Scan barcode
A review by harjas
V for Vendetta by Alan Moore
4.0
This was a difficult read. Not just because of the themes that the book is dealing with but there are parts of the book that are just difficult to get through. The book demands your attention and doesn't spoon feed you anything.
Beyond that (and in the opposite fashion to Watchmen), the book is dark. I mean that, literally. The illustration is very noir - dark colors, blurry pictures, everything is a shade of black and the shapes can only be made out in contrast. There is a constant foreboding of dread that accurately paints of a picture of the time the novel is trying to depict that makes the reading experience uncomfortable and unsettling.
It is probably a testament to how Alan Moore's mind works, how he visualizes his stories, that they come across as movie screenplays or storyboards. The story intercuts between multiple parallel narratives and some of the illustrations are like cinematic shots (the one that stands out is when V holds his fist in front of the dominoes about to flick the first one down). It’s like poetry where multiple things happen together at the same time but are beautifully interwoven to produce a tapestry. It’s confusing and asks patience of the reader while reading, but it all culminates in a beautiful crescendo.
Some of the sequences that really stood out for me were the Killing of Lilliman, V’s broadcast, The Vicious Cabaret, Evey’s dream sequence and her prison “torture”. In fact, I don't remember any other novel depicting the non-linear, stream of consciousness, confusing nature of dreams any better.
Like Watchmen, the characters have flaws. The hero is not all good and the villains are not all bad. There are sides that you can take but neither side is perfect. V’s obsession and extremities (particularly in torturing Evey) flesh out his character even more from his experimental trial days at Larkhill - as much as he became a planning mastermind and a master of theatrics, that the trials did puncture his sense of limitations of empathy. I see in V what I saw in Rorschach. A morally upright and upstanding rebel who wants to rid society of its evils but they come with inflexibility - that he is right and everyone else is wrong and the world is fucked and it needs a savior and he is it.
As difficult as this was to get through, anything that challenges you in the way as this does, is worth reading. Anything that bends your notions of what is "expected" is a testament for an artist at the top of his game and a master of his craft.
Beyond that (and in the opposite fashion to Watchmen), the book is dark. I mean that, literally. The illustration is very noir - dark colors, blurry pictures, everything is a shade of black and the shapes can only be made out in contrast. There is a constant foreboding of dread that accurately paints of a picture of the time the novel is trying to depict that makes the reading experience uncomfortable and unsettling.
It is probably a testament to how Alan Moore's mind works, how he visualizes his stories, that they come across as movie screenplays or storyboards. The story intercuts between multiple parallel narratives and some of the illustrations are like cinematic shots (the one that stands out is when V holds his fist in front of the dominoes about to flick the first one down). It’s like poetry where multiple things happen together at the same time but are beautifully interwoven to produce a tapestry. It’s confusing and asks patience of the reader while reading, but it all culminates in a beautiful crescendo.
Some of the sequences that really stood out for me were the Killing of Lilliman, V’s broadcast, The Vicious Cabaret, Evey’s dream sequence and her prison “torture”. In fact, I don't remember any other novel depicting the non-linear, stream of consciousness, confusing nature of dreams any better.
Like Watchmen, the characters have flaws. The hero is not all good and the villains are not all bad. There are sides that you can take but neither side is perfect. V’s obsession and extremities (particularly in torturing Evey) flesh out his character even more from his experimental trial days at Larkhill - as much as he became a planning mastermind and a master of theatrics, that the trials did puncture his sense of limitations of empathy. I see in V what I saw in Rorschach. A morally upright and upstanding rebel who wants to rid society of its evils but they come with inflexibility - that he is right and everyone else is wrong and the world is fucked and it needs a savior and he is it.
As difficult as this was to get through, anything that challenges you in the way as this does, is worth reading. Anything that bends your notions of what is "expected" is a testament for an artist at the top of his game and a master of his craft.