goobur's reviews
10 reviews

Metro 2033 by Dmitry Glukhovsky

adventurous challenging dark mysterious reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Part 1—Phantom Blood, Vol. 3 by Hirohiko Araki

adventurous dark funny fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.0

The Complete Maus by Art Spiegelman

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

The most effective way to build understanding between people of wildly different backgrounds and experiences has—and always will be—through storytelling. Spiegelman likely could have just filmed a documentary with his father recounting his experiences, but where would the creativity, the honesty, and the interpersonality be? Nowhere. People need to feel the motions of life, to witness its push and pull, to understand its complexities, in order to completely comprehend the scope of a tragedy like this; it needs to be raw. Even though we, ultimately, are reading this through the author and not his father, there was never a moment where I didn’t feel like Vladek was in the room with me relating his stories. He’s given such a pronounced and unique voice in the writing that it allowed me to hear exactly how he would speak. It’s incredibly rare that someone’s character is so clearly pulled through the pages like that. 

When I mean raw, I don’t just mean the erratic but honest structure of the story, but also its aesthetics. Spiegelman’s choice to go for such a scratchy, raggedly style of art lends itself so perfectly to the content it's illustrating that it's a little unbelievable. One would assume that something more realistic would land better as it more clearly visualizes the terrifying scenarios depicted, but their bite isn’t taken away in the slightest. The images are just as haunting as you would expect them to be, likely assisted by imagination filling in the gaps that the art doesn’t present. They’re presented firmly, honestly, and with little in the way of overdramatizing that would take away from the frankness of the story. 

A particularly ingenious aspect of Maus is what it chooses to focus on. Although the majority of the story is about Vladek’s experiences during World War II, this story is really meant to be a portrait of him as a whole. I imagine most authors would choose to omit the interpersonal details between them and their father, but Spigelman understands that these vignettes help endear us to him while also revealing the complexities of the people that actually went through the tragedy. Whether or not Vladek’s character is formed because of what he went through, or if he was always destined to be the way he is, is left completely up to the reader’s interpretation, but his trauma is an undeniable factor in his existence and by extension the author. Trauma can carry over through generations, and it seems as though Art realizes that he may be a victim as well. 

Invincible, Vol. 25: The End of All Things, Part Two by Robert Kirkman

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted tense fast-paced

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

5.0

This review is intended to cover the entire series, not just volume 25.

Not the tightest written story, but that doesn’t really matter here. Despite its mountain of issues, Invincible manages to enrapture like nothing else, and that comes down to Kirkman’s strongest ability as a writer: surprise. While this can backfire with events that wrap up a little too quickly or awkwardly, these surprises more often payout in fantastic ways than anything that may hold the story back in detrimental ways. I also really have to commend his ability to balance such an absurd number of plotlines simultaneously. While obviously unplanned, they frequently climax in ways that seem very natural and focused. The ingenious part of this balancing act is how it assists in the pacing: by having so many narratives occurring concurrently, Kirkman can have them all unfold at a reasonable speed without the reader getting bored by the lack of developments. Not too interested in what’s happening on one page? Don’t worry, the next page will likely be something completely different and the page after that. These bite-sized plot-check-ins lead to a fast pace for the overall series, but a suitable pace for each individual narrative. Obviously the rest of the writing is great, but these are just some things that I noticed while reading that really impressed me. Invincible is something I'm gonna be thinking about for a long time, I imagine.

Blood of Elves by Andrzej Sapkowski

adventurous dark emotional reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

The Witcher's transition to novel format is a rough one. I understand that there's quite a bit that needs to be set up and moved through, but very little of interest occurs here. There's also quite a bit of politicking—which I'm not entirely opposed to as the conflict seems to have some potential—but long talks about locations and kings that I have no idea or interest about really only serves to take away from what I like about these books. I can only hope that the large-scale focus eventually comes in service to the small-scale, interpersonal stuff this series excels at. 

Speaking of which: the vignettes of Ciri's life as she grapples with her new situation and the people around her are the stand-out parts, as minor as they are in the grand scale of the whole book. Specifically, the chapter with

Ciri and Yennefer

is an utterly fantastic mix of characterization and slice-of-life that I absolutely fell in love with; a perfect unfolding of a burgeoning bond and textbook "show, don't tell." I just wish the rest of this was as good. 

Sword of Destiny by Andrzej Sapkowski

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

It’s hard to deny that the stories here are certainly weaker than those in The Last Wish. Even if I ignore the bias of The Last Wish being my first view into the world of the Witcher—in book form at least—the stories from Sword of Destiny still struggled to leave a huge impression on me aside from decent amusement. They’re nowhere near bad, but there’s something lacking about them. However, I think it goes without saying that the final stories, “The Sword of Destiny” and “Something More,” are the easy standouts in the book, with “Something More” easily being the best chapter I’ve read from this series so far. Such a cool structure and use of the medium; the reader is never really sure how to perceive what they’re reading, putting you right alongside Geralt in this haze of memories and emotions. It also serves as a great culmination of everything these two books have been building towards which, presumably, leads nicely into the actual plotline going forward. 

A Silent Voice, Vol. 7 by Yoshitoki Oima

challenging dark emotional hopeful lighthearted reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

The Last Wish by Andrzej Sapkowski

adventurous challenging dark funny mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

There’s something so deliciously compelling about how The Last Wish weaves its tales. With its world systems being based on the power of emotion and stories, it creates an incredibly intuitive avenue for the reader to easily understand what is occurring without the author bogging things down with overwrought exposition. Characters give brief, vague explanations of world mechanics and you’ll be nodding your head going, “Yes, of course, that makes sense.” Maybe Sapkowski has the internal logic of the world all thought out, maybe he doesn’t; frankly, it's irrelevant, as all that matters is that it makes intuitive sense to the reader—which it does. It shows a level of understanding and respect from the author to the reader about what’s actually important in stories: the events, their thematic undertones, and how both of those culminate into emotional resonance for the audience. Not every little detail, lore, or word must be revealed, the world can simply exist while the reader peers into it, obtains their own implications, and that is it.

Naoki Urasawa's 20th Century Boys, Vol. 13: Beginning of the End by Naoki Urasawa

adventurous hopeful lighthearted mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

This review is intended to cover from volume one to thirteen only.

Yeah, I'm just gonna call it quits here. This isn't bad, mind you, it simply stretches out even the most basic of ideas far too much for me to enjoy it. Some of these moments can be cool, but they are few and far between for me to get through the whole eleven volumes I have left to go. I suppose the suspense and mystery is intended to pull me through the weaker sections, but Urasawa's style of tension can be often frustrating as he pushes the reader past the point of enjoyable suspense to apathy. There's a certain section in volume eleven that I feel exemplifies this issue where

Friend's face is finally being revealed

. The entire cast has their moment of revelation simultaneously which should be incredibly suspenseful and exciting, but it just feels really dragged out. It also doesn't help that too much information is divulged right before the reveal for it to be anything but obvious to even the most clueless reader, i.e. me. 

But, then, he also has his moments of brilliance like

the chapters where we timeskip forward to 2014 with Kanna

and the state of the world is deliciously and brilliantly revealed throughout until the final knockout punch we all suspected but couldn't believe. Another excellent display of Urasawa's mastery over the small-scale is the excellent chapter "A Small Town in Germany" or the two-parter "The Frog Empire Strikes Back" or even the wonderful—if somewhat unrealized—"Self-Destruction" with Maruo. Here, we can chew more on the characters and the situations they find themselves in much more satisfying ways than the main plot plays out.

So, yeah, some good parts, but overall I don't think this is for me. Also, Kyoko is the best character and I literally will not respect arguments that say otherwise.

Akira, Vol. 6 by Katsuhiro Otomo

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.0

This review is intended to cover volumes one through six.

This was a pretty unbearable 2,000+ page slog. While the art was quite excellent, the story itself is incredibly bare and dull; it feels as though it meanders throughout its entire existence. There really aren't any strong moments, but the true fault of the boredom is the characters. They are incredibly one-dimensional and uninteresting. The only one who could be of note is Tetsuo, but his motivations before and during the multiple crises that occur in the series are so muddled and under-cooked that it's difficult to get invested in whatever internal plight he is struggling through... if it even is internal, I still don't really get it. Either way, I really don't think you should waste your time with this, just skim it for the art if you're really that interested.