Twitter was a fumin’ over the last few weeks in response to author Lionel Shriver’s controversial keynote address at the Brisbane Writers Festival. Her speech meant to discuss “community and belonging,” quickly dissolved into a tirade against the rampant (and completely imagined) “crisis” plaguing white authors today: political correctness.
Continue reading “On Diversity: A response to Lionel Shriver and a look at my own bookshelf”
Paper Girls, Vol.1
Image Comics
March 2016
Writer: Brian K. Vaughan
Artist: Cliff Chiang
Colorist: Matt Wilson
Lettering: Jared K. Fletcher
In keeping with the rest of the world, I’m still reeling from the 48-hour trip that was binge watching Stranger Things. That synth-pop lovin’ Goonies meets Lost Boys meets ET masterpiece was MADE for me. When someone mentioned that Paper Girls was basically the comic book/female cast version of the show, I all but sprinted to buy it.
Just the cover had me completely won over. I MEAN, CAN YOU SEE IT?
Paper Girls follows four newspaper delivery girls through the pre-dawn streets of Cleveland, OH. Banding together, these ladies are ready to face whatever comes their way, whether it be bill-evading customers, uninvited male advances, or invading supernatural predators.
The Artwork. I’ll talk about the coloring first, as that was what initially drew me in and carried me through the entire volume. The way Wilson utilizes color is beautiful and spot-on. Many spreads and panels are almost ombre-like in their tonal shifts, utilizing a dusty, muted variation of stereotypical 80’s neons. This was, without a doubt, the most aesthetically pleasing comic I’ve read so far.
Chiang’s drawing was also a major winner here. The characters look like actual adolescent girls (a refreshing change of pace), and the clothing is spot-on, a perfect match for the time period while avoiding cliched trends like leg warmers and side-ponies.
I read recently that late to the game comic readers like myself have a hard time shifting from text-only reading to simultaneous text/image reading – skipping from word bubble to word bubble and ignoring the images in between. I’ve definitely felt this in my reading so far, but I think the artwork and color in Paper Girls helped me bridge that gap. I couldn’t help but pay attention.
I genuinely wanted to cut out entire spreads of this to hang on my wall. I’m assuming that this is frowned upon in the community – akin to highlighting, writing in margins, or dog-earing pages of books (All of which I do. What are you going to do about it? AB-SO-LUTE-LY. NOTHING).
Pacing and Character Development. The four titular characters were each so uniquely different; it’s unfortunate that they seemed to get lost in the shuffle. Paper Girls got a bit bogged down by a constant influx of new characters (human and non-) and I often wished it would slow down a bit. I would have happily read page after page of the girls going around on their bicycles, smoking cigarettes, and putting down school bullies – providing some much-needed character development. This, however, wasn’t the case, and the story quickly moved onto a (still not quite fully realized) supernatural invasion (it’s a wild one).
I’m going to make a major (and much too early) generalization and say that this kind of fast-paced storytelling is just part of the medium, and I’m just not used to it quite yet.
In the end, I finished Paper Girls the same way I finished Stranger Things – pretty confused. Whatever supernatural being reeking havoc on Cleveland is yet to be fully understood by the end of Vol. 1. If that suspense doesn’t get readers itching to read Vol. 2, then the cliffhanger in the final panel will.
Vol. 2 of Paper Girls will be available November 30, 2016 (but you can buy the single issues now if that cliffhanger is just too much to bear).
A Torch Against the Night
Sabaa Tahir
Published by Razorbill
30 August 2016
Find the GoodReads summary here.
It’s safe to say that the second installment to Tahir’s Ember in the Ashes series was one of the most anticipated YAs of the season – and for good reason. A Torch Against the Night was, in short, a beautifully written page-turner (with a swoon-worthy protagonist to boot).
Torch takes place right where Ember left off – with two victims of the totalitarian Sparta-inspired Empire, running for their lives. Laia, an oppressed scholar turned Resistance spy, and Elias, one of the best (albeit unwilling) soldiers the Martial Empire has trained. Laia, with help from Elias, continues her fight to save her older brother, who holds the key to the Scholar’s fate in the Empire, from Kauf, its most dangerous prison. But Torch isn’t just an adventure story; otherworldly creatures and deep mythologies take it into a realm of high-fantasy that I didn’t quite see coming, but enjoyed nonetheless.
Character Development and Pacing. I’ve found a few reviews that fault Tahir’s protagonist, Laia, for what they consider unbelievably quick character development. It’s true – Laia had to develop quickly. After watching her grandparents/guardians brutally murdered at the hands of the totalitarian Empire and her brother taken away for interrogation (as good as death), Laia has to get really brave really fast. After a bit of waffling in the Ember, Laia is steadfast in her decisions and capabilities – and I was all over that. I was happy, ecstatic even, that I didn’t have to wait until the final pages for Laia to understand her worth and strength. YAAASS, GIRL.
On a similar note, the characters in Torch are honest with each other, and I have never been more appreciative. One of my absolute least favorite thing in YA (that, unfortunately, seems to also be one of the most pervasive things), is protagonists’ unwillingness to share facts or feelings that would make their lives 300% more enjoyable/easier. Both Laia and Elias could have easily kept major information private, torturing themselves even further in the process. Honestly, it was refreshing for two mature protagonists to simply be honest with each other from, more or less, the beginning of the novel.
Narrators. I have to admit that when I realized Torch was going to be told from three different perspectives, I groaned. Loudly. And thrashed around a little for good measure. I’m starting to tire from what I see as a relatively new trend in YA to utilize an extensive number of first-person narrators. Not only is it extremely difficult to capture that many different voices in one novel, but it disjoints the story, magnifies the number of characters a reader has to keep track of, and often encourages unnecessary or waffling storylines.
Despite my reservations, Tahir handled the varying perspectives wonderfully. Most importantly, I felt that the three separate POVs were necessary to the narrative and overall made for a richer storyline and more complex and sympathetic characters.
Villains. All I will say to this point is MAN, can Tahir write some villains.
Lack of Worldbuilding. I see this as actually a carry-over from Ember, which for me, simply didn’t lay sufficient groundwork for a full understanding of the Empire. It caused a lot of confusion as I read Torch and lead me to really struggle with fully picturing and comprehending the construction of the world. That being said, it wasn’t enough to keep me from loving and recommending this novel.
Overall, Tahir wraps up Torch much more mercifully than Ember (which might of well have just ended mid-sentence), while still leaving readers with plenty of questions and hopes for the third installment. The third novel of the series is set to come out sometime in 2018.
I never read comic books or graphic novels as a kid – I was more of a Nancy Drew and Boxcar Children gal. And I’ll admit, I wasn’t only a non-reader of comics, but ran a pretty aggressive platform against them for years, internalizing my teachers’ general disdain for the medium. I don’t even think our library stocked them, and they certainly weren’t part of our Accelerated Reading Program. (And anyone whose school participated in AR knows that it was all about racking up those points – 10 of those bad boys and you were the proud owner of a Pizza Hut Personal Pizza coupon).
Luckily today, it seems that the stigma is slowly lifting, and it is well past time for me to get educated.
I did some initial research online, hoping to avoid looking like a total newb walking into the comic book store, but I quickly got bogged down with terminology and the sheer immensity of it all. There are approximately 1,698 different versions of X-Men out there and I had no idea where to start.
I walked straight up the counter and plead ignorance to the first employee I found. I told him I’d like to get a feel for as many different genres as possible, but I definitely wanted to leave with “something called Paper Girls?”
I’ll admit, I was a bit nervous going in. I had heard horror stories of comic fans being really dismissive of new/general/female readers and honestly, I just didn’t have the time or energy to deal with that. Luckily, the employee could not have been nicer as he excitedly took me around the entire store. This kid was amazing – a walking encyclopedia of comic book history and trends. He took me through every aisle, pulling issue after issue and explaining the significance and qualities of each one. By the end, I had a sea of single-issues and trades to wade through.
Are you impressed by my comic book lingo? Wikipedia, baby!
I managed to whittle the mid-size car payment worth of comics down to an acceptable fortune. Here’s what I ended up buying:
Scott Pilgrim (Vol 1.: Scott Pilgrim’s Precious Little Life) by Byran Lee O’Malley
The Sandman (Vol. 1: Preludes and Nocturnes) by Neil Gaiman (writer), Sam Keith (artist)
The worker credited Gaiman with helping “make comics more literary,” and cited this one specifically as being really important. He was very serious and so I believe him.
Saga (Vol. 1 and Vol. 2) by Brian Vaughan (writer), Fiona Staples (artist)
I’ve seen this series in more book hauls than I can count, and after the worker described it as an “intergalactic Romeo and Juliet,” it was a done deal. Just a quick flip through the pages let me know that this is definitely for mature readers, but it is something YA readers and bloggers can’t stop talking about so here I go.
Ms. Marvel (Vol.1 : No Normal) by G. Willow Wilson (writer), Adrian Alphona (artist)
This one has been on my radar ever since I heard this TedTalk by one of the writers, Sana Amanat.
Paper Girls (Vol. 1) by Brian Vaughan (writer), Cliff Chiang (artist)
I heard this was like a female cast version of Stranger Things and the artwork was pretty. Sold. I’ll take three.
With the ink on my thesis finally dry, I am (unofficially) done with my master’s degree. Barring that my readers don’t LOL at my submitted draft and toss it in the nearest trashcan, I’ll soon be the proud owner of a new diploma.
After a few more spins around the EU with friends, I’ve made the harrowing 4,000-mile trek back to the USA. I’m at home, applying for jobs, and making extravagant plans for this blog (READ: UNEMPLOYED).
I’m really excited for everything I have planned, including a regular posting schedule, a few blog series, and a total focus on children’s and YA literature.
I was a bit disappointed when, during an entire term dedicated to visual literacy, we didn’t 
get to really critically discuss comic books or graphic novels. The majority of our reading for the term focused on picturebooks and digital apps. This left me really wanting to spend some time getting acquainted with a medium that I have very little experience with. So, I’ll be chronicling my entry to the world of comic books. I’m sure I’ll misuse the word “panel” and “gutter” approximately 267 times. Won’t that be fun?
I’m looking forward to sharing how very little I know with you!
My other series of posts will really just be an accountability-holder for myself. Like many, 
I have an embarrassing amount of books that have been on my shelves for far too long, and I’m finally forcing myself to finish them. Also, I have been in graduate school in the UK for the last year and somehow came back home with about -2 dollars to my name (don’t question it – that’s just how the British Pound works). Longtime TBRs and my trusty library card are going to be my best friends.
First Up: Rick Yancey’s The Fifth Wave series
Adventures in Wonderland 