Reviews

The Woods, Vol. 1: The Arrow, by James Tynion IV

majorrawne's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

writethruchaos's review

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adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

2.5

jnikolova's review

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2.0

Also available on the WondrousBooks blog.

Has it ever happened to you to meet a cool person, funny, interesting, attractive, etc., then go out with them and they become instantly batshit crazy? Say, you go on one date and next thing you know that person is texting you every 20 seconds to check where you are and with who and so on?

Yeah, the odd, unsettling feeling of that is kind of what I felt with The Woods. So you have this volume about an entire school suddenly transferred to another planet/moon, whatever it is, and they need to figure out what to do next. The drawings are pretty enough, the cast is diverse, the premise is interesting...

...and within a day from arriving in this alien land, the teachers have turned evil, the kids are going all Lord of Flies on each other, some have become almost religiously mad, while others go from zero to Rambo in a couple of hours. It's mad and not exactly in a good way.

What's more, all of the younger characters are absolutely insufferable. It's a completely true cliche that teenagers believe they are the center of the world, but the author really overdid it in The Woods. One of the characters starts planning a revolution in the school because she thinks the headmaster is not taking the food and toilet issue seriously enough. A revolution! Her words. Another character saw a drawing of a man hunting a deer and had a poetic meltdown of like 10 bubbles of nonsensical blabber about how her dad bought her a rifle but she couldn't kill the deer and it changed her entire life and is she real and what's the meaning of it all...

giphy

Curious as I am to figure out how and why this high school was transported to space, I'm not going to force myself to read any more about these characters and their entirely waaay to overdramatic crap.

amcloughlin's review

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Amazing. Makes me want to rewatch Buffy!

lilyreads's review

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3.0

I wanted to like this way more than I ended up actually liking it. Dove too quickly into Lord of the Flies and teen drama cliches, and I don't care about most of the characters. That having been said, the art is great, and the world-building has potential if it becomes more of a focus in future issues.

vrainh20's review

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4.0

Thaaaaat was gross. Really really gross...

thatweirdlibrarian's review

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4.0

Very interesting.

erollinus's review

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4.0

Story was solid, but the art work was spotty at times. It seemed blurry in certain points.

jhstack's review

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3.0

The mystery of what's going on on this alien world just might keep me going.

dinipandareads's review

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4.0

Loving this sci-fi / fantasy / horror graphic novel. The art work adds to the dark vibe of the comic and the story is intriguing. I binged the whole series in one day! You can read my full review on my blog.