Second Read-through...

East of West is a creative reimagining of the coming of the apocalypse. I think that the separation of Death from his brother and sisters is really unique. The feelings that he has also makes the horsemen more complicated because it creates a fine line between them as sentient beings and tolls of a godly prophecy. I think that Hickman could have introduced the conflict ant characters a little slower, perhaps over two volumes. The amount of characters and territories was a little overwhelming for a first volume and graphic novel. Other than that, the story is very captivating. The twists in the first volume creat a good direction for the story to go towards. The concept of the beast of the apocalypse was new to me. (I don’t know if it’s standard to horseman lore.)

The fact that it is, possibly, Death’s own son, adds depth to the conflict. Xiaolian’s reluctance to go back to Death is really hard hitting and is going to make a good romance plot line. Perhaps enemies to lovers or second chance romance.

3.5 ~ Second time read.

There was a lot of character background and world building in this volume. While some of it, like Conquest’s connect to the message and her reliance on “The Chosen”, make sense plot wise, other things, like the plea for help from The Kingdom because of the turmoil in The Republic, seemed like a reach to be relatable and to turn the conversation around and point a finger elsewhere.

The Beast, for we have no other name for him yet, has turned the plot around unexpectedly. When I first read this, I suspected a lot of it went over my head.

The Beast pretending to be a mindless robot but instead, being fully sentient and using his knowledge to learn about the events happening outside his prison, shows a lot about his parents and the biology that helps him from turning into an empty monster. Something that other creatures would succumb to because of similar isolation.

The psychology mixed with the lore makes this series utterly unique to its genre.

This one hurt. The beginning was particularity insightful. The leaders’ meeting added a lot of background to what regions get along and why. But there was also some confusion, probably intentionally, regarding the monsters that inhabit Ezra and Bel Solomon. Ezra’s was briefly explained by the President and the Horsemen, but it doesn’t elaborate on how his transformation makes him more useful to The Chosen and their message.

On the other end of this story, we are seeing Death’s son, now name Babylon, escaping his prison and the Horsemen. Babylon wears vision guards like the prophet from the Endless Nation. These vision guards skew his sight from seeing the world authentically. He ends the volume in what looks like a hell-scape when in reality it is a sunflower field. I wonder if someone from the Endless Nation is controlling his vision and learning through Balloon (The Artificial Intelligence system that he is connected to). The Endless Nation seems to be the only region with the technology that Babylon is imprisoned by, so it would make sense for them to manipulate Babylon’s learning to get an outcome that would benefit their nation and their allies (The PRA - His Mother, etc.)

This was not what I wanted it to be. In a world where humans eat humans there was very little that was actually explained of the world.

Marcos seemed to have become unravel because of his son’s death though the book makes it seem as though he is actually bothered by humanity’s solution to eating humans for nutrition.

There are a lot of controversial subjects brought up that just don’t get resolved. Things like an animal virus that may or may not be made up by the government so that they can require human flesh consumption to control human population. There was also the start of a “evils of factory farming” narrative which I believe would help the discussions in real life about how humans can preserve their way of living without having to eat meat. Overall, the length of this book hindered the plot, character development, and world building. The only reality this book shared was the struggle of familiar relationships.

Okay, this was good despite the ridiculous names.

Holy cow, this is everything I could ever want from a fantasy/sci-fi book. The institute setting was everything. It was able to show the distinct cultural differences between the lowReds and the Golds. Darrow was a man while the others were still clawing their way out of childhood. Every part of the book was captivating. I loved seeing Darrow evolve from rage and anger into strategy and leadership. The rage still was able to drive him, but it didn’t control him in the end. I also appreciate all the friendships Darrow made, and that even though he originally had blistering hate for all Golds, he was able to see them as humans capable of change and possibly even allyship in the future. I loved how Brown wrote the fight scenes. They resembled vignettes more than moving sweeping scenes. This allowed me to understand the fighting, weapons, and political strategies of the characters more clearly.

The only negative thing I have to say about this book is that the chapters sometimes ended seemingly abruptly, or like it was in the middle of a paragraph. If this is the only negative thing though, I think I can live with it for the power the the book pacts in a short amount of pages.

I thought that this was going to be a commentary on the world of retail and the struggles the workers face. It turned out to be a traditional haunted house novel where an Ikea like store is built on haunted land. I did find that the prison that Orsk was built on and the warden’s mission were different and connectable to the downsides of retail. Basil’s want to protect everyone and be responsible for everyone often seemed misguided and unrealistic. I did like the character arc that Amy went through. The things she was driven by seemed concrete for her character, and the relationships and sympathy that she felt really revealed her inner monologue and her attachment towards her job and coworkers.

The superior thing about this novel was definitely the gore and body horror. The wardrobe scene was absolutely horrifying and claustrophobic.

In short, the book is short, fun, and entertaining. Will I remember this in a few months? The odds are not in my favor.