skip to main |
skip to sidebar
Scott Pilgrim Versus the World hits the theaters today, but I'm happy to say that I've already seen it twice. Yes, I'm that super-dork who talked her way into two screenings (thanks Roommate!) one of which was at Pixar (yessss, nerdgasm) and who, despite having seen this movie twice in the last two weeks, still wants to go see it in theaters to support it in the box office. And I hope you do, too.
Based on the series of 6 graphic novels by Brian Lee O'Malley (yay for creative hapas!), Scott Pilgrim the movie (named for the second book of the series) is fabulously adapted by super slick director Edgar Wright, who also directed a few of my other favorite movies, Shawn of the Dead and Hot Fuzz (starring the awesome and hilarious Simon Pegg). While I had a little bit of a hard time getting into the graphic novel series because of the aesthetic (giant manga eyes, particularly, and characters who look very much the same other than their hair-dos) I did like it even though I stopped at the 4th book. But the movie was better for its brevity-- crazy kinetic and stuffed full of great one-liners, sight gags and hilarious/awesome fight sequences and the coolest arcade game visual style ever made the movie go so fast that I worried I might have missed things since I was laughing so hard. I was particularly keen on Thomas Jane's cameo as the vegan police. Leading boy/man Micheal Cera does an awesome job bringing humor and vulnerability to Scott's character, and Kieran Culkin kills it as Scott's gay roommate, Wallace. I'd list everyone who was awesome, but there's no weak link in the chain-- the acting is great, the humor is campy and the arc is deceptively sentimental.
Read the books to get into the world. Watch the movie to revel in it.
One of the best parts about being a bookseller is getting to sift through all the ARCs that we get shipped to the store from various publishers. I've never grown out of the stage in my life in which free=awesome, and so the novelty of ARCs has not worn thin for me yet. Reviewed below are three ARCs I've read in the last couple of months that I got a kick out of:
My threshhold for paranormal romance is very, very low, but I was invited to a dinner with Andrea Cremer, the author of
Nightshade, by the awesome Penguin sales rep so I read it despite the subtitle: She can control her pack but not her heart, which gave me serious pause (as did the cover, which has more sparkles than I can reasonably tolerate). And even though I didn't end up making it to the dinner it was worth the read. Cremer utilizes the now familiar trope of one girl/two-different-but-both-attractive guys to nice, tense effect, and despite the fact that I am not interested in the subject matter, and did not even particularly care for the sentence level writing style, I was still sucked into the story, in which romance and twists are plenty. The protagonist, Calla, is an alpha female set to mate with the alpha of a rival pack (Ren) in order to create an alliance, and her strength and comfort with her own power made her an appealing lead. But, of course, there's a new boy at school, who's smart (as his pedantic in and out of class eruptions are meant to illustrate) kind and handsome, and Calla finds herself struggling to give herself over to Ren, the cocky, lady-killer, babe-wolf with whom she's been matched. Lust, suspense and monsters aplenty ensue, Calla makes her choice, and a sequel looms on the horizon. A fun, light read with the page-turning propulsion of romance, I would totally recommend this book to lovers of Twilight, Shiver and other vamp/wolf/angel/fairy/zombie/ghost/whatever romances. Also from Penguin (Dutton, specifically) is Matched, a new romance/dystopia from Ally Condie, which I picked up due to the promise that: "This is a perfect dystopian novel, sure to be a hit with fans of The Giver and The Hunger Games" from Colleen Conway, field sales. While I in no way agree that this book has the same appeal of The Hunger
Games, I do see Colleen's point about the Giver; and indeed, Matched reads something like The Giver, if The Giver was wrought with all the teenaged romantic angst that I could handle. Like Nightshade, Condie utilizes the one girl/two guys trope, and again, to pleasantly tense effect. Set in the future, people in Matched are, just as the title promises, matched with the person they will marry by a system of people and computers, and the protagonist in Matched is pleased to find that she has been matched with her handsome best friend. But, just like Nightshade, another boy pops up in her life, and she has trouble giving herself over to the boy with whom she's been matched. However familiar the story, the writing style of this book is lovely, with elegant descriptions and passages of dialog that kept me tuned in, even as the critic in me whined about the overuse of the love triangle in YA. The future Condie imagined is one of cold plastic, tightly controlled art (only 100 poems, 100 songs, 100 paintings remain) and lives that was compelling, and, I imagine, particularly resonant for teens who may feel as though too much of their lives are controlled by outside forces. Come November, I will be pleased to recommend this book as a gift who kids who love dystopian novels.
Lastly was the new graphic novel from Scholastic, Ghostopolis by Doug TenNapel.
Set in a fuzzily defined Underworld, Ghostopolis is the story of fatally sick boy Garth, and Frank Gallows, the ghost hunter who accidentally sends Garth to the land of the dead. As Garth goes on an adventure, learning his full potential and getting to know the soul of his prodigal grandfather, Frank and his ghostly ex girlfriend Claire Voyant go on the search to bring Garth home to his poor, terrified mother. Though the story and the setting often make little to no sense, I kept reading because the humor and the drawing style were to appealing that I couldn't make myself put it down. I was particularly fond of Frank's face, which ranges in emotion from weary to irreverent, to deeply in love. The limited palatte of colors suits the Underworld nicely, and utilizes more warm hues than one might have imagined would work for the land of the dead. I'm not exactly sure who I should recommend this book to, other than aspiring illustrators, but I'm pleased to see it on our shelf just the same.
This isn't a book intended for kids, but like Battle Royale, I think it'd suit some of the older teens who like a little gruesome with their lit. It's another recommendation from the badasses over at Skylight Books, who also recommended Uzumaki to me. It's kinda like a meta-Harry Potter for grownups, with all the literary skulduggery one could hope for--inspired by children's literature, with plenty of appeal for adults, The Unwritten has so many cool elements (postmodern self awareness, humor, violence, a chapter about Kipling) it seems almost unfair. Peter Gross's illustrations are clean and evocative, and suit this fascinating story well.
Poor Tom Taylor is just trying to get people to understand: he is NOT Tommy Taylor, the hero of the crazy, international best seller, Harry Potter-esque series that his father wrote. But when Tom's life starts to resemble Tommy's, he's sent on a literary treasure hunt, left by his presumed dead father. Crazy fun plot twists and a pleasantly non-neurotic self-awareness (along with a slew of satirical Harry Potter moments) made this book an utter pleasure and a fascinating read. For those who liked The Magicians, by Lev Grossman, this book provides an awesome graphic counterpart. So for those who liked books about books, worlds within books and books in the world, give The Unwritten a go.
It's nice to find a book that directly addresses the not-inherantly funny topic of race in a hilarious fashion, which is exactly what this lively graphic novel does. Set in a mostly-white American high school, Jin Wang (later to be called Danny) struggles to accept his own heritage, embarrassed as he is by it. A surreal and HI-larious section featuring Danny's cousin Chin Kee, a loud-mouthed, know-it-all Chinese stereotype who constantly expresses his desire to bind women's feet, cleverly illustrates what self-hating racism feels like in a way that is fresh, and as previously mentioned, laugh out loud funny. Already the winner of the Printz Award, a national book award finalist, a Booklist top ten Graphic Novel for Youth, NPR holiday pick, Publisher's Weekly best comic of the year, San Francisco Chronicle best book of the year, 2007 Eisner Award for best Graphic Album, Time Magazine Top Ten Comic of the year and an Amazon.com Best Graphic Novel/Comic of the year, I'm clearly not the first person to like this book, and certainly won't be the last.
