.
I'm not sure if Kim Harrison plans to make more graphic novels from Ivy's perspective but I encourage her not to. Instead, she should write short stories. Her writing is so much better than any graphic novel could possibly show.
1. I loved that we got the chance to see how Ivy and Rachel met, their relationship is huge in the series so it's important to know how it all started.
2. I liked that we got an illustration of what the characters are supposed to look like, even if they don't fit exactly with what I've imagined.
3. It's nice seeing things from Ivy's point of view, and how mixed up she is about her feelings. It shows how much control she has over herself, and what a strong-willed person she is.
The story didn't really do anything for me. It didn't detract from the series but I don't feel like it added significantly to it except for the things mentioned above. If I were a new reader and I only encountered the graphic novel as an introduction into the series, I wouldn't bother reading the series. There wasn't anything there to keep my attention and make me want to read the whole thing. It's a graphic novel, and I found myself skimming pages and only looking at the illustrations. That is not good.
I'm not sure if Kim Harrison plans to make more graphic novels from Ivy's perspective but I encourage her not to. Instead, she should write short stories. Her writing is so much better than any graphic novel could possibly show.
caroleheidi's review
3.0
This is the first graphic novel I have ever read, so I have nothing to compare it to in terms of graphic novel quality. I chose to buy it because I am a massive fan of Kim Harrison’s Hollows series and I wanted it for sake of completeness of my collection. I am reviewing this more as a fan of the Hollows than as a graphic novel critique.
I acknowldeged before I hit ‘buy’ that the characters would more than likely not be portrayed as I imagined them from the novels – they never really are when transferred into any medium involving images, be it gaphic novel or movie – but I wasn’t too upset by it. In fact, there were only two characters I immediately had to double take to work out who they were. The portrayals of Ivy, Denon, Quen and Piscary were brilliant, in fact, I was surprised at how quickly I recognised and accepted them. Kisten wasn’t bad, but when I thought about it I couldn’t say why he wasn’t right so maybe it was just one of those things.
I wasn’t keen on the visual portrayal of Rachel but I don’t think that I was going to be happy with anything because I have such a solid picture of her in my head – in a way I’m glad that this novel preceeds the other books because Jenks and Trenton weren’t involved and so I couldn’t rage at how wrong they were!
As far as the storyline goes, it seemed a little thin on the ground compared to the traditional novels – I understand that the perametres are different with graphic novels but I know that they are perfectly capable of portraying deeper stories than this. It was a nice set-up of Ivy and Rachel’s ‘get together’ and showed their relationship begin to form along the dubious line of friendship, irritation and almost-romance that runs through the whole series.
Aside from that, the case of the mysterious werewolf deaths and black magic witch coven seemed a little consequential and glossed over – like it was only there because it really had to be, not because the characters really cared about it.
I think some of this distance was supposed to portray Ivy’s emotional confusion and psychological issues as it is set when she is firmly one of Piscary’s favoured pets, but it missed the mark slightly and felt cold and detached.
The thing I enjoyed most about Blood Work was the section at the back about how the characters had been developed by the artists based on Kim Harrison’s descriptions and the interview section about how she chose which artists to work with. It was an interesting insight into what work goes into producing a Graphic Novel and I was fascinated.
Rating: 3.5/5
I acknowldeged before I hit ‘buy’ that the characters would more than likely not be portrayed as I imagined them from the novels – they never really are when transferred into any medium involving images, be it gaphic novel or movie – but I wasn’t too upset by it. In fact, there were only two characters I immediately had to double take to work out who they were. The portrayals of Ivy, Denon, Quen and Piscary were brilliant, in fact, I was surprised at how quickly I recognised and accepted them. Kisten wasn’t bad, but when I thought about it I couldn’t say why he wasn’t right so maybe it was just one of those things.
I wasn’t keen on the visual portrayal of Rachel but I don’t think that I was going to be happy with anything because I have such a solid picture of her in my head – in a way I’m glad that this novel preceeds the other books because Jenks and Trenton weren’t involved and so I couldn’t rage at how wrong they were!
As far as the storyline goes, it seemed a little thin on the ground compared to the traditional novels – I understand that the perametres are different with graphic novels but I know that they are perfectly capable of portraying deeper stories than this. It was a nice set-up of Ivy and Rachel’s ‘get together’ and showed their relationship begin to form along the dubious line of friendship, irritation and almost-romance that runs through the whole series.
Aside from that, the case of the mysterious werewolf deaths and black magic witch coven seemed a little consequential and glossed over – like it was only there because it really had to be, not because the characters really cared about it.
I think some of this distance was supposed to portray Ivy’s emotional confusion and psychological issues as it is set when she is firmly one of Piscary’s favoured pets, but it missed the mark slightly and felt cold and detached.
The thing I enjoyed most about Blood Work was the section at the back about how the characters had been developed by the artists based on Kim Harrison’s descriptions and the interview section about how she chose which artists to work with. It was an interesting insight into what work goes into producing a Graphic Novel and I was fascinated.
Rating: 3.5/5