Review: Ghostwriter

Written and illustrated by Rayco Pulido

Available now from Fantagraphics

Review copy

In 96 pages, Rayco Pulio delivers a taut thriller that makes excellent use of the graphic novel format. I can see why Fantagraphics decided to translate Ghostwriter from the original Spanish.

Set in Barcelona, 1943, Ghostwriter follows Laia, a scriptwriter for a popular advice program on the radio, as she hounds the detective she hired to find her missing husband. Laia's advice is constrained by religious control and patriarchal oppression; she has to write that women should stay by their husbands and try to be better wives, no matter what horrors are in the letters sent to her. Laia's dead-eyed rage is a simple thing to understand.

I adore how the words and images work together to tell the story in Ghostwriter. Many things are shown before they become important, but since they were shown, the connections make sense and everything feels intentional. One of my favorite bits is when Laia throws a coin-like object in a jar in the first few pages. It gave me pause at first, trying to figure out this small object in black and white. Later, it became sinister.

For all the twists and turns it takes, Ghostwriter is not a very complicated story. Laia's motives are simple, no matter how convoluted her methods. There is a delightful economy to this dark little tale. Ghostwriter also isn't afraid to be a little silly or to include moments of juvenile behavior.

I quite enjoyed Ghostwriter and hope more of Pulido's work gets translated.

Review: Rebel, Bully, Geek, Pariah

By Erin Jade Lange
Available now from Bloomsbury Children's
Review copy

REBEL, BULLY, GEEK, PARIAH is one of those books that unexpectedly sucked me in.  Even with the description, I didn't realize what a propulsive thriller this would be.  (Possibly because the title sounds like a dramatic story about getting to know each other despite differences - which, to be fair, happens between running from guys with guns.)

Sam just wanted to buy her mom's old violin back from the pawn shop.  But she ended up with formerly popular Andi, former football jock and current bully York, and York's little brother Boston in a stolen cop car.  They accidentally hit a cop and the other cops started shooting at them.  It says something about the current world environment that I didn't immediately twig that the cops were corrupt and the car was full of drugs.  (Sam is half black.)

What follows is a mix of misfits hanging out and teens struggling to escape more skilled adversaries.  There's plenty of twists and turns as the four try to figure out how to find the real cops and clear their names without ending up dead.  Erin Jade Lange does a wonderful job of making the teens concerns seem real.  Their worried about their lives, but they get tangled up in more mundane concerns too, like what this will do to their college prospects or whether their parents are missing them.

It's also an opportunity, strangely enough, for Sam to leave her shell.  An accident left her scarred as a child, providing an easy taunt for everyone on the playground.  She had even more pressure on her because of her home life, where her mom moved in and out of prison due to her addiction.  Sam knows firsthand how much damage the drugs they've found can do.

REBEL, BULLY, GEEK, PARIAH is a fast-paced read with appealing characters.  Yes, they commit a serious crime, but there are hugely extenuating circumstances and this kids' first instinct is to turn themselves in.  What follows certainly kept me turning the pages.

Review: Love is Red

Book on of the Night Song trilogy
By Sophie Jaff
Available now from Harper (HarperCollins)
Review copy

The comparisons to NIGHT FILM and THE SHINING GIRLS drew me in.  Both were creepy literary gems, and if LOVE IS RED was half as good I was sure to love it.  I'm not sure that I do.

LOVE IS RED opens with a rape scene, which was not the best first impression.  Half the novel (maybe a little over half) is told through the killer's point of view using the second person.  The second person point of view was an interesting choice of literary technique and I thought it worked well to add a bit of tension to his sections, that such a killer could be watching you.  However, his sections were hard for me to read.  I liked that he focused on his victims' emotions over his bodies, but that aspect was still there.  And unlike THE SHINING GIRLS, I never really felt we got to see the victims as people in their own right.  They remain the archetypes the killer has marked them as.

The other narrator is Katherine Emerson, a young woman living with a roommate and her roommate's son.  She's recently met and started dating David, a perfectly nice man, but she's also started sleeping with his best friend Sael after a sexually charged encounter where they didn't realize they had any acquaintances in common.  LOVE IS RED does not hide that one of these men is the killer and that Katherine is his ultimate planned victim.  I thought which was the killer was obvious, which does mean Sophie Jaff was good at characterizing them clearly.  At the same time, it meant the book was jumping through some unnecessary hoops.

The fantastic elements of LOVE IS RED are rather quiet at first.  The killer describes emotions in synesthetic ways and believes he is reliving a grand purpose, but it takes awhile for the narrative to start showing that he isn't just delusional.  Ghosts start to show up, and more of the past is revealed (mostly through the device of excerpts from a manuscript between chapters).  I definitely felt like a lot of the worldbuilding was left for future books in the Night Song trilogy.  I had an idea of the concepts that were in play, but not specifics.  I'm unsure what the stakes of the story were, beyond Katherine's life.  If you're going to hint at a battle through the centuries, then I at least need some idea of what will happen if either side wins.

I did like that LOVE IS RED wrapped up the serial killer plot and left the romance at a reasonable ending point.  There are a lot of threads left dangling for the next book, but this one can stand alone.  I also liked the way the theme of motherhood became increasingly important through the story.  It is seeded at the beginning, so it doesn't feel unnatural when it takes a larger part in LOVE IS RED. 

Jaff's writing is often lovely, but it left me dry.  LOVE IS RED approaches feminist themes, the way women are discarded in particular, but never seems to have a coherent point of view to express about them.  The serial killer passages actively turned me off most of the time, and Katherine wasn't a much more compelling narrator.  The first moment between her and Sael is incredibly charged, but their chemistry throughout the book leans to hard on that single interaction to carry it all.  The relationship with David never has a moment half as magnetic.  Her job as a critic might as well never have been mentioned.  Her relationship with Lucas, her roommate's son, is cute.

But I kept waiting for Katherine to seize control of her narrative and stop being a victim in waiting and waffling between two not particularly compelling dudes.  I'm not sure that ever quite happened.

Review: Game

Book two of the I Hunt Killers trilogy
By Barry Lyga
Available now from Little, Brown BFYR (Hachette)
Review copy
Read my review of I Hunt Killers

GAME, the sequel to I HUNT KILLERS, takes the action to NYC, where the Hat-Dog Killer is becoming increasingly bold.  The police think Jazz might be able to offer some useful insights, so they fly him out.  His girlfriend Connie follows.  (Howie stays home to help watch Jazz's grandma.)

The climax of GAME is stunning.  Lots of strange pieces fall into place, and our trio of good guys are left in mortal peril.  The trip to that point isn't quite as good as I HUNT KILLERS, but it is still thrilling.  The main problem with it is that it causes some of the characters (mostly Connie) to act in very dumb ways.  At the same time, I liked that the teen characters aren't quite as smart and savvy as they think they are.  They might know more about serial killers than the average teen, but that doesn't make them trained law enforcement officials.

There's also a lot of interpersonal drama between Connie and Jazz.  She wants to have sex; he wants to have sex but it is afraid it might unlock something dark inside him.  His father, serial killer Billy Dent, mixed rape with his killing and Jazz is extremely concerned about that legacy.  His dreams don't help.  Finding a killer does.

If you're looking for intense, dark YA, look no father than this trilogy.  GAME ups the stakes from I HUNT KILLERS (now that Dent is free), and ends spectacularly.  You might want to wait until BLOOD OF MY BLOOD comes out on September 9, or you might decide this is the perfect moment to start reading the series.

Review: I Hunt Killers

Book one of the I Hunt Killers trilogy
By Barry Lyga
Available now from Little, Brown BFYR (Hachette)
Review copy

Jasper "Jazz" Dent is the son of the world's most notorious serial killer, Billy Dent.  He had a rather unconventional childhood, one that left him able to read blood spatters, manipulate people, and dream of cutting flesh.  But he's determined not to follow in his father's footsteps.

I HUNT KILLERS is a truly magnetic book.  Jazz's voice is absorbing, haunted and cold and vulnerable.  His best friend, Howie, is hilarious and a true pal, even though his hemophilia doesn't make him the best choice to be a serial killer-hunting sidekick.  His girlfriend, Connie, has a presence and strength of will that reassures Jazz that he would never hurt her.  And he needs his friends, stuck as he his with his crazy grandmother.  I liked the adults too, from a social worker who really could help Jazz to G. William Tanner, the hick sheriff who managed what the FBI couldn't.

I HUNT KILLERS opens with a dead girl in a field.  A serial killer has come to the tiny town of Lobo's Nod again, and it's up to the police to catch them.  Jazz believes he can help due to his special insight.  I really liked the balance Barry Lyga pulled off of Jazz having helpful insights vs. the police being actually competent.  I also liked that he didn't spend too long in the killer's head - there's no lingering over the perverse details, although there is plenty of violence.  This is on the upper end of YA.

The plot and characterization in I HUNT KILLERS are both strong.  The hunt for the Impressionist is twisty and genuinely thrilling.  The nature vs. nurture debate that Jazz struggles with is compelling, particularly because Lyga doesn't pull punches.  Jazz has a genuine capacity for darkness, as shown by his reoccurring nightmares of repressed memories.

This is the best book in the trilogy and can stand alone.  I think GAME and BLOOD OF MY BLOOD are worth reading, but I HUNT KILLERS is the gem of the trilogy.