Graphic Novel Reviews and A Beth Revis Giveaway

   I don't think I've ever reviewed a graphic novel, like ever, so I thought that could change. I been in a terrible reading slump since school started, then NaNoWriMo killed me, and these helped. A little. Over the past week I read two graphic novels, Saga by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples, and Ms. Marvel by G. Willow Wilson and Adrian Alphona. They were both really good but I did definitely like Saga more. I'll also be talking about this huge giveaway, one of my favorite authors, Beth Revis (Across the Universe) is doing.

   Saga is about this couple, and their newborn baby running away from the man. During a war with different planets against each other. Alana, a broken winged, former-solider, with a wicked hair cut and her husband, Marko, a horn-bearing, magic wielder with a vow against violence try to find a safe place for their new family.

    First off, Saga by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples was a fantastic book. The story is like nothing I've read before and the drawing style is amazing. I laughed out loud at multiple points but the story was still touching and substantial. It's different for me, where I mostly read YA, and the main characters delivered their baby on the first page. It was however, very much a set up book, but I like those (I love myself a origin story). I think my favorite thing about Saga was the illustration. Every character was so distinctive and detailed, and everything looked real, like I could see them walking down the street, despite their wings and radio heads.  I will definitely be reading Saga Volume 2. Like, as fast as I can get my hands on it.

    Kamala, a Muslim,  New Jerseyite sneaks out to go to a party one night. After running home in embarrassment she gets caught in this fog, the Terrigan bomb, and recognized as a Inhuman is granted a wish by her role model, Captain Marvel. 

     Ms. Marvel by G. Willow Wilson and Adrian Alphona I didn't like as much for a couple reasons. I think the biggest reason was I had just finished Saga and my standards hadn't lowered yet. I wasn't a big fan of the style, it had a cartoony, lanky people, type of feel. I like usually either all the way cartoony (like Scott Pilgrim) or all the way realistic (like Saga). It did make me laugh too, but I didn't enjoy the characters as much. Okay, the more I write the less I like Ms. Marvel. I need to stop. Go read it, make a opinion for yourself.

   Finally, the giveaway. Beth Revis, author of one of my favorite series (if not my favorite), Across the Universe, is ding a giveaway that has over 20 books. There's three winners, with prizes for both American and International residents. And, they're good books. Not like those ones you'd find in the clearance section and has a bunch of ads in the back (no offense meant to those, authors got to get paid). I've read some of the ones being given out and they're really good. Revis' new book, The Body Electric, looks really good but i still haven't gotten my hands on it (Damn you empty wallet).  Anyway, enter the giveaway here. Thanks!

         

The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller

Rating:5 stars

An Iliad retelling, Patroclus is exiled from his kingdom and soon finds Achilles as a best friend and then lover. In the backdrop of the Trojan War you can hear my tears.

I loved, loved, loved this. I loved everything. The characters, the writing style, the setting of war. I don't even want you to read this, I want you to go read this book now and then come back and cry with me.

The Song Of Achilles made me very emotional. Going in I knew basic Greek mythology, including the ending, which only made it that much sadder. So even during the cute parts I was crying about how the ending. I loved the writing style and the description, it was almost lyrical and felt like I was dreaming. Patroclus descriptions of Achilles were amazing and perfect and heartbreaking. Achilles character development, the way Patroculs realized he was slowly turning into a complex person, was so good. The war backdrop made the story so much more epic and much more deep (and heartbreaking).

The few unfavorable things were the lack of structure of time, but I think it's like that in the Iliad too and sometimes I got the minor characters confused.

  I've been meaning to pick The Iliad up as I love Greek mythology and I think this is the motivation I needed. It drew me in from the first chapter with the beautiful writing and had gotten me out of a reading slump that was sufocating me.This also isn't my usual get-out-of-a-slump book. I usually read cute contemporary romance things. It wasn't as I expected either, I thought it was a young adult romance and it was so much more and so much more complex, which made it so much more great.

If you love Greek mythology read it. If you don't, still read it. If you don't even know who Zeus is, still read it. It was good at explaining the more obscure and not common knowledge myths and there was a glossary at the back, but I didn't know about untill I finished the book.  

P. S. I started to cry in the middle of class when I read the ending, not a good idea. I was also disappointed I didn't get the full crying effect.