Foiled, and Curses, Foiled Again, Jane Yolen & Mike Cavallaro

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.

Foiled, Jane Yolen & Mike Cavallaro

Foiled, Jane Yolen & Mike Cavallaro.  ISBN: 9781596432796

Read August 28

 

YA Graphic Novel, urban fantasy, fencing heroine, first of series? 

 

Aliera Carstairs (excellent name, by the way) is a fencer; foil, not saber or epee.  But, she's not a rich fencer.  So when her thrift-store-obsessed mom finds a 2 dollar practice saber with a gaudy enormous gem stuck to the end, she's delighted to have it.  She's a little more conflicted about Avery - the new boy in school, and her lab-partner for frog dissection.  He apparently likes to stab and slice things.  (About the time of that revelation, the alert reader may also notice some interesting happenings with crows.)  The action here is pretty slow, mostly introductions to Aliera's regimented life, lofty goals for her foil-fencing, her conflicted feelings about Avery, and her relationship with her disabled cousin.  The end picks up dramatically, with a complication regarding Avery (which I really really like) and the resulting introduction to a colorful world that Aliera (and perhaps her cousin?) will be spending future installments learning about and adventuring in.  

 

The only quibble I have with the art is the occasional side-profile where people (especially their mouths) look just odd.  I also thought that the grey-scale went on for just a smidge too long.  I understand why it was done, and think it's really a powerful and clever application, I just was getting a bit dreary when faced with all the unremitting grey for so long.