Foiled
Jane Yolen, illustrated by Mike Cavallaro
Middle-Grade Graphic Novel
ISBN: 9781596432796
Re-read March 26, 2014
Curses, Foiled Again
Jane Yolen, illustrated by Mike Cavallaro
Middle-Grade Graphic Novel, sequel
ISBN: 9781596436190
Read March 26, 2014
Pretty sure I reviewed Foiled before, but I got hold of the sequel, so wanted to hit it up again to be sure where I stood. It holds up well to a re-read, although I was much more aware of the forbodingly looming birds showing up everywhere this time around. Still think Aliera is a fantastic name.
Curses, Foiled Again picks up right after we left off, with Aliera not yet used to the idea of faery at all, let alone her place as a Defender of a realm she can't even see normally. Avery is bound and determined to be her knight, and Aliera is bound and determined to not trust him.
The storyline is again really terribly short - these are really almost graphic novellas. The "dark lord" is a little eye-rolly, especially given the age-group this is aimed at, and the reveal on who is the big bad was woefully expected (although handled fairly well). I liked that Aliera wasn't given super instincts to go with her new position, and she's flailing around wildly trying to figure everything out and be the hero. That's a nice and unexpected direction to go, and I hope it continues. What I didn't like, and which wasn't a problem as much in the first, was that with the very stylized speech and thought bubbles, I really had a hard time during the climax figuring out who is saying (or thinking) what to whom. I think this is my own fault for not reading enough comics as an impressionable child, but I really did have to read a few pages over again to match lines with characters. Despite my own shortcomings, that shouldn't ever be a problem.
As the first did, we're set up here at a nice breather, ready for the next encounter.
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