I just finished this book this morning after starting it last night. So far, it's definitely interesting and keeps the page turning. At the same time, I'm unsure what the author is trying to convey with the fact that all the men on Earth have died at the same time, and only women survive. Oh, and that one guy, Yorick. It's at times funny, but kind of in a cheesy way, and I'm waiting to see what will become of the characters, and the world.

The beginning was nicely done, but when the surviving women are gathered into Democrats versus Republican groups, and when the "Amazons" seem to represent crazy lesbian feminists - well, it all seems built upon some eye-rolling stereotypes.

We'll see how the series continues...

The story continues...I'm still not convinced this is a "great" graphic novel. The jokes are still really corny and I'm not sure where it's going.

The premise of the book is interesting, of course: the Devil, fallen angel Lucifer himself, gets a chance to live on Earth as a human for one month. And it would have been good, I believe, if the first-person narrative didn't dwindle into long rants and digressions of infinite tedium. Lucifer talks in circles and tries to play with words in a means to be clever, but just comes off as boring instead.

The only relevant and cohesive parts of the book were those in which Satan tells the famous bible stories from his point of view: how he got Eve to take a bite out of that apple, what his role was in the crucifixion. However, these parts were mired by the absolutely boring and horrendous sections of his "Earth time" - I can't even describe how often I wanted to give up on these parts, and how his voice, in my head, turned so smarmy - the cleverness of the retellings went down the drain in the incessant and unintelligent ramblings of his attempt at humanity. Nonsense.

Wow, this book made me really mad.

I think this volume was the best so far. It took me a little by surprise with the dominatrix/sex angle in the beginning, but I was left surprised again by how it turned out. Also, the mystery of the masked followers going after Agent 711 intrigues me. Yorkick's inner revelations proved weird in a good way. And Dr. Mann and 355 finally do some good work getting rid of that road barrier!

The story is getting better, and more time is passing. The cover illustration of an astronaut skeleton was quite haunting, and I was eager to find out what would happen...but I should have known, given the name of the series. It felt anti-climactic. It feels like just another step; though I am savoring for answers, or just a point to the story and the characters.

It didn't start off great. I am not impressed by the graphics, and the story only started coming together near the end. It left off on such a high point compared to the rest of it, that I will endeavor to read the second volume, but if that one can't ignite any sort of passion in me for the story or characters, I probably won't read the rest.

I've read a fair amount of books this year dealing with addiction/drugs - I'm surprised I love all of them as much as I do. Jesus' Son, like the others, uses words to the fullest effect. Each sentense in the short collection of short stories is carefully crafted, but not in a way that muddles the actual story; instead each word becomes important and each sentence unmasks something about the story or characters.

I didn't realize the narrator of each story was the same until the second or third story; I realized those little hints too late and I already want to go back and read it again and piece the stories together chronologically, as they are not presented here. I realized I needed to pay more attention to each sentence. The narrator himself, a drug abuser, is not sympathetic - I didn't like him. The real star here is the prose and the way the stories interweave.

I'm still reading these books, though the story is not entirely entertaining. I'm still not entirely sure why I should like any of the characters. They haven't developed any of them in this volume, and it's a surprise after learning a lot in the fourth. And if this "revelation" as to why Yorick and the monkey survived the plague is any indication, I'm not going to be very satisfied with what caused it. The "mystery" of the amulet of Helene was also not as satisfying to learn in accordance to all the build up it got. I ended this volume going, "So?"

But I suppose I shall continue on. I hate not finishing something.

An obvious dystopian classic, I loved each section's special focus. Though all disturbing, the last section was downright horrifying.

Quite a harrowing read I won't soon forget; it's one thing to grow up learning about concentration camps through text books, and quite another to read about the experience from someone who saw the atrocities and lived to be able to view everything in retrospect. Particularly sad were the flashes to present time; written as he already knew what happened to those people he remembers and the insight he gained into human behavior. Gave me chills.