2015 Review Round-Up: Graphic Novel: The Graveyard Book (Volumes 1&2) Neil Gaiman et al

The Graveyard Book: Volume 1
Neil Gaiman, P. Craig Russell
Kevin Nowlan, P. Craig Russell, Tony Harris, Scott Hampton, Galen Showman, Jill Thompson, Stephen B. Scott
ISBN: 9780062194817

The Graveyard Book: Volume 2
Neil Gaiman, P. Craig Russell
David LaFuente, Scott Hampton, P. Craig Russell, Kevin Nowlan, Galen Showman
ISBN: 9780062194831
Both Read October 2015

The graphic novel adaptation of the epic fantastical and ghostly re-telling of the Jungle Book.

Just go read it.  It's Neil Gaiman, and it's beautiful.  I would recommend reading the actual book first - it makes things clearer and deeper to have that background to draw from, and it makes for a nice sense of anticipation about what the various artists are going to choose to do to depict various people and scenes.  This was the October read for our library's Graphic Novel Book Club, and it was a big hit.  Everyone enjoyed the story, even though most people didn't realize it was an homage to the Jungle Book (which you should also read, but remember that Kipling was an AWFUL racist.)

Bod wanders away from a gristly scene, and takes refuge in a cemetery, under the protection of the Grey Lady, the cemetery ghosts, and the mysterious nocturnal caretaker Silas.  These grim beings form a protective family for Bod to grow and develop, but all too soon he is going to learn about the wider world, and once he leaves the cemetery grounds, he's dangerously vulnerable to the strange man Jack who hunts him relentlessly.

Halloween Read: Who Was Dracula? by Jim Steinmeyer

A strange Frankenstein's-monster mash-up of three genres in one; literary criticism of Dracula, biography of Bram Stoker, and microhistory of the settings and characters of Stoker's life.  Despite some strange seam-lines and jumps in topic, I thought it was a clever and fairly adept combination, providing apt analysis of the author, the writing, and the nature of the character of Dracula through different perspectives and possibilities.

Who Was Dracula? Bram Stoker's Trail of Blood
Jim Steinmeyer
ISBN: 9780142421888
Finished Oct. 30, 2014

First off, you'll only like this book if you like all of the components therein: biographies (of Stoker, and of other characters from the time-period: Walt Whitman, Henry Irving, Oscar Wilde...) micro-histories (mainly of the theatre, but we get a bit about Jack the Ripper, and about American tours of theatrical companies, and a view of the theatrical/artistic set's socializing and infighting) and literary criticisms (No, Dracula as a character wasn't an attempt to exact revenge on Irving, and can we get over how Dracula is about sex?  We all KNOW it's about sex, we have eyes, we read the book already).

If none of those make you roll your eyes out of your head, then you're in for a treat.  We stick with each non-book subject long enough to get into it (and sometimes long enough to think, "wait a moment, this is really interesting stuff about Stoker's other books/Irving and the Lyceum/Jack the Ripper/Oscar Wilde, but I don't think I've seen anything about Stoker or Dracula in the past four chapters") and then in the next chapter, you're back to Dracula again.

It wasn't at all what I expected, and aside from a cringe-worthy quotation from the author responsible for glittery vampires excusing her not having read Dracula, it was better than I expected; more history, less supposition.

I will say that the underlying question remains mostly unanswered, although hints drop that Steinmeyer tends towards the "it was a composite of lots of influences" school of thought, rather than "it was meant to strike back at Irving" or "It was Jack the Ripper!" suppositions.

I liked the 'coda' towards the end explaining how Stoker's widow used her tenacity and a timely membership in an Author's Society to fight back against Nosferatu (although I'm so glad she failed in destroying it) and to stage critically awful and popularly brilliant versions of Dracula across England and the USA in order to keep herself in mint.  Stoker would have been proud.

Curtsies & Conspiracies, Gail Carriger

Curtsies & Conspiracies, Gail Carriger

ISBN: 9780316190114

Read November 6, 2013

YA Fantasy: Finishing School Book 2 (After Etiquette & Espionage) related to the Soulless series.

Excellent installment, and even better than the first (which I thought was a bit weak, compared to Soulless).  Sophronia is finishing up her second term of her debut year at the dirigible-housed mock-Finishing School for young ladies of espionage.  Her mid-term grades are excellent, but she's been shunned by the entire student body because of them.  No worries - she's got plenty to keep her occupied: the Sooties (especially Soap), the invasion of a deployment of Apprentice Evil Genusi from their opposing school (especially Felix, Lord Mersey, he of the unfortunate cut during the climactic dance in E&E), and the interesting question of the crystal relay that Veive is working on in secret, and several of the professors are involved in - even more secretly!

Wheels upon wheels turn rapidly, and there are many more parties involved in the action this time around, which makes for occasional confusions.  However all is forgiven by the appearance of a certain foppish rove vampire who shall remain nameless for the purposes of avoiding unnecessary spoilers.  

Needless to say, this series is delightful, and I'm glad that Carriger has upped her game so nicely for the YA set.

My Wicked Vampire, Nina Bangs

My Wicked Vampire, Nina Bangs. ISBN: 9780843959550

Read September 24

Paranormal Romance: Plant experimenter Cinnamon (Cinn, obviously) has developed plants that feed on human pheromones, cast "love spells," recognize and attack intruders, and in the case of Vince the periwinkle, developed sentience.  That's enough to get her hired by the Castle of Dark Dreams (obviously the through-line for this series) to add to the atmosphere for their kinky patrons looking for fantasy.  Also new to the Castle is Dacian the "night-feeder" vampire, who was rescued from a couple of centuries of self-imposed exile and off-and-on murderous rages at the request of his brother, another Castle employee, and also a vampire.

The supernaturals (nonhumans, according to the book) are many: the aforementioned vampires (of which there are strong indications of other types, but they don't come into this story), wizards, a trio of chaos spirits, goddesses, emissaries of goddesses, and various flavors of demons.  Oddly enough, nothing too weird really comes of all these nonhuman protagonists, other than the ability to take and dish out wild amounts of violence to each other.  

The only true weirdness here is Cinn's plants.  Good thing too, because they form the lynchpin of her side of the plot (the more interesting one, to my mind) - her goddess-ancestor is pissed that she's overstepping her authority to create plants that are more like animals, and wants her to stop it, and to kill off her already-created plants. 

On Dacian's side, there's a veneer-thin conflict between his sociopath creator and Dacian's unwillingness to play beta to someone weaker than him (of course his creator is weaker than him).  

The characters are amusing, their dialogue flows well, and the interactions are fun to read through.  I especially enjoyed the doomed love triangle between Asima, Vince, and Tommy, and the bemused attentions of Wade the outdoorsman.  

The plotline is serviceable.  I thought the ending was overdrawn, and Cinnamon's plot antagonist was co-opted into solving Dacian's on a totally predictable level, but the inclusion of a clueless peanut gallery actually worked fairly well.  "Run, kitty, run!" was funny as hell, and nameless "professor guy" gets a good bad-ass line: "Hey!  Leave the plant alone!"  

The love story suffers from the same flaw that most romance novels have - the characters meet in dangerous and uncertain circumstances, fall madly in love, and within pages/hours are defending each other against opponents that any sane person would flee.  At this point it's so entrenched that I can't get too worked up over it.  However, when the worst affront to suspension of disbelief in THIS particular novel is the love story?  That's saying something.

Cute, but I'm mostly fond of the plant angle, so I think I'll be giving the other "Castle" books a miss.