Review – Spectacle Vol 1

Spectacle Vol 1, Paranormal Mystery Graphic Novel by Megan Rose Gedris

Series: Spectacle, first volume

My rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

(I received an ARC from NetGalley in return for an honest review.)

Although her true talent lies in interpreting the data processed by the difference engine she built, Anna works as a fortune-teller in a circus. Her twin sister Kat also works in the circus, as a knife-thrower. The circus is a visual accomplishment, both in the art–which shows the reality more than the spectacle, which is fun–and the depiction of the community. People bicker, put together church services, gossip, and come together in crises. One such crisis is Kat’s sudden murder.

Anna finds the body, as well as Kat’s ghost. The two work together to catch the murderer without disrupting the circus, hoping that resolving the mystery will allow Kat to move on.

I loved all of the characters and their relationships. Anna is not a social butterfly. She’s awkward, accidentally insults people, and has difficulty accepting kindness at her sister’s funeral. In contrast (because they’re twins I guess), Kat is brash yet forges emotional connections with others. An interesting difference between the two of them is that Kat is the forgiving one. My impression was that Anna was less so because she doesn’t ‘get’ people the same way.

Art downfalls, the stupid belch, cliffhanger sudden stop

For the most part, the art is great. The chapter covers are stunning and really show the time and care taken with them. Sometimes there are things that look strange or don’t quite work. Sometimes the blood looks like finger-paint, I think because the colour saturation in those instances is too high. The text is easy to read, except when it’s white and written directly over the art.

The biggest downside to this book is the sudden jerking stop at the end. There’s no denouement, no To Be Continued caption box in the corner, not even a blank white page. Calling it a cliffhanger would be missing the mark. It looked unfinished.

There is a satisfying story arc, though. After a mysterious event gives the local acting sheriff a dubious reason to lock up the ringmaster, the performers band together to earn as much money as possible to make his $500 bail. When Anna tries to gain access to the ringmaster to get his advice on her own ghost/murder problem, she discovers the acting sheriff is corrupt and dangerous. It’s a slow burn arc, but as I said, ultimately satisfying.

I love ghosts and murder mysteries, and this combined them very well. To be fair, the abrupt ending does offer a culmination of a few very subtle clues throughout the book. There are a lot of unanswered questions, so I’m looking forward to the next volume!

Review – Spill Zone

Spill Zone, Science Fiction Graphic Novel written by Scott Westerfeld, drawn by Alex Puvilland, coloured by Hilary Sycamore

Series: Spill Zone #1

My rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

When I see Scott Westerfeld’s name, I get excited. His name on a book means an interesting world, difficult choices, troubled youngsters, and the occasional surprise that makes me squee. The artist is new to me, but I love the art. It’s lovely and fits the tone well.

After the Spill, Poughkeepsie has become uninhabitable. Addison and her sister Lexa still live rather close. Armed with rules like “Never get off the motorcycle” and “don’t look at the meat puppets,” Addison braves the weird dangers of the Spill Zone in order to take photographs which she sells through a broker for big cash.

Or so she thinks, until she meets one of her ‘collectors’ who offers her a million to take what might be her last trip into the Spill Zone.

I loved the soldiers that set up barricades around the zone. They were a nice touch of mundanity. Addison is badass and also sympathetic. Her parents were lost in the Spill, leaving her to care for Lexa, who was affected in ways that we’re only beginning to see.

It’s mysterious and exciting, and the stuff in the Spill Zone appeal to both my love of Cthonic weirdness and zombie apocalypses. The second volume cannot come soon enough.

Review – A Dream for Three

A Dream for Three, Bildungsroman Graphic Novel written by Jérôme Hamon and drawn by Lena Sayaphoum

Series: Emma and Violette #1

My rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Given that I don’t usually read simple slice of life fiction, it takes something special to even draw me to check one out. In this case, although the pastel softness of Sayaphoum’s art style initially caught my attention, what really cinched my interest was the story. Two sisters who both dream of getting into the Paris Opera Ballet School, but only one of them passes the audition. This upsets both of them, although I was surprised to find that it didn’t quite create the kind of rift I’d expected.

Despite the series title of “Emma and Violette” this is infinitely more Emma’s story–perhaps that will change as more volumes are released. On the one hand, this makes a lot of sense. Not only is Emma the one who fails the audition, a narrative position that carries considerably more weight and potential, but she is also the elder sister. Her life is further along, and a major theme of the story is moving on, as well as growing up and making choices. On the other hand, Violette comes off as nothing more than a background character, which isn’t very compelling to a reader looking for sibling drama and reconciliation.

The writing is a bit fast and loose as the saying goes, with a great deal of emphasis on “loose.” The main plot, Emma struggling with her perceived failure, is very strong, if a bit After-School Special in execution. Her mother once dreamed of becoming a professional violinist. She seems to be trying to succeed vicariously through being “supportive enough” to help her daughters achieve their ballet dream. However, she isn’t a crazy pageant mom, and I believed that enough of her drive was that she wanted the girls to be happy. The girls’ father is much more relaxed, as he keeps in touch with everyone’s feelings as a mediator. In my favourite scene, he takes Emma to a theatre, where she tries on costumes and he talks to her about all of the different things she can do with her life.

The subplots are where things sag in the middle. Emma and Violette have a fight, but it is not resolved. There are a couple of Mean Girl moments that amount to nothing–first because the character is not properly established and then chastised and removed without ceremony, and the was second immediately addressed before Violette can have any plot to herself. Emma has a love interest story that simply peters out. I won’t say it isn’t believable, but the way it plays out means yet another of the characters is inadequately utilised and worse, implies that he didn’t have to have a reason for his actions and it’s okay. It isn’t okay.

Still, the message of the story is eminently positive and unflinchingly clear. The art is fluid and lovely, with a soft prettiness that I adored. I don’t have daughters, and my children are much much younger than this, but I found the mother relatable. Not an easy thing for the writer to have accomplished. I’m sure the issues with Violette having less spotlight will be addressed in the very next volume, too. This is a sweet comic, and I highly recommend it.

(I received an ARC from NetGalley in return for an honest review.)

Fanfic Guys Need to Act Like Guys

This is something that has been bothering me for an incredibly long time. Today, I think I have finally nailed it down to an expressible idea. Probably it is due to the combination of reading old posts on Pottersues, Avengers fan fiction, and a particularly pragmatic Megan Frampton romance, all in one very long morning. And it might be a long post, so bear with me.

Spoiler: The point mostly pertains to fan fiction.

It’s (fairly) commonly accepted that most people who write fan fiction are women, and a significant number of those are quite young. I’d say under 25, or under 20, depending on the fandom. I think it would be fair to assume a lot of them do not know or understand men very well. Particularly the ones who are not talented writers. (and/or are 16)

The point about not knowing or understanding men (or boys, but the former is worse and I’ll get into why) is one reason that there is a lot of fetishising M/M romance with damaging tropes.

I’m all about smashing gender stereotypes, but male characters who use emotional manipulation more than direct confrontation, cry prettily, and squeal over cute things seem less like barrier-breakers and more like a lady who couldn’t write a male character, so she just gave a female character a masculine pronoun. And I strongly believe that men and women should be allowed to cry without being maligned for doing so. But these characters are not part of that kind of thinking. They are just girls disguised as guys. They use feminine language, have feminine habits, feminine priorities, and solve problems and communicate the way that adolescent girls do. Sometimes like women, but usually like teenage girls.

I’ve seen this in original and published M/M romance, but fan fiction is where this shit LIVES. While happily getting my Avengers fic addiction fix, I read some Cap/Iron Man fic. I love these characters. Love the actors. I am so not alone in that love, which is pretty awesome. For a long time after I realised the ship was a thing, I was happy just knowing it was a ship. I’m easily pleased. Just exist, I said. So actually reading fan fiction was rather a step up in my participation. (I don’t do fandom stuff much…)

Reading it was… awkward. I tried to feel happy and do the fangirl squee thing, but I just wasn’t feeling it. I know we all experience our movies and comic books differently and not everyone will see characters the same way, but it was distressing to me that someone sees Captain America, this guy:

as a mealy-mouthed, thumb-twiddling virgin who can’t say “penis” without dying from a blush-induced heat stroke. There is absolutely nothing wrong with any characters who are virginal at any age, or who are embarrassed by sex. There is something wrong with a large consensus of people seeing those traits in a character who is not characterised that way anywhere in canon. And comic books have more canon than the Santísima Trinidad.

Steve Rogers is an adult. Not only does he have a penis, he can probably say it if he has to, especially considering all of the health issues he had at the beginning of the first movie. I have been an old-fashioned virgin. I did not like to speak bluntly about sex or genitalia, but I didn’t blush when someone said words like “oral sex,” and I didn’t fall to shy pieces if the subject came up on any level. What I did do, and what I have seen Cap do, is tastefully avoid the subject and if it did come up, stay quiet or use polite euphemism until the conversation changed. It’s an adult way to handle one’s feelings on many subjects.

“I don’t want to talk about it because I think it’s private and in this situation inappropriate,” does not equate to, “I will melt down if I try to talk about it in any situation.”

And that is only ONE thing that is going sadly, sadly wrong in fan fiction. Characters are mischaracterised (ugh that feels so redundant) all the time in fan fic. That’s a risk you run–I learned this reading pottersues when the blog was new. But by that same token, it’s not okay. It still sucks. I’m not the only reader who dislikes it. Just in this case, it links to my issues with male characterisation by writers who seem not to understand guys at all.

Which brings me to my second point–relationships. But I’m gonna have to break this into two posts. I started writing this about 14:00 today, and kept getting interrupted by an appointment with my doctor and needing to drive places. Second half of this will be written and up tomorrow morning.

 

Reading Superman

Is that a magic pickle?

(i don’t really do April fools btw)

The Roar of Our Stars Round 4: Chat 5

Icon credits: First and Second.

daftneophyte: You’ve got some explaining to do.

lolkarma: uh o watd i do nwo?

The Roar of Our Stars Round 4: Chat 4

Icon credits: First and Second.

cheydostudio: Button! I found something weird in my forest.

buttonhole: isnt it wierd that u call it urs?

The Roar of Our Stars Round 4: Chat 3

Amazingly enough, I was able to get the graphic done for this! My hubby has Photoshop on his laptop, so I’m set for today and tomorrow. I could have held it, but I made such a stink, I figured I should just update since I have it done.

Icon credits: First and Second.

homerunhero: OH CRAP I SHOULD HAVE THOUGHT OF THIS SOONER

= missing connection =

homerunhero: RONIT IT’S ME IN CASE YOU COULDN’T GUESS
I’M SO AWESOME I JUST PATCHED INTO THE DROID’S SYSTEMS.

The Roar of Our Stars Round 4: Chat 2

Huh. Another new one. This is probably the last it’ll happen, though. I can’t be awesome forever.

Icon credits: First and Second.

aqualass: Wow do I ever need to stop watching scary movies

thelibrarian: what? haha, thats a better habit than i have

The Roar of Our Stars Round 4: Chat 1

Wow. I never thought I’d be able to pick this back up again. But here we are, actually new content, after days of my posting the stuff I already did. It’d be nice if I could keep going after this, but well… there’s a reason all of my posts have been TRoOS for the past week or so. More arthritis nonsense.

Icon credits: First and Second.

heliotropicalica: help

pretendinaryfriend: what?