howlinglibraries's Reviews (1.85k)

Aww, this was so cute. I can definitely see now why so many people LOVE Raina Telgemeier's work! The art is super sweet and pretty and the story is fun and lighthearted, while still offering great lessons — and something kids can relate to so they don't feel so alone, whether it's about braces, mean "friends", or unrequited puppy love.

Vol. 1: Awakening ★★★★★
Vol. 2: The Blood ★★★★★
Vol. 3: Haven ★★★★★

For some reason, I originally thought Monstress was only ever going to be a 3-volume series, so I went into this one expecting things to wrap up at the end. That's definitely not the case, and I'm so glad, because that cliffhanger ending juuuust about killed me. This was my least favorite volume so far overall, and I can't quite place why — maybe just too much going on, plus a bit of back-tracking on a certain character's development that frustrated me to no end — but even with that being said, it was such an easy 4.5-star read and I didn't hesitate to round up for GR's sake. More than anything, I loved the development of this bizarre relationship/friendship/whatever between Maika and Zinn.

#1 Dead Until Dark ★★★.5
#2 Living Dead in Dallas ★★★★
#3 Club Dead ★★★★★

“Angelic Sookie, vision of love and beauty, I am prostrate that the wicked evil maenad violated your smooth and voluptuous body, in an attempt to deliver a message to me.”

Let me just take back anything negative or lackluster I ever said about Eric Northman in my life, because wow, I have joined the fan club and I am happy to be here, folks.

This installment was SO MUCH BETTER than the first one, I don’t even have words to describe it! The plot’s much more interesting (and set at a better pace), the characters are more varied and fun, we get to meet new faces and learn a little more about some mysterious beings from the first book (again, enter Eric Northman), and Sookie comes into her own a little more as the feisty little firecracker she’s capable of being.

I don’t know why this still wasn’t quite a 5-star read for me—maybe because Bill’s in it too much, and he’s grown to bore me tremendously—but it was such a vast improvement that I can’t wait to pick up the third installment and see if it continues this upward trend.

I liked the concept a lot — I mean, I really dug the idea of it — but the execution was missing something. I think it was mainly the dialogue that never seemed to do a good job of holding my attention, no matter how interesting the goings-on were.

All the stars! Dead Weight was so much fun and I enjoyed it tremendously. The art is beautiful and brightly colored, with a varied cast of characters that fit so many different representations. Of course, the book takes place at a weight loss camp, so many of our characters are plus-sized, but it's never depicted in a body-shaming manner in the slightest. There's also a ton of queer and POC rep, and everything's done so casually; despite having all of these different characters' personalities, identities, and appearances, the real focus is on the murder mystery and the friendships the kids form as they hunt down the killer.

Alright, I'm gonna go ahead and break one of my own reviewing rules for this one. I typically refuse to compare things that I'm reviewing to other creators' works (for better or for worse), but I have to say first and foremost that I think anyone who read Scott Pilgrim vs. the World and either 1) loved it, or 2) like me, thought it had great potential but wanted it to Do Better, will adore Lucky Penny. It's got the same hilarious, cutesy, vaguely bizarre and delightfully geeky vibe to it, but I loved it about a million percent more.

Penny is a trip, first of all. She's super unlucky, but she's also just kind of a brat, in a totally comical and lovable way — she doesn't mean any harm, but she's a little careless and doesn't seem to have much common sense. Walter, her love interest, is the cutest, most harmless little geeky bean, and I really loved the paradox between his love of tabletop gaming and her obsession with really weird fantasy romance novels. I mean, come on, her hero is a dude who lounges around shirtless with lions and her shelves are full of books about dragon shape-shifters wooing innocent young dames... Penny's a total nerdy weirdo in her own right, and I love it.

Not to mention, the whole thing has a wrench thrown in near the end when we suddenly change from a cutesy slice-of-life story to a challenge complete with villains, villainous sidekicks, girl-power gangs, and a delightful little guard kitty. It wasn't what I expected at all, but I totally want more of it.

Something I adore but can never seem to find enough of is solid, well-written horror with diverse representation and political undertones. Much like the introduction to this graphic novel states, much of the inclusive horror we find ends up lacking in one department or the other; most often, it does well in the social commentary department but loses the "horror" elements in the process. Infidel does not suffer from that problem at all.

Not only does it offer a varied cast of characters and some heart-wrenchingly painful scenes of racism and xenophobia, it also is downright creepy as hell with some of the most twisted, bizarro-freaky illustrations I've ever seen. I loved every minute of this and can't wait for the film adaptation!

I probably won't give any of these full reviews, but I grew up on the Goosebumps series and adored it so much that I've decided to pick it back up from the beginning. I'll probably only be reading the "main"/original series, but we'll see.

This was so much more fun than I remembered it being. I know I read this a few times as a kid, and read it again in my teens to find it boring, but I couldn't put it down today and had a blast revisiting Stine's writing style and his weird little ideas. It's predictable as anything, of course, reading this as an adult (even if I didn't know for sure that I was remembering the twist correctly), but the characters are fun, the plot is quick-paced, and there's the classic "shocker" ending Stine's always been so well-known for.

I'd be lying if I said I wasn't excited as heck to pick up book 2 soon! :P