Review: Learn to Draw True Beauty

By Yaongyi
Step-by-step artwork by Ryan Axxel

Available now from Walter Foster Publishing

Review copy

I enjoyed the True Beauty webtoon, so I thought it would be fun to go through the Learn to Draw True Beauty book. I feel like this is a great idea for a tie-in to inspire young fanartists, with perhaps information they can also carry on to other art.

I found it a little disappointing how much of this title is fluff. This book has 96 pages. Getting Started is on page 22, with a full-page title page and full-page image of Jugyeong (the main character), with the actual information starting on page 24. Before that is intros to what webtoons are, what the story of True Beauty is, and who the main characters are. The most useful bit in these pages is the palettes for the main characters, listed on each of their pages. In general, I don't find these pages very useful since this book is aimed at people who are already fans of True Beauty.

The step-by-step section begins on page 34, again with a two-page splash before the information starts. As far as step-by-step goes, this book is definitely written for artists who already know the basics and just want to focus on the details of these characters. This is not a book for beginners, which might disappoint some young fans.

This is a well-produced book. Good paper, beautifully printed colors, good imagery to follow. But I feel like about a fifth of the book is wasted and could've been used to give more detail on the actual drawing part. Some fans will enjoy this tie-in, but I think many fanartists can develop their own takes on the characters without its help. A little more focus on the basics and details to make this more friendly to beginners would give the book a wider appeal.

Review: Saigami, Volume 1: Re(Birth) by Flame

By Seny (Andrea Otília Vörös)

Available now from Saturday AM

Review copy

Saigami comes from Saturday AM, which has been publishing webcomics online for ten years and recently moved into publishing physical copies of their most popular titles. I like Saturday AM's efforts to build up a diverse portfolio of artists from all over the world, but don't love their marketing of being the world's most diverse manga company. Yes, most manga isn't diverse because it is literally Japanese comics. But manga has been influencing creators around the world for decades now, so I think there is room for OEM (Original English-language Manga). However, I can't recommend Saturday AM as a publisher because there has been controversy about them paying artists.

Saigami starts in our world, where Ayami is a high-school girl with an absent father, a mother who is usually at work or drinking, and a house full of trash. She's struggling, and even her old refuge in books is starting to fail. Then, she gets a mysterious letter from her father, goes to meet him, and falls into a fantasy world where people called 'saigami' have elemental powers (and some even have dragons!). It's a pretty standard isekai setup delivered without much flair. There's a lot of exposition, both before and after Ayami ends up in another world, and certain things get brushed over without a thought. (If Ayami's father is a big mystery to her, why does she instantly know the letter is from him? Why isn't she curious about why her father's letter led her to a mysterious land?)

Once in another land, Ayami quickly meets two boys about her age: the friendly and well-connected Sean and the hostile outcast Reyji. They're both broad types with little sense of an inner life. Ayami gets to go on an important journey with them, even though she's utterly unqualified, as Reyji points out. Of course, as is obvious, Ayami turns out to be a saigami.

The story is fairly predictable and I wasn't drawn in my the characters. The art is okay. The backgrounds are quite nice, there is decent flow between panels, and I can understand what is happening easily. The character designs are consistent, but plain and somewhat amateur, with little variation in faces. Saigami reads like what it is: an OEM by someone who likes manga. Its inspirations are clear, but it doesn't really have a spark to make it stand out, despite its heroine's fiery powers.

Review: The Werewolf at Dusk and Other Stories

By David Small

Available now from Liveright

Review copy

Graphic novelist David Small's latest work is an anthology of three graphic short stories. One is written and illustrated by David Small; two are adaptations of existing short stories. All three are united by their use of monstrous creatures. (And, of course, the true monsters are humans.)

These stories tend toward a limited palette, mostly monochromatic blues with pops of red. The pages are constructed more like a picture book than a traditional graphic novel, with limited use of paneling and more narration than dialogue. The stylistic choices help tie these stories together visually as well as thematically. The Werewolf at Dusk and Other Stories is an anthology where I understand that throughline connecting the works.

The titular story is adapted from a story by Lincoln Michel. Lycanthropy as a metaphor for adolescence has become a cliche. This story takes that metaphor to the other end, exploring old age for an elderly werewolf. The pages that switch between the wolf as a young man and an old man are quite effective. He's a fascinating narrator, speaking of his nightmares of the moon even as he clearly misses the violence he used to inflict in those vital days.

"A Walk in the Old City" follows a burnt-out psychologist as he gets lost then saved by a seemingly friendly stranger. The sinister turn is perhaps obvious, but told with the glee of an entry in Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark. (And, I must say, the blind man's disdain for the psychologist is entirely understandable, even if his methods are quite extreme.)

The final story in the anthology, "The Tiger in Vogue," adapts a story by Jean Ferry. I appreciated that David Small's foreword (and a note afterword) illuminate the more liberal changes he made to the story, mostly to help make the 1920's German setting clear to a modern audience (rather than a contemporary one). This story is the largest departure stylistically, but the violence threatening to break out is a familiar thread. This one also intrigued me into picking up the original short story. The complicity of the audience feels all too timely, even though the source material is the oldest in the anthology.

The Werewolf at Dusk and Other Stories is not a long read, at less than 200 pages. However, I did find each story thought-provoking.

Review: The Jane Austen Escape Room Book

Illustrated by Marjolein Bastin

Available now from Andrews McMeel Publishing

Review copy

Marjolein Bastin, known for her art featuring nature, has previously illustrated all of Jane Austen's novels. Now, her art is used to create a puzzle book featuring characters from Pride and Prejudice. (The original edition is under copyright by a German company; I could find no credit for the author of the text.) I've experienced many Pride and Prejudice spin-offs, and as someone who loves puzzles, this one intrigued me.

The title refers to an escape room, and many of the puzzles are similar to an escape room's in nature, such as holding paper up to a light to see a hidden message. However, no one needs to escape a room in the story. Instead, Elizabeth Bennett must escape a ploy to ruin her reputation. Can she discover who tried to ruin her and why, and convince Mr. Darcy to still consider marriage?

The text doesn't try very hard to sound like Austen, except for some dialogue. It also doesn't use paragraph breaks between speakers, which I hated as a stylistic choice. But the text is fine for setting up the puzzles, and sometimes contains clues.

The puzzles vary in difficultly. There's one that requires solving a simple subtraction problem at the easy end. On the difficult end I would put one of the more complicated math problems or the more involved cipher on the newspaper. There's at least one puzzle that isn't difficult but is tedious, involving choosing the right set of three recipes from a group of eight. Printing them in various handwriting-style fonts, with the recipes arranged at all angles looks beautiful, but is a pain to read.

If someone does have too much trouble, the answers are always given at the beginning of the next puzzle. There is also a solutions section in the back, as well as a newspaper page with more hints.

My largest issue with this book is the layout. Some puzzles have additional material in the back. These are all perforated pages that can be pulled out of the book, although only one of them actually needs to be pulled out to be solved, so I'm not sure of the purpose of doing them this way. You have to figure out on your own to flip to the back ... which also requires flipping past the solutions while trying not to look. Worse though is that the extra hints are included between the ending and the solutions. I had no idea they were there until I was done with the book. The introduction mentions referring to an appendix, but I thought that meant the same section as the extra material. Due to placement, I don't think they'd be very helpful to many puzzlers.

The art in The Jane Austen Escape Room is beautiful, and I enjoyed looking at it. But I didn't love the puzzles. Sometimes I would've preferred more instructions, because I was often left thinking, "Surely, I'm meant to do more than just look at this clearly labeled map?" (No, that was all I needed to do.) My favorite puzzle was actually the final seating chart one. There are only 18 puzzles, so I could get far more puzzles for my money in a puzzle book without the Jane Austen framing. The framing was cute, but executed fairly indifferently. I feel like this book won't quite satisfy Austen or puzzle fans, beautiful though it is.

Review: Silver Alert

By Lee Smith

Available now from Algonquin Books

Review copy

I never go on a road trip without books. Silver Alert seemed like a perfect choice, the story of an octogenarian and his ailing wife's manicurist going on a wild joyride. Little did I know that their joyride wouldn't start until over halfway into the novel. This is not a road book at all.

Silver Alert is written in a stream-of-consciousness style, switching between the points of view of Herb and Renee/Dee Dee. Herb is an old womanizer with multiple terrible kids. His younger wife has severe dementia, and he's struggling to care for her while denying that he needs care himself. Enter Dee Dee, a seemingly naive young manicurist who clearly isn't licensed, but can actually help calm Susan down and make her happy. Dee Dee is dealing with her own struggles, living in a trailer park with a friend who is getting involved with the wrong guy, while Dee Dee herself gets involved with a rich young poet.

While Silver Alert is written in a breezy style that makes it an easy read, it does deal with heavy subject matter. There's the loss of control over one's own life before death, of course. But there's also Dee Dee's past, which deals with sex trafficking and child abuse. The problem is that Dee Dee's character never felt believable to me. She supposedly has a seventh grade education, but is written more like she only has a third or fourth grade education. It made me wonder if Lee Smith initially wrote the abuse starting earlier, then decided that was too dark. More than that, Dee Dee is immensely trusting, including the men in the story. 

Conversely, I find Herb's voice very believable. I've seen dementia up close, and feel like Lee Smith has as well. There's little touches, like Herb having very little thought-to-mouth filter that make his developing mental state clear, even while he's in denial. Him not wanting to deal with intense medical treatment at his age (for a diagnosis he tries to keep secret from his family) also makes sense. Dee Dee being entirely unwary of this man when we've heard his leering thoughts and even his family is aware that he'd make a move on her despite the age difference didn't ring half as true.

I do think that people can maintain their innocence and naivety even through terrible situations. I get the appeal of throwing an old and grouchy character together with a young and optimistic one. But Silver Alert didn't work for me. It wanted to bring up tough subjects but not have them actually affect the characters. Thankfully, it was a quick read.

Review: Aloha

Art by Tere Gott

Available now from Tere Gott

Review copy

Chilean artist Tere Gott frequently posts her art on Instagram, and the coloring-book pictures in Aloha are super Instagram friendly. There are succulents, yoga, and more. The theme of Aloha is the beach, but not all of the images are directly beach related. My favorite page features a UFO.

This coloring book includes 22 images and is $45. Yes, that is pricey. However, this is an oversized coloring book. The book itself is 17.4 x 11.8 inches and each page is perforated. These posters are pretty easy to frame in an 17 x 11" frame, which is an easy size to find since it is a common size for digital printing. 

In addition, the sheets are 0.5 lb duplex paper, meaning that they're thick and backed so that there is no bleedthrough, even if the page isn't removed before coloring. (The cover lies completely flat when opened.) Markers, watercolors, and more can be used on these pages. 

This is an incredibly designed coloring book. The designs are simple, though some of the detail work is difficult with mediums like watercolors. Most of the backgrounds are plain, allowing for personal creativity.

Aloha is an incredibly designed coloring book. I'd love to see more coloring books in this style.

Review: Banana Fox and the Secret Sour Society

Written and illustrated by James Kochalka

Available now from Graphix

Review copy

Popular children's graphic novelist James Kochalka starts a new series with Banana Fox and the Secret Sour society. The titular Banana Fox is a detective who loves bananas, receiving adulation from his fan club, and saying, "Wowie pow!" He's aided by Sharyanna, or Flashlight, a kid who he meets at the beginning of the story and who is the much better detective.

The story of the Secret Sour Society is appealingly silly. There's mind-controlling soda and a giant turtle and plenty of fun things. Some of Kochalka's work has crossover appeal, but this one is aimed squarely at young readers. The art adds excellent context to help younger readers understand the text, in addition to being fun on its own. Kochalka's art is deceptively simple. He doesn't crowd the page, but there is plenty of dynamic movement to guide the eye.

 I found Banana Fox himself tedious. But that's fine. Six-, seven-, and eight-year-old kids will love Banana Fox and the Secret Sour Society and there's no inappropriate content. Nothing wrong with kids reading stories they find fun.

Review: Still Life Las Vegas

By James Sie

Illustrated by Sungyoon Choi

Available now from St. Martin's Press

Review copy

Voice actor James Sie's debut novel starts out strong, with a woman pushed to her limit, driving anywhere and lightening the car as she goes — including tossing out a car seat. This woman is Emily Stahl, musician, mother, carer to her depressed husband. The child who normally would occupy that car seat is Walter Stahl.

Still Life Las Vegas alternates between their points of view (Walter in the past, Emily in the present) and Walter's father's point of view (also in the past) and comics (drawn by Walter) telling the story of Emily as told to him by his father. Walter lives in Las Vegas, where his father moved him while trying to find Emily. Now seventeen, Walter is driven to chase down the secrets of his mother's history. A chance meeting with a living statue in the Venetian hotel, Chrysto, also puts him on the path to discovering his sexuality.

I loved both narrators. They're both searching for direction, albeit in very different ways. The interstitial comics are great too, Sungyoon Choi's art a beautiful accompaniment to James Sie's words. It's also provides a clear division between what Walter has been told versus Emily's actual words.

However, I felt that Still Life Las Vegas didn't quite live up to the strength of its opening. I felt Emily had reason to run from the very beginning, but the story keeps adding new layers of sadness to her past and reveals a horror that I think was gratuitous, not adding to the plot or being explored with the weight it deserved. As the story goes on, Walter also has to deal with the unfortunate truth as well as a betrayal.

Still Life Las Vegas is an engrossing bildungsroman, but ultimately too depressing for me. Still, I'm a little sad that James Sie has yet to write a second novel. I think he has a knack for description and character and I'd like to see what he'd write with more polish.

Review: Earth Flight

The third novel in the Earth Girl trilogy

By Janet Edwards

Available now from Pyr

Review copy

When I picked up Earth Flight, I didn't realize it was the final novel in a trilogy. This did leave me lost at some points as Earth Flight is heavy on the future slang and such, but I also enjoyed piecing the worldbuilding together. Janet Edwards doesn't leave new readers too lost, however. There's exposition about what happened in previous novels.

In the future Earth of this trilogy, most humans can portal to other worlds. Those that have an immune system that doesn't allow them to portal are discriminated against. Jarra hid her condition, got caught, but still saved the world and is now a celebrity. Earth Flight tackles what happens after the unlikely hero has saved the world, a plot that seems obvious but that I haven't seen too often.

Jarra's clan are now prepared to adopt her, but not everyone wants someone with her condition to be officially recognized as a clan member. She and her boyfriend are going to get married, which also results in prejudicial objections. Fantastic prejudice can be a way to get out of writing about real prejudice, but I feel like Edwards does a good job in showing how many avenues of life prejudice can affect. Even as a hero, Jarra can't just get married if she wants to. While I didn't have much of an opinion on Jarra's boyfriend Fian (I think he did more in previous books?), I liked what Edwards showed of their relationship and how they work together as a team.

There is an action story to go along with the political plot, involving an alien probe and a scramble to figure out how to get Jarra into space if she can't portal. The action keeps the story moving along nicely.

Earth Flight feels like a throwback to seventies science fiction juveniles, but with a female character front and center and none of the casual misogyny common to that era of science fiction. That old-fashioned approach helps Earth Flight stand out from the current crop of novels. There's not much psychological depth, but there is fun worldbuilding and a cracking, straight-ahead adventure story.

I'll probably not go back and pick up the first two books, but I thought Earth Flight was a fun afternoon read.

Review: The Grimm Files: How to Bake a Murder Cake

By Delicia Williams
Self-published
Purchased copy

I love fairy tales. I love zines. How could I resist the two combined in one clever package? Delicia Williams' The Grimm Files series (there are three so far) are covered using cut-down manila folders, stamped CLASSIFIED. The inside cover notes the crime catalogued within. It really gives them the presence of police file, and is more effective than if they just had a self cover. The 8-page comic inside recounts a fairy-tale crime in verse.

The first page

"How to Bake a Murder Cake" tackles Hansel and Gretel. In this retelling, the witch is the one with something to fear from these hungry children. The rhymes are sometimes strained, but the illustrations are excellent. The pages get blacker as danger looms, and the expressions on Hansel and Gretel's faces are quite frightening. There's also a wonderful bit of spot red drawn in to give extra impact to the horrid ending. There's something terrifying about the illustrations, especially when combined with the loopy lettering.

Williams also works as a penciller, and I plan to look up some of her other work. Notably, she inked and pencilled a story in the Wayward Sisters anthology, which has a foreword from one of my favorite comics artists, Faith Erin Hicks.

Review: A Whole New World

A Twisted Tale
By Liz Braswell
Available now from Disney-Hyperion
Review copy

The premise of the Twisted Tales series strikes me as brilliant: Disney allowing their versions of classic stories to be retold as dark YA novels.  The heroes and heroines of Disney stories are teens, and there is often room for things to go horribly awry.  In A WHOLE NEW WORLD, Jafar gets the lamp as soon as Aladdin steals it, leading to the rise of a dark rule in Agrabah.

Unfortunately, A WHOLE NEW WORLD is not good.  The first 22% is a retelling of the movie events written in a competent but not particularly engrossing style.  When things finally start to diverge, the tone just doesn't work.  The beginning was basically the light cartoonish style of the movie, so the darkness also begins strangely cartoonish.

There's also the fact that nothing in A WHOLE NEW WORLD really evokes the movie.  When Jasmine and Aladdin talk, I can't hear their voices in my head.  The fate of Agrabah is at stake, and yet I can't get a feel for the city even with Liz Braswell expanding it and diving deeper into the underworld of the Street Rats.  Everything feels vaguely modern and American, down to details like Jasmine mentioning a dog as a common pet.  I was bland, as if a few details pasted in from the movie were enough to make the setting work.

A WHOLE NEW WORLD isn't completely irredeemable.  Braswell makes Jasmine an equal protagonist who earns the right to rule and works hard to rescue herself and her city.  I appreciated that she leaned in to the feminist potential of Jasmine refusing to be forced into marriage.  That's about the best compliment I can offer this novel.

For such an amazing premise, A WHOLE NEW WORLD came off as ill-conceived and hastily done.  It's not a very good book.

Review: Amity

By Micol Ostow
Available by now from EgmontUSA
Review copy
Read my Micol Ostow tag

I've read several books by Micol Ostow, many of them quite sweet and cute.  Her recent books, FAMILY and AMITY, have been a change of pace.  AMITY plays off of the Amityville Horror legend, with a strange house and disturbed kids.

The narraction switches back and forth between Connor (ten years ago) and Gwen (present).  Each has their own issues.  Connor is a sociopath, and Gwen sees things that aren't there.  The only person Connor loves is his twin sister, so he doesn't resist the sinister house much.  Gwen, on the other hand, fights hard because the house can't quite infect her brain chemistry.  I thought the combination of real-world mental issues with paranormal horror was an intriguing touch.

The thing is, I just didn't find AMITY scary.  In a book, there's no creepy music or jump scares for cheap thrills.  The tone and imagery have to carry it.  I remember one image, of a ghostly figure outside the window and Connor reaching to touch it, to welcome it instead of being afraid.  But the images that were meant to be scary just faded from my mind.

AMITY is an extremely quick read.  It is a little under 400 pages long, but took me less than an hour to read.  (I'm fast, but not usually that fast.)  It's a good enough way to pass the time, but don't go in expecting to be very scared.  The juxtaposition of time and point of view is interesting, and the plot offers a few twists.  Overall, Ostow has done better before.