Hello everyone! I’ve read a few books over the weekend and wanted to talk to you guys about them. Also, my classes started this week 😦 I’m excited to be closer to being done with my degree, but not excited to be reading textbooks instead of what I want to read. Anyway, onto the books!
First up is a book that I was contacted about on my Review Requests page, and I happily gave it a read over the weekend. Stay Small Big Tree by Terry Hammer is about Mashiach, a tree that lives in a valley and is growing fast. He is soon bigger than the other little trees, and they aren’t happy about that. They tease him and won’t be his friend. I don’t want to give away the entire plot of this book since it’s pretty short, so you’ll have to check it out yourself if you want to know what happens to Mashiach.
I enjoyed this book, and there were only a few technical issues, such as the coloring of the font changing from black to gray. The story was cute, and I really enjoyed the artwork. Especially the blue jays. They were adorable. If you’re looking for a cute children’s book about not making yourself small to please other people, then check this out!
Next up, we have Indigo by Chi-Ho Kwong. This is about Ella, a reporter for an occult magazine. She seems to be a little bit lost. One day, while working at the magazine, she learns of her old professor’s death. He has committed suicide by starving himself. She wants to investigate the death, but her boss wants her to investigate other occult happenings instead. She feels drawn to the professor’s death and ends up investigating anyway, despite her boss telling her not to. Her investigation leads her to uncover many, many things (no spoilers) and leads her to have to make a decision that will affect the fate of humanity.
I read a few reviews of this and realized that I did not have the same experience that most people did. This book has so many 1-star reviews on Goodreads, but I really liked it! Yes, there are a lot of plots going on. But there aren’t that many that I was confused the whole time. Also, I don’t want to know everything that’s going on every second of the book. I want to discover things along with the main character! Having everything handed to me would be boring. Also, the artwork was so cool! It was a different style than I’m used to seeing in manga, but it made the story so visually interesting.
The next book is Young Hag and the Witches’ Quest by Isabel Greenberg. This book was fantastic. It was my favorite of the books I read over the weekend. I’ve read one other book by this author and illustrator, Glass Town: The Imaginary World of the Brontës, and I loved that one, too.
This is a retelling of a few different Arthurian legends. Our main character is Young Hag. After losing her mother and her belief in magic, Young Hag and her grandmother, Old Crone, go on a quest to try to bring magic back to Britain. There’s a lot of recognizable characters from Arthurian legends: Arthur, Morgan le Fey, Lancelot, Merlin, and the Lady of the Lake. Having read a few (very few) Arthurian legends, I recognized some characters, but I didn’t recognize all of the stories. Which I think was a good thing because I wasn’t constantly comparing the original legends to what Greenberg is doing here. I really loved the artwork, and I found the storytelling to be wonderful. I especially liked the lady knight who rode a giant cat. She was my fav.
If you’re a fan of Arthurian legends or if you liked the graphic novel, Once & Future by Kieron Gillen, then definitely check this one out!
The last graphic novel that I read and loved is called Raging Clouds by Yudori. This is a historical fiction graphic novel set in the 16th-century Netherlands. We follow our main character, Amélie, a noble-born Dutchwoman who is married to a merchant. The two aren’t the best match. Amélie’s husband is cruel and punishes her curiosity with sexual violence. The only time that Amélie can truly be herself is when her husband goes off on business trips. She can then do her experiments about flight and sink into books that she isn’t allowed to read when he’s home. Her life is drastically changed when her husband returns from one of his trips with a slave mistress that he has named Sahara. The two women tiptoe around each other at first, but are inextricably drawn to each other. They realize that if they stick together, they can be free.
I absolutely loved this graphic novel. The artwork was STUNNING. The settings and backgrounds were so well done. They looked like they could come right off the page. The characters were so complex and flawed. This story really takes a hard look at the role that women play in society, as well as what it’s like to be in a relationship where you are not wanted.
If you are a fan of interesting, strong female characters within beautiful settings, then I would give this one a try.
I’m currently reading a bunch of library books and ARCs, so I’m just going to give you guys a sneak peek of what I’ll be writing about in the next few weeks! See you in the next post!
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