ahh I don't like zombies they're gross and scary, but I wanted to read this because I want to watch the show (because Veronica Mars). and! I liked it! It's not very scary and gross at all, so if that is what you are looking for in a zombie story, perhaps you will not like this. it's pretty clearly a VOLUME ONE and I felt like it ended right when I was getting most intrigued (and my library doesn't have volume 2 noooooo), but I'm totally here for the characters and the concept. And I will try watching the show.

crying about it foreverrrrr

I loved so much about this, the complexity of the situation and the way we can so perfectly see how Suzy's thought processes make sense to her and no one else... the TERRIFYING POWER OF THE SEA. just lovely.

good for middle-grade kiddos looking for a sad book, or science-lovers, or weird kids.

I'm soooooooo happy about this return to my PREFERRED form of Sarah Vowell--I felt like with [b:Unfamiliar Fishes|8857310|Unfamiliar Fishes|Sarah Vowell|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1311706005s/8857310.jpg|13594625] and [b:The Wordy Shipmates|2845287|The Wordy Shipmates|Sarah Vowell|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1442802485s/2845287.jpg|3093704] she was really moving away from being a comedic history-muser and more toward just actual historianship? Which, like, good for her if that's what she'd want to do, but I'd infinitely much rather read a book like this one, and I think it's a much more unique niche that she is so qualified to fill.

also: yes, it is fortuitous that this came out in the midst of HAMILTON-MANIA.

but also Sarah Vowell, in this mode, is just so relatable to me and so important, with her skeptical idealism and shaky faith in human beings. so good. so funny. so empathetic (toward not only Lafayette but also his wife, but also the slaves, and so on). ♥

HMMMMMMM I do love Magneto in all his tortured, complicated glory, and I was excited to read this. It was fine? I think basically I'm totally on board with him as a lone wolf mutant-defending vigilante, and the parts focused on that--and his fallen mutant memorial--were my favorite. I don't think I'm quite as sold on the latter part of this volume?

Spoiler

It just seemed sort of arbitrary that he would decide to go after the Marauders as his next move and I don't think it got set up in a way that quite made sense to me? Like IDK don't you have other shit to do, Magneto?

Also I think I get what the art was going for, it's like, tumultuous and shit, but it kind of stressed me out to look at it.

I think my reading experience of this suffered a bit because I dragged it out over a pretty long period and I ended up kind of forgetting some things along the way? That's on me though.

Anyway, this is beautifully written and has some fresh-feeling perspectives on WWII, which I feel like is kinda tough to do at this point.

This was a pretty quick, engaging read for me. I've started watching Chopped reruns and I enjoyed reading about Marcus's journey toward becoming a chef. I do wonder if this might go in a liiittle deep on the food terminology? But I know a lot of teens like watching Food Network and stuff, so I guess any teen who was interested enough to pick this up would probably be at least a little food savvy.

I was talking to Abby, who read [b:Yes, Chef|13069213|Yes, Chef|Marcus Samuelsson|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1329368167s/13069213.jpg|18329805], which is the full, grownup memoir, and it sounds like one of the biggest differences between the 2 books is this one cuts off around the time Marcus is age 25, when he gets his first head chef job (but before all the TV and stuff). This kinda makes sense, on the grounds that youths might be more interested to read about him as a youth, and also that the full version might be intimidatingly long? But, they probably want to know more about him as TV chef, so... IDK. Also: this version ever-so-casually mentions that he fathered an illegitimate child at the age of 20 and then never ever mentions that child again. Apparently, in the full memoir (and IRL), he reconnected with her when she was 14. IDK, I kind of wish they hadn't mentioned the kid at all if they weren't going to bring her up again later?

But I did like how this showed how you can change paths and still find success, even without college. And I also liked the way Marcus talks frankly about race. He was adopted from Ethiopa as a baby and raised in Sweden, and he talks about microaggressions like people not expecting him to speak Swedish, or expecting him to be great at basketball. It's not the main point of his narrative by any means, but for some (white) kids reading this it might be one of the first times they hear about stuff like that.

I'm planning to booktalk it to 7th/8th grade--I don't think it's going to appeal to every teen but I think there are enough kids who would be excited about it to make it worthwhile. Especially since, you know, there's a POC right there on the cover and I struggle to find enough books to those to make everyone feel represented when I do my school visits.

omg, I could not believe how INTO this I got! I definitely did not know what pellagra was, but like, I'd heard of it? So every single time the scientists made some new development into figuring out what caused it, I was like, "oh yeah that sounds right." (It wasn't.) Also, there are some BANANAS things they did while trying to figure out what caused it. I think I could booktalk this just by being like "hey, if you really believed in a theory, would you EAT POOP to prove it"?!

My complaint is that it's oversized and that's a hard sell. PRINT ME SOME NORMAL SIZED YA NONFICTION, THAT IS ALL.

I enjoyed this! I like Jessica a lot as a character, and there's kind of a Veronica Mars vibe to the more low-key PI case in this volume. I'm not super familiar with Daredevil enough to completely follow the tie-in that was happening, but I got the gist of it enough to enjoy it. Also I liked that this contains the missing girl's sketchbook as a bonus at the end (bits of it are incorporated into panels throughout but it was cool to see all the work that went into it as a whole).

this is SOOO CUUUTE I want to dieeeeeee

Like, look at that kitten with dragon wings?? (Aka the whole reason I wanted to read this book)? it's sooo cuuteeee.

I listened to this as an audiobook and it made my trip just fly by. The narrator has an adorable voice.

This is not necessarily breaking off any fresh new ground in the world of magical school MG, but it's very cute, and full of diverse characters (including a biracial protagonist). Did I mention it's very cute.

I listened to this as an audiobook--it's read by the author, which can be hit or miss, but Neil Gaiman is a good reader. Or maybe I just think so because, like all Americans, I love British accents.

This was a quick, funny listen--the audiobook is about an hour long, so it ended just when the repetition was starting to feel a little tedious for me. (To its target audience I think it would feel less predictable.) I see that Skottie Young illustrated it so I kind of want to flip through a print edition just to see them.