Saturday, April 30, 2016

**Personal Post**

I am sorry for the lack of posts this week. I have two posts I need to write. Unfortunately this week my husband and I found out we lost our baby. Physically and emotionally I am not feeling well. Hopefully I can get a post up mid-end of next week. From then on I will try to continue on a regular schedule. Thank you.

Sunday, April 24, 2016

A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab

I heard about A Darker Shade of Magic after I found out about its sequel, A Gathering of Shadows. Reviews were comparing it to one of my favorite Neil Gaiman novels Neverwhere. When I looked further into the novel I found the first one and found out there was also meant to be a third, so I got excited and next time I was at a bookstore I picked up ADSOM.

The beginning was slow going. It took me some time to really get into the novel which I think was due to the fact that I never connected with the main character, Kell. And even though I was interested in the three Londons and the system of magic that Schwab describes, I still had trouble really wanting to continue reading.

Once the character of Lila Bard was introduced I was slightly more interested, but still felt a lack of enthusiasm. The plot did not pick up until almost 200 pages in, which is halfway through the novel, and that was frustrating as well. I have not appreciated many novels that take a long time to get the story going. On top of all of this, the novel, which is not YA, felt like a YA novel. It lacked the depth of an adult fantasy novel and the characters all felt paper thin. However, V.E. Schwab did do a good job of not making the ending easy. She made sure her characters went through things in a believable manner, and for that reason, I did not actually hate this book.

I liked the novel enough to be excited about meeting the author. V.E. Schwab will be at Phoenix Comic Con in early June, which I am going to, and so I will be able to hopefully go to some panels and maybe even get my book signed. Sure, I wished the characters were more substantial, but Lila's story seemed to hint at obtaining more depth in the sequel. And I wished the plot had moved more quickly, but I appreciated the lengths Schwab went to to describe her system of magic. So, all in all, it was an enjoyable book. I am not sure yet if I will read the subsequent novels, but this is a book I think the right kind of person would like. And who knows? Maybe the sequels will give me the depth and substance I wanted in this novel. So perhaps I am being a bit too harsh, but I can't say for sure at the moment.

Tuesday, April 19, 2016

Saga by Brian K. Vaughan (writer) and Fiona Staples (artist)

First, I would like to apologize for not posting last week. I was not having the best time and did not finish any books. (Shocking, I know). But I am back this week in abundance and will be posting at least once, if not twice, more before the week is over! To give you a preview, I am currently reading:

-A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E Schwab
-Me Before You by Jojo Moyes (audiobook)
-The Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling

So that is what you have to look forward to, review-wise! Okay, now on to what this post is really about.

I need to begin this by saying that I was never into comics. I mean, never. If anything, I looked down on people who read them. I thought they were childish and for people who could not, or would not, tackle the comprehensive world of fiction. Then when I was 16 my ex-boyfriend gave me The Crow. I read it and, to my surprise, enjoyed it. But I was still naive because it was a "graphic novel" which was, obviously, different from a comic book. (Oh the things we think when we are young!). Fast forward to a few years ago and I discover Neil Gaiman, who I fall madly in love with. I devoured everything he had written that I could get my hands on. And when I ran out of books, I was left with the vast library of comic and graphic novel work he had produced. So I bought the first Sandman graphic novel. I loved it. Now, I have only read two Sandman graphic novels and two of Gaiman's stand alone graphic novels, so I am still very much a beginner, but I was impressed at how rich the storytelling actually was. That combined with the amazing artwork and I was captivated. I don't know that it made me a comic buff necessarily, but it definitely taught me a lesson and gave me an appreciation for this world. Unfortunately, I never dove into anything else in the comic world, until this past weekend.

There had been articles and suggestions made about Saga in my realm of social media and friends since about two years ago. Yet nothing I saw sparked my interest enough to actually pay attention. I had seen the cover of the first comic and enjoyed the evocative nature of it. (Who wouldn't love a bad ass looking winged-lady breastfeeding?) Recently I had been hearing about it again and the cover kept coming to mind. So last week I was at Barnes and Noble with my husband and went to the comic section to check it out. Much to my pleasant surprise, all Image comics, (Image is the publisher), were on sale for "buy 2 get the 3rd free". Then of course I had to buy the first three. This felt like a sign from the reading gods.

I started the first graphic novel the next day and finished it almost faster than you can say "saga". I jumped right into the second one and am only taking a break from going on to the third one so I can write this post. I now own all five available graphic novels (each one contains six comics) and plan to subscribe to the comics once they start up again later this year so that I do not have to wait months between the graphic novel releases. Yep, I have become a comic nerd.

What I love about this series is pretty much everything. The main characters, Marko and Alana, are on this mission to raise their baby Hazel as far from the war between their worlds as possible. At the heart, Saga is all about family. I don't know if it is the fact that I am pregnant for the first time that plays into my love for this story or the fact that it is just a great story, but I feel like it is definitely a bit of both. Brian K. Vaughan's world is weird and inventive and full of the fresh-ness that I appreciate in anything science-fiction. His ability to give even the evil characters an interesting narrative with depth is something else that speaks to his true talent as a storyteller. I feel like I can't turn the pages fast enough and yet I want to turn them all bad and read them all over again.

Alana is my favorite character. Not just because she is a woman, but because she is strong without losing her femininity. I feel like so much of Hollywood and other creative outlets nowadays focus on overly masculine women or overly feminine women. Part of the reason I loved the new Star Wars is that I feel Rey was similar to Alana. These are the women I can most relate to because I have never felt like a girly-girl, but I've never felt like a tom-boy either. So reading Saga and watching Alana be a wife, mother, and a warrior is just all around awesome and inspiring. But all of this is not to say that I do not love Marko and other characters as well, its just that if I could be anyone, right now I would pick her.

Saga also does an amazing job of dealing with gritty topics such as race, sex, and age. There are moral questions raised and eyebrows left un-raised at things other art and literary forms would never even discuss. Or if they did discuss it, it would be in an in-your-face way or with tongue in cheek. I think the fact that this is a rare, if nonexistent, feeling for me when reading these comics says a great deal about the writing and artistry.

Last, but not least, I have to gush over Fiona Staples artwork. It is breathtaking. The scary scenes are horrifying. The awkward scenes of robots sitting on toilets are still asking to be stared at. The loving scenes emanate the emotions off of the page. And the facial expressions of each character seem as real as if they were sitting right across from me. I want to take certain pages out of Saga just to hang them on my wall. Even if you hate good storytelling, you have to read this series for the great artwork. 


Saturday, April 9, 2016

Poet Review: Lang Leav

As many of you may know, April is National Poetry Month. So I decided to make my first post of the month about a poet I discovered this year. Her name is Lang Leav. She is a poet and artist who lives with her boyfriend who is also a poet (they are the Neil Gaiman and Amanda Palmer of the poet world).

I first found her book Love and Misadventure in Barnes and Noble on display. I loved the way the book looked so I took it home. And proceeded to devour it. Then I went out and bought her second book Lullabies, which I loved even more. She has a third book, Memories, which I have yet to read. But it is a compilation of poetry from her first two books mingled with new pieces. Lang Leav has her fourth poetry book due in October and sometime soon her debut novel. I plan to read all of it.

What I love about her books is that they combine her art with her poetry and bits of prose. She weaves a mismatched story with it all that is just beautiful. Most of her poems are short, but so strikingly beautiful I end up rereading most of them two or three times before turning the page. She focuses on the subject of love which feels like a nod to the poets of old like John Keats. And yet her poems are also refreshingly modern and relateable. Lang Leav is by far my favorite living poet. I recommend her to everyone because the shortness of her writing is accessible to those not familiar with poetry and the depth of her work can be appreciated by someone more knowledgeable about the poetry world. She is truly a brilliant poet and I can't wait to read what she releases next.


*Unrelated note: I apologize for the delay in posts. I recently found out I am pregnant (yay!) and have not been feeling 100%. Thus I will be focusing on only posting once a week, instead of twice, aiming for every Friday. Thank you for following and happy reading
!!*