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leahrosereads's Reviews (1.04k)
I really wish I had read the review for this first, because I think I would have started with ANY OTHER Octavia Butler first. Would I have read it knowing that there's nothing pseudo about the pedophilia in this story. Nah, would have been a hard pass. I don't mind dark topics, but I'm not a fan of sex scenes with minors. It's too freaking disturbing for me.
Everything else about this was incredible though - the writing, plot, politics, characters, social issues, and settings - I freaking loved it all.
It's definitely a story that will stick with me and really make me think, and I am definitely interested in reading more of Ms. Butler's work.
Everything else about this was incredible though - the writing, plot, politics, characters, social issues, and settings - I freaking loved it all.
It's definitely a story that will stick with me and really make me think, and I am definitely interested in reading more of Ms. Butler's work.
Re-read 2019
What can I add to my reviews that hasn't already been said (by me). Unfortunately, not much. I was feeling slumpish so I curled up with an old favorite and still loved it. Although, it's only been a year, so I wasn't thinking I changed so dramatically to think this fantastic world would somehow suck.
Top notch story and the third time (I think, I didn't even read my old reviews) that I'm going to recommend it, if you haven't read it yet.
Read it!
Re-read 2018
I stand by my review other than all the spoilers in it. Sorry about that. Here's the non spoilery part. I don't recommend reading past the 2014 stamp of this review:
I loved the characters. They felt so real, and in 150ish pages, I was absolutely invested in the Locke family.
My absolute favorite character is Bode. I just loved his adventurous nature and childlike wonders. He’s brave because he is, and if Echo is ultimately defeated, I think it will be Bode that is the reason for it. He’s just an outstanding character.
The plot, while spooky and of course, supernatural in its essence, was phenomenal. I loved how Joe Hill incorporated the keys that we know about, while hinting at the others. I just want to know what all the keys do.
And then, the fanfuckingtastic artwork. I, just, no real words for it. It’s beautiful and terrifying, and Gabriel Rodriguez brought Joe Hill’s terrors to life. Fucking amazing.
To any of my friends or anyone who reads this review, if you want to try a graphic novel, try this one. The story is riveting and the artwork is extraordinary.
6/4 - 6/8 2014
This was a re-read for me, as I’ve finally made the time to read the series, and I wanted to read all of the volumes consecutively, and HOLY CRAP, I forgot how much I absolutely loved this. Why didn’t I continue reading back when I initially read Vol. 1? Well, because they weren’t available at my local library. No other reason, and I’m kicking myself for not just buying what was available then.
WARNING - there will probably be spoilers in this review, so in a nutshell my thoughts are - excellent, excellent first volume. You should read this! And then the next, and then the next one, and then the next one...well you get the picture. If you don’t mind spoilers, read below, if you do, but want to still read this, well, I’m sorry, but I did warn you.
Volume 1 - Welcome to Lovecraft introduces the reader to a family having just gone through a horrific tragedy of losing a loving husband and father to a psychopathic teen. The Lockes - Momma Locke (Nina), eldest son (Tyler) middle child and only girl (Kinsey) and young Bode pick up the remnants of their old lives and move to Lovecraft, Massachusetts to the Keyhouse Manor. It is the house of the deceased father, Rendell, and it is there that the family’s troubles continue.
Sam, the psychopathic teen that killed Rendell, follows the Lockes after communicating with, well another psychopath (Lady in the Well a/k/a Echo). You see, Sam is after keys at the Keyhouse. I know, crazy right? Keyhouse Manor...has keys in it. However, these aren’t just any old keys. Nope, these keys are special, damn special actually, and it is why Echo wants them. But their hidden, and that’s why she needs Sam.
Back to the Lockes. While dealing with the death of their father, the kids all handle the situation in different ways. Tyler gets angry. Kinsey tries to disappear into the background, and Bode, well he’s Bode and he decides to fantasize and explore Keyhouse Manor. He’s also the one that finds the first key and becomes friends with Echo. It’s really a one sided friendship, because as I stated, she’s a psycho.
More crazy ensues when Sam gets to Keyhouse Manor, but the Lockes overcome, and Sam meets his demise. However, Echo gets a couple of keys during the process and also escapes the well.
Luckily, the Locke kids are kind of sort of figuring out what they’re up against, and they realize that they can’t allow Echo to get the one key she really wants, the Omega Key.
And that’s Volume 1.
I loved the characters. They felt so real, and in 150ish pages, I was absolutely invested in the Locke family. I hope by Volume 6, they defeat the big bad and survive, but this is Volume 1, and I just don’t know how it ends (and I wouldn’t spoil that for you even if I did).
My absolute favorite character is Bode. I just loved his adventurous nature and childlike wonders. He’s brave because he is, and if Echo is ultimately defeated, I think it will be Bode that is the reason for it. He’s just an outstanding character.
The plot, while spooky and of course, supernatural in its essence, was phenomenal. I loved how Joe Hill incorporated the keys that we know about, while hinting at the others. I just want to know what all the keys do.
And then, the fanfuckingtastic artwork. I, just, no real words for it. It’s beautiful and terrifying, and Gabriel Rodriguez brought Joe Hill’s terrors to life. Fucking amazing.
To any of my friends or anyone who reads this review, if you want to try a graphic novel, try this one. The story is riveting and the artwork is extraordinary.
What can I add to my reviews that hasn't already been said (by me). Unfortunately, not much. I was feeling slumpish so I curled up with an old favorite and still loved it. Although, it's only been a year, so I wasn't thinking I changed so dramatically to think this fantastic world would somehow suck.
Top notch story and the third time (I think, I didn't even read my old reviews) that I'm going to recommend it, if you haven't read it yet.
Read it!
Re-read 2018
I stand by my review other than all the spoilers in it. Sorry about that. Here's the non spoilery part. I don't recommend reading past the 2014 stamp of this review:
I loved the characters. They felt so real, and in 150ish pages, I was absolutely invested in the Locke family.
My absolute favorite character is Bode. I just loved his adventurous nature and childlike wonders. He’s brave because he is, and if Echo is ultimately defeated, I think it will be Bode that is the reason for it. He’s just an outstanding character.
The plot, while spooky and of course, supernatural in its essence, was phenomenal. I loved how Joe Hill incorporated the keys that we know about, while hinting at the others. I just want to know what all the keys do.
And then, the fanfuckingtastic artwork. I, just, no real words for it. It’s beautiful and terrifying, and Gabriel Rodriguez brought Joe Hill’s terrors to life. Fucking amazing.
To any of my friends or anyone who reads this review, if you want to try a graphic novel, try this one. The story is riveting and the artwork is extraordinary.
6/4 - 6/8 2014
This was a re-read for me, as I’ve finally made the time to read the series, and I wanted to read all of the volumes consecutively, and HOLY CRAP, I forgot how much I absolutely loved this. Why didn’t I continue reading back when I initially read Vol. 1? Well, because they weren’t available at my local library. No other reason, and I’m kicking myself for not just buying what was available then.
WARNING - there will probably be spoilers in this review, so in a nutshell my thoughts are - excellent, excellent first volume. You should read this! And then the next, and then the next one, and then the next one...well you get the picture. If you don’t mind spoilers, read below, if you do, but want to still read this, well, I’m sorry, but I did warn you.
Volume 1 - Welcome to Lovecraft introduces the reader to a family having just gone through a horrific tragedy of losing a loving husband and father to a psychopathic teen. The Lockes - Momma Locke (Nina), eldest son (Tyler) middle child and only girl (Kinsey) and young Bode pick up the remnants of their old lives and move to Lovecraft, Massachusetts to the Keyhouse Manor. It is the house of the deceased father, Rendell, and it is there that the family’s troubles continue.
Sam, the psychopathic teen that killed Rendell, follows the Lockes after communicating with, well another psychopath (Lady in the Well a/k/a Echo). You see, Sam is after keys at the Keyhouse. I know, crazy right? Keyhouse Manor...has keys in it. However, these aren’t just any old keys. Nope, these keys are special, damn special actually, and it is why Echo wants them. But their hidden, and that’s why she needs Sam.
Back to the Lockes. While dealing with the death of their father, the kids all handle the situation in different ways. Tyler gets angry. Kinsey tries to disappear into the background, and Bode, well he’s Bode and he decides to fantasize and explore Keyhouse Manor. He’s also the one that finds the first key and becomes friends with Echo. It’s really a one sided friendship, because as I stated, she’s a psycho.
More crazy ensues when Sam gets to Keyhouse Manor, but the Lockes overcome, and Sam meets his demise. However, Echo gets a couple of keys during the process and also escapes the well.
Luckily, the Locke kids are kind of sort of figuring out what they’re up against, and they realize that they can’t allow Echo to get the one key she really wants, the Omega Key.
And that’s Volume 1.
I loved the characters. They felt so real, and in 150ish pages, I was absolutely invested in the Locke family. I hope by Volume 6, they defeat the big bad and survive, but this is Volume 1, and I just don’t know how it ends (and I wouldn’t spoil that for you even if I did).
My absolute favorite character is Bode. I just loved his adventurous nature and childlike wonders. He’s brave because he is, and if Echo is ultimately defeated, I think it will be Bode that is the reason for it. He’s just an outstanding character.
The plot, while spooky and of course, supernatural in its essence, was phenomenal. I loved how Joe Hill incorporated the keys that we know about, while hinting at the others. I just want to know what all the keys do.
And then, the fanfuckingtastic artwork. I, just, no real words for it. It’s beautiful and terrifying, and Gabriel Rodriguez brought Joe Hill’s terrors to life. Fucking amazing.
To any of my friends or anyone who reads this review, if you want to try a graphic novel, try this one. The story is riveting and the artwork is extraordinary.
dark
emotional
reflective
tense
medium-paced
What an incredibly informative and enlightening story. This revolution and what Iranians went through during it was heartbreaking to read about, but I'm so glad that Marjane Satrapi shared her experiences. Having this told in a graphic novel format was very smart. We get to experience what the author went through and see everything she saw.
Unnatural, Vol. 1: Awakening
Stanley "Artgerm" Lau, Mirka Andolfo, Matteo Scalera, Milo Manara, Bengal
OK, so I'll admit to picking up this because I wanted to try something new and the cover absolutely captivated me. And, I'll be completely honest that I wasn't sure if I was going to like it based on the synopsis. But I did. The art is absolutely stunning. I'd recommend Unnatural for that alone, but the story is super interesting too.
Some comics start a little slow, but not this one. The story from the very beginning was just excellent. I loved the mystery of it all and the political ideologies hit a little too close to reality to be ignored.
Leslie was an absolutely wonderful main character to follow, and honestly, all of the characters (side, bad guys, everyone) felt very fleshed out and real.
I cannot wait to continue this story with volume 2!
Some comics start a little slow, but not this one. The story from the very beginning was just excellent. I loved the mystery of it all and the political ideologies hit a little too close to reality to be ignored.
Leslie was an absolutely wonderful main character to follow, and honestly, all of the characters (side, bad guys, everyone) felt very fleshed out and real.
I cannot wait to continue this story with volume 2!
While I enjoyed this since it was in graphic form and the art is wonderful, I felt like it was a bit disjointed at times. Which happens when you take a novel and condense it to fit this format. It's not a bad version if you haven't read The Hobbit and want to give it a go, or if you don't mind losing a bit of the story for art. Normally, I'm all for it, but I think since it's such a loved story from my childhood and The Hobbit may be one of the first books that got me into fantasy, the original text is a little too close to my heart.
Still enjoyed and would read again.
Still enjoyed and would read again.
Oh, where to begin? First, I never thought I'd enjoy a book where the MC is old enough to be my grandfather, because I didn't think I'd be able to relate to the character. Well, I did because I could.
John Perry did two things on his seventy-fifth birthday. First he visited his wife's grave. Then he joined the army.
OLD MAN'S WAR follows John as he joins the Colonial Defense Forces to serve in a war away from Earth (far, far away from Earth) and tries not to die.
He's a pretty typical MC to be honest, which would normally bother me. But, sometimes it's nice to have an MC like this, just a nice security blanket. He was smart, sarcastic, and thought his humor was the absolute shit. It worked incredibly well for this story. Could it be that down the road John's personality will bother me because of how predictable it is? Sure, but it didn't happen during this book.
Of course, this is only the first of 6, so maybe by book 6 (if John's still the MC), maybe he'll annoy the hell out of me. I'm looking forward to finding out.
After John, we had several side characters self-dubbed the Old Farts. They were as interesting as side characters could be, but they weren't really developed incredibly well. I still enjoyed when they were on the page, but I'm not going to name names - if that's any indication on how much they actually mattered to me.
And yet, there were times when they mattered quite a bit to me. Quite a bit indeed.
In general, I enjoyed every aspect of OLD MAN'S WAR. I got lost sometimes during the story, and I don't know if it's because there were plot-holes, or if (as it sometimes happens), I got lost in all the info dumping and missed something vital that would have been necessary to grasp to really get a certain part of the book.
Usually, I just had to re-read certain parts to get back into the story, so it wasn't a big deal for me.
The world building was great. I felt like John Scalzi really did a lot of research on scientific theories, technology, and really thought about how he wanted the universe to be. And then made it so. It was just fascinating to explore this world with John (the MC not the author, but I guess with the author too).
All in all, I really enjoyed this book and am absolutely going to read more of the series (hopefully all of the series if the rest of the books are as good as this).
John Perry did two things on his seventy-fifth birthday. First he visited his wife's grave. Then he joined the army.
OLD MAN'S WAR follows John as he joins the Colonial Defense Forces to serve in a war away from Earth (far, far away from Earth) and tries not to die.
He's a pretty typical MC to be honest, which would normally bother me. But, sometimes it's nice to have an MC like this, just a nice security blanket. He was smart, sarcastic, and thought his humor was the absolute shit. It worked incredibly well for this story. Could it be that down the road John's personality will bother me because of how predictable it is? Sure, but it didn't happen during this book.
Of course, this is only the first of 6, so maybe by book 6 (if John's still the MC), maybe he'll annoy the hell out of me. I'm looking forward to finding out.
After John, we had several side characters self-dubbed the Old Farts. They were as interesting as side characters could be, but they weren't really developed incredibly well. I still enjoyed when they were on the page, but I'm not going to name names - if that's any indication on how much they actually mattered to me.
And yet, there were times when they mattered quite a bit to me. Quite a bit indeed.
In general, I enjoyed every aspect of OLD MAN'S WAR. I got lost sometimes during the story, and I don't know if it's because there were plot-holes, or if (as it sometimes happens), I got lost in all the info dumping and missed something vital that would have been necessary to grasp to really get a certain part of the book.
Usually, I just had to re-read certain parts to get back into the story, so it wasn't a big deal for me.
The world building was great. I felt like John Scalzi really did a lot of research on scientific theories, technology, and really thought about how he wanted the universe to be. And then made it so. It was just fascinating to explore this world with John (the MC not the author, but I guess with the author too).
All in all, I really enjoyed this book and am absolutely going to read more of the series (hopefully all of the series if the rest of the books are as good as this).
Oh this art may be the most phenomenal I've seen in a graphic novel this year (so far)! I'm absolutely going to find a way to display this edition somewhere in my home library, because it should be visible for all my company to see, always. However, the story didn't feel cohesive to me. It was still great because it's Gaiman and he can spin some tales, ya know? And it was still the Endless and Dream and this world, and it's all so mesmerizing. But it felt a bit disconnected in some places, and I'm sure that's intentional but it took me out of the story a bit.
Still loved it, obviously.
Still loved it, obviously.
Preface: Not a trekkie or even someone who's actively seen all of the franchise, but I've seen enough and I like John Scalzi, so I thought - what the hell - I'll read this and hopefully love it.
First off: not enough aliens. The back led me to believe more aliens and more death caused by aliens would be read about, so that was disappointing.
Everything else made up for it. This is hilarious and felt like such a homage to Star Trek, and I respect that a ton. The writing is fantastic, and I loved the 3 codas at the end.
But, still not enough aliens.
First off: not enough aliens. The back led me to believe more aliens and more death caused by aliens would be read about, so that was disappointing.
Everything else made up for it. This is hilarious and felt like such a homage to Star Trek, and I respect that a ton. The writing is fantastic, and I loved the 3 codas at the end.
But, still not enough aliens.
This was a pretty solid debut novel. I loved the world, especially. I thought it was fantastically atmospheric and had a really strong foundation to what I hope will be a really spectacular series. The characters were a little lackluster, but I definitely think they have the building blocks to grow into something really special.
I cannot wait to see where this story goes next.
I cannot wait to see where this story goes next.
What a wonderful conclusion to this continuation of the Lunar Chronicles. I definitely loved that Iko was the main focal point here but that the rest of the crew still felt necessary to the story. The romantic elements really added to this and made me question nature v. nurture. Loved it.