Book Reviews by Genre: Graphic Novels/Manga

Peter Grant is part of the Special Assessment Unit, a police group in London that is called in to investigate the weirder cases. And the first case is pretty weird - it seems like there are a few cars in London that have developed a murderous bent. Grant and crew do their best to figure out what is going on...before someone else finds themself dead at the hands of their car.
This was really fun! The mystery was different from anything I've ever read, the world building happened quickly but thoroughly, and the characters were likable. While not spectacular, the art was pretty and made the story easy to follow. Oh, and major bonus, the characters were diverse! I liked this one enough that I just put the regular novel Peter Grant books on hold, and I'll definitely be checking out all future graphic novel installments. Harry Dresden fans, check this series out ASAP!

This is a manga series. Yes, those comics with the characters with big eyes and a lot of drama. For those of you who haven't picked up a manga series or bothered to watch the impressive anime series that are often made out of them, don't be so quick to judge this thrilling, artistic, and funny form of entertainment. These short books prove to be very helpful to those looking for an adventure but find difficulty in focusing on a sea of words. With anime you get something extremely aesthetic to the eye as well as an amazing, quick adventure. There are manga series for everyone no matter their preference: girly shojo, action, horror and more. I have just started reading this adventurous series Saiyuki which is a beefed up adaption to the actual fable. In Shangri-La (a place where heaven and earth combine and demons, called youkai live in harmony with humans), youkai are going berserk and it is up to a team of four young adult males to find out why. As a smoking, gun wielding, cursing priest, a monkey god, a water spirit, and a chi manipulator head West, they find all sorts of trouble that causes them to show off their skills, and run away from all of their equally haunting pasts.
Reviewer Grade: 10

Roller Girl is a graphic novel about two best friends who did everything together till the summer before high school. Astrid, the tough one of the girls, signs up for roller derby camp while Nicole, the shy one, signs up for dance camp. Will their friendship survive? Out of 1(bad) - 5(great) I would rate this book a 3 because I liked how the antagonist was hard to find even though there were two rival groups. I personally do not like graphic novels because they don't give enough written detail, so for some people this book would be a 4 or 5. The reason I read this book is because my languages art teacher recommended the book and it sounded good, so I gave it a try. I recommend this book to people who like graphic novels and roller derby.
Reviewer Grade: 8

This graphic novel follows Tom Jensen, the author's father, as he hunts the Green River Killer. The story oscillates between the story of catching the Green River Killer (mostly set in the 80s in Seattle) and the post-catching pre-trial interviews with Gary Ridgway. Needless to say, it's a fascinating perspective.

I tend to prefer graphic novels with color, but I thought the artwork in this was great. The artist manages to capture the expressions of the different (real) characters, which led to some very chilling panels. However, the story jumped around in such a way that was confusing - it would often take me a few panels to realize that there was a time jump or perspective switch or whatever.

Overall, this was a pretty gripping read. I'd recommend it to fans of true crime novels.

I don't always like the first volume of a graphic novel series as the world-building can be confusing - but I really enjoyed this one! Volume 1 tells a nice story with a beginning, middle and end, and it's a great intro to the Captain Marvel story. Captain Marvel's origin story was rather hilariously told by Kit, a child, in 4 panels at the end of the first issue, and it just sounds nuts. But even with almost no previous exposure to the character, I was immediately hooked and was able to fall in line with Carol Danvers and and her crew with minimum confusion. Also, Danvers has a cat (or possible ferkin). Named Chewie. Be still my heart.

Olive Silverlock is back at Gotham Academy after a summer off - a summer that she barely remembers. With the help of her ex-boyfriend's little sister "Maps", Olive and crew are trying to oust a mysterious ghost before the ghost makes Gotham Academy uninhabitable for the living.

I wanted to like this title more than I actually ended up liking it. It started out with a bang - I found the first issue to be delightful - and then stumbled a bit after that. Even though I enjoyed the art, premise and
characters, I found the story itself to be wanting. Lots of potential here, and hopefully it will be more fully realized in future volumes.

I read the book because I loved the Netflix series, and while I'm not sure that I loved the graphic novel series, I'm totally enjoying it so far. It's similar to the Netflix series in character, though pretty different in plot. Matt Murdock and Luke Cage show up, as does Captain America (Steve Rogers flavor). Sadly, there's no Patsy so far. Carol Danvers (AKA Captain Marvel) seems to be fulfilling that role for the time being. Overall, I found it to be an enjoyable noir graphic novel series with a strong female protagonist.

Delilah Dirk. Globetrotting troublemaker. If that doesn't grab you, move on.

This is a really fun adventure story. Set in the early 1800s in Turkey, the book begins with Delilah Dirk springing herself from a Turkish prison, recruiting her prisoner as an adventurer, and then heading off (on a flying ship, no less) to get vengeance on an evil pirate overlord.

I rated it 4 stars because I couldn't always follow the action sequences, but overall, the art is gorgeous and the characters well-developed. If you haven't tried a graphic novel before, this could be a great one with which to start!

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian is a very good and interesting book. This book is about an Indian boy named Arnold, also known by his nickname Junior, who is a freshman in high school. Junior lives on a Native American reservation and doesn’t fit in with any of the other kids very well because he has many special abilities that make him look, talk, and function differently. In the story, he has a best friend called Rowdy who is in his eyes, is really tough and strong. One day, Junior decides that he needs to go to a better school OFF the reservation (Rez) called Reardan. When he transferred, Rowdy decided that he hated Junior. Everyone at his new school calls Junior names, and makes fun of him because he’s an Indian with disabilities. Throughout the book, Junior encounters many more hardships and obstacles. I did like the book, although it was very depressing towards the end. The book has parts with more mature content, but is not bad if you are older. The part I enjoyed in the book is when Junior makes the basketball team by being crazy and making crazy shots. This is the second best book I have read in 2016… Messenger of Fear being the first. All in all, this is a great book that any teen should check out if they are mature enough to read it.

Reviewer Grade: 7

Actual Rating: 4.5

I love the variety in this novel. With the graphics and the writing combined, I felt like this book was more of an experience than simply words on paper. Every character was relatable, with the sarcastic and dark Jaycee, selective mute Ryan Mik, the smart and caring Natalie, her humorous boyfriend Zach, and Bishop who is simply stuck in the world of art. With all these characters, the reader feels a part of their group as they go on daring trespasses to connect with Jaycee’s dead brother, Jake. What they find is that Jake death was not as simple as they thought. As the characters develop in this novel, I developed with the splendid relationships embedded in McCarthy’s witty writing. Highly recommended read!

Reviewer Grade: 12

Not bad. I enjoyed every part of this book except for the monkey god sections. I don't know, those parts just didn't appeal to me. I rarely read graphic novels so maybe certain things were lost on me because of the format. Overall I was somewhat underwhelmed

My favorite characters are Flash and Green Lantern. This book is a bunch of comics all put into a collectors edition!

the black bird series has fifteen books so far and they are really good i have read them over and over again. the sixteenth one is coming out on may 7th. i would suggets reading them if you like romance.

Probably the first manga I actually got in to (other than Pokemon!).
Very good first book. I immediately was drawn into the storyline and eagerly read the next book. I was surprised how big it was...I guess I didn't know I was getting the omnibus edition! (all it said was Cardcaptor Sakura Book 1...^.^').

The basic storyline is that a 4th grader named Sakura Kinomoto walks into her father's library and finds a mysterious book titled "The Clow". Upon opening it, a strange but cute creature comes out who says his name is Cerberus.

Sakura decides to call him, cutely, Kero-chan. Kero is surprised to find that all the cards residing in the Clow book have disappeared. Kero immediatly makes Sakura a Cardcaptor-kind of like a magical girl, but this girl (or boy in Syaoran's case) collects Clow Cards.

I have never seen the anime (mostly because I don't like the anime plot as much) but I enjoyed the manga a lot. The characters are very loveable.Sakura's rival, Syaoran Li, is probably my all-time favorite character now. I admit, I did not like him when I had only read the first book. Believe me, if you feel the same way after reading this book, you will definitely fall in love with him by the end of the series (by the end of the series I mean reading the first series AND the second series [Cardcaptor Sakura: Master of the Clow]). The second series is much more romantically revolved, so I found it much more adorable.

In my opinion, I would give this whole series...10 stars!! (if only...)

Wow. Just wow.