Reviews and Comments

I haven't read a graphic novel before and this one was impressive. In this world, animals and humans can talk with one another. There's a main storyline about a group of animal rights activists that are animals; there are also side stories that don't appear to relate at all to anything else.

Terrific, detailed illustrations reminded me of a storyboard for a film, with zoom-ins and fade-outs; impressive night scenes; creative page layouts.

I'm going to give myself credit for having read this book even though the reading was proofreading. For Project Gutenberg, I read an early release e-text version of The Spell, which was originally published in 1909; now that it's out of copyright, it has been converted to e-text format.

I chose this novel to read because it takes place in and around Florence, Italy. I found the tone and morality to be a little preachy (probably typical of the time?); there were some funny bits and interesting supporting characters.

And, for the record, I did find one typo in the e-text version that was not in the original book.

Funny book! So this is what it's like to be inside a mind that's ... missing ... something. Marie's "good sense" switch is permanently set to "off." I think she sees when she's about to go off the rails, and is utterly incapable of taking any different action. I'll say this for her, though. She's an optimist.

In Marie's defense, most of the other characters are deeply flawed as well. Oh. Wait. Does that mean that we're all deeply flawed?

Funny book! So this is what it's like to be inside a mind that's ... missing ... something. Marie's "good sense" switch is permanently set to "off." I think she sees when she's about to go off the rails, and is utterly incapable of taking any different action. I'll say this for her, though. She's an optimist.

In Marie's defense, most of the other characters are deeply flawed as well. Oh. Wait. Does that mean that we're all deeply flawed?

This was an entertaining, easy read. The Coen brothers did a great job with their recent film - they stuck very closely to the book. (I never saw the 1969 version with John Wayne.)

I loved Mattie's voice! She comes across as extremely self-confident and so utterly convinced that she is in the right, all the time.

First of all, this book is a terrific technical achievement - stories within stories that refer back to themselves.

Each story is so different that I needed a few pages of each to get traction. But wow, I did get sucked in.

There are several persistent themes (slavery; the evils of corporate greed) that overall paint a bleak portrait of our world--past, present, and future. There is humor; there is mystery; there is postapocalypse...the protagonists of these stories persevere, although I can't quite say that I felt uplifted by the book's end.

The "hook" was interesting - Liam Pennywell suffers from a head injury and cannot remember the incident, although he does recall everything up to and just afterward.

Got about halfway through, to the point where he begins a romance with a "rememberer," a woman who...oh, never mind. It wasn't worth my time to finish the book, and it's not worth any more effort for me to continue this review.

Started: February 6, 2012
Gave up: February 9, 2012

The "hook" was interesting - Liam Pennywell suffers from a head injury and cannot remember the incident, although he does recall everything up to and just afterward.

Got about halfway through, to the point where he begins a romance with a "rememberer," a woman who...oh, never mind. It wasn't worth my time to finish the book, and it's not worth any more effort for me to continue this review.

Started: February 6, 2012
Gave up: February 9, 2012

5 stars for exploring the physical form of a "book" but only 1 star for plot, character, dialogue.

Physical form: The impressive layout and design drew me to give this book a try. Every physical element of this book has been designed - there is nothing arbitrary. Two front covers; no back cover. A gorgeous, detailed photograph on the cover underlying the dust jacket. Themed-color ribbon bookmarks. Shrinking typefaces as the story progresses, implying to me gathering speed. Sidebars providing historical factoids. Every "o" or "0" printed in color; use of color for occasional selected words or phrases. Special typographic treatment even for the page numbers.

Traditional story elements: Ah, here's where things go wrong. Start at one end and read Hailey's version of events; flip the book over to read Sam's side of the story. Both provide a stream of consciousness narration (almost poetic in cadence) of cars, sex, and getting high on a variety of substances...not unusual interests for teenagers. Annoyingly, these children can't spell. "Alone" comes out as "allone," which I kept reading as "all one" - perhaps intentional on the author's part but irritating to read.

I got through about half of this book (one-quarter of each narrator's story) before deciding to quit.

Gave up: December 17, 2010

5 stars for exploring the physical form of a "book" but only 1 star for plot, character, dialogue.

Physical form: The impressive layout and design drew me to give this book a try. Every physical element of this book has been designed - there is nothing arbitrary. Two front covers; no back cover. A gorgeous, detailed photograph on the cover underlying the dust jacket. Themed-color ribbon bookmarks. Shrinking typefaces as the story progresses, implying to me gathering speed. Sidebars providing historical factoids. Every "o" or "0" printed in color; use of color for occasional selected words or phrases. Special typographic treatment even for the page numbers.

Traditional story elements: Ah, here's where things go wrong. Start at one end and read Hailey's version of events; flip the book over to read Sam's side of the story. Both provide a stream of consciousness narration (almost poetic in cadence) of cars, sex, and getting high on a variety of substances...not unusual interests for teenagers. Annoyingly, these children can't spell. "Alone" comes out as "allone," which I kept reading as "all one" - perhaps intentional on the author's part but irritating to read.

I got through about half of this book (one-quarter of each narrator's story) before deciding to quit.

Gave up: December 17, 2010

For such a slim volume, there's a lot going on. I suspect I missed too much the first time through; I need to read this one again.

For such a slim volume, there's a lot going on. I suspect I missed too much the first time through; I need to read this one again.

Wow, Tana French is such a good writer! It's easy to characterize her books as "crime dramas" but the stories are populated by such rich individuals that any genre-tag is going to be insufficient.

Her three novels so far have been set in Ireland. I was able to hear the dialogue in my head, and see the houses and pubs, thanks to her terrific writing.