Lucas Blogs About Books

It really is a lovely shade of blue. So, what's this book's deal? Well, Hypothetical Reader, as with Magic: A History  the deal with A Winter's Promise by Christelle Dabos   is that I never finished it. You're the worst, Lucas. Yep! Last Winter I was the worst at finishing books that weren't comics. That said, I read so many comics that I've lost track of what order I read them in, so I've probably already blogged about several that I actually read after I gave up on Magic and A Winter's Promise . So that's something. Anyway, time to get this one out of the way. Unlike Magic , I don't feel bad about giving up on A Winter's Promise , but before we get into why, let's give a brief synopsis of what I got through. Let's. Okay. So Ophelia is the curator of a museum in a place called Anima where she uses her ability to see the history of the objects she touches to . . . . see the history of the objects she touches.  Well that would be usefu...

Now an Eisner and Harvey Award Winner So, what's this book's dea—oh are we already on the latest volume of Witch Hat Atelier ? Yep, we're seven volumes into Kamome Shirahama's fantasy manga about a preteen girl's quest to save her mother who she accidentally petrified. Obviously, this blog post may contain TEH SPOILARZ  for all the previous volumes, so if you're bothered by that kinda thing consider this your warning. If I recall, in the previous volume Coco and her fellow apprentice witch cohorts were taking a make-up test administered by an elder witch in a ram chair. I assume they passed? Yes, they passed Beldaruit's make up test and advanced to the next step in their magical education. But that's not what this volume is about. It's not? No. This volume is about two things: 1) Master Qifrey's backstory and how it relates to B) Coco's ongoing quest to find a way to save her mother. Both of which bring them into conflict with the Brimmed C...

Like the one that sustained Saint Corentin ? I've been kicking around an idea for a Hey, Hypothetical Reader!  where HR and I would discuss canon. You know, like in the context of fiction. I would have this whole schtick about how canon is a mind-prison that leads to a hyper-focus on continuity at the expense of examining what really matters about a story. Namely, what it makes you think and feel. They don't assign The Great Gatsby or The Scarlet Letter  to high school juniors so they can find out whether Daisy will leave Tom for Gatsby or who the father of Hester Prynne's daughter is ( SPOILER: she won't and it's very obviously Reverend Dimmesdale). They assign them because A) The Literary Canon is also a mind-prison; and 2) both feature such obvious symbolism that even a high school junior will notice it. I feel like I'm getting off track, let's start over: The Magic Fish   is a graphic novel for young readers by Trung Le Nguyen. You might say it's abo...

Oh, deer, it's a g-g-g-g-ghost!   So, what's this book's dea—Oh, I'll bet those library stickers mean that this was another book you auditioned for a Christmas gift, like Skunk and Badger  last week. That'd be a smart bet. Snapdragon by Kat Leyh is a young adult graphic novel about . . . well it's about a lot of things. Oh, and in case you're wondering, this ended up being a gift for my cousin's daughter. The same one who received The Prince and the Dressmaker   last Christmas. I seem to recall that The Prince and the Dressmaker was a big hit. Was this? Well, she did start reading it as soon as she opened it in the family Christmas zoom. But I haven't received a gushing thank you note either, so I dunno. Anyway, it's the story of Snapdragon, a tomboy-ish mixed race girl living somewhere in the South. When we first meet her she's riding her bike out to the edge of town to confront the so-called witch who lives there. See, her dog, Good Boy (Ge...

Water, water everywhere and not a drop to — AUGH! What's that on the back cover? So, what's this book's deal? Island Book  is a young adult graphic novel by Evan Dahm, who you may recall was the artist behind The Harrowing of Hell . I recall that that wasn't a blog post in the Hypothetical Reader format. Oh, right. Well, I really liked it. It's actually my favorite book I read last year. It made me curious about Dahm's other work so I picked up this book thinking that it might be a good gift-giving candidate for younger readers. And was it? Def-o! Unfortunately, I did my Christmas shopping at the last minute and this was already sold out most places, so I went with Superman Smashes the Klan instead. Anyway, this is sort of a high seas fantasy adventure story for kids. It begins on an island inhabited by green humanoids. The protagonist, Sola, is ostracized by everyone but her guardian because a monster attacked the island when she was a child, seemingly drawn b...

Don't graphic designers know that bloggers will be taking crummy, screen-glare-ridden pictures of these books? So, what's this book's deal? A Deadly Education  is the first entry in a new fantasy series called The Scholomance by Naomi Novik. Oh, she wrote that Spinning Silver  novel you blogged about a couple of years ago. That she did. You'll recall that I liked it. I do recall that. So is this another one of those fractured fairy tale type stories? No. This is more of a take-off on the magic school genre. You mean like a parody or pastiche? Hmm, maybe that's not quite accurate. The setting or characters are necessarily meant to invoke any pre-existing fantasy stories or series, but I also think that Novik is taking aim at some of the tropes of the magic school genre. But let's talk about the novel itself. We're introduced to our protagonist, Galadriel — yes, named for that Galadriel — or El, complaining about Orion Lake, the most popular boy in the Scholo...

I like how the guy on the back cover is just casually flexing his ram chair. Like, "Why yes, the armrests are giant ram's horns, nbd!" So, what's this book's deal? Would you believe we're already up to volume six of Witch Hat Atelier ? You mean Kamome Shirahama 's ongoing manga series? The very same. Yes, I would believe it, given that you have blogged about all the previous volumes. Cool. Then let's just jump right in! Of course, anything from volumes 1-5 is fair game for TEH SPOILARZ!  So, when we left off at the end of volume five, Euini had been saved, but Master Quifrey's confrontation with the Brimmed Cap Witches (the witches who violate the ban on performing magic on humans) has left him in dire need of medical assistance. Also, some Knights Moralis (Witch Cops) summon everyone from the atelier to the Great Hall (the seat of the witches' governemnt). While Quifrey recovers, Beldaruit, one of the witch elders, presents Agott and Richeh wi...

Uh-oh, better keep this book away from Green Lantern! So, what's this book's deal? Well, hypothetical reader, Superman Smashes the Klan  is a collaboration between Gene Luen Yang and Gurihiru (the work name of the Japanese artist team Chifuyu Sasaki and Naoko Kawano) who previously worked together on several volumes of comics about the continuing adventures of Aang et al. in the world of  Avatar: The Last Airbender . Though, as you might have guessed from the title, this comic book is about Superman. The Man of Steel Superman? The Man of Tomorrow Superman? Faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, able to leap tall buildings in a single bound Superman? The very same. And specifically that version of the character. See, it's loosely based on a storyline from The Adventures of Superman  radio serial from the forties, where Superman takes on the Clan of the Fiery Cross. As you may be aware, the Ku Klux Klan experienced a resurgence following the release...

Not pictured: the Baudelaires' boss sunglasses . So, I've spent the last year re-reading Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events. You read other things, too. I did. But you know, this was a project, like that time I read one chapter of  Journey to the West  everyday for one hundred days. That must have been before the blog. It was before the blog. So, is this where we're putting the SPOILER   warning for this month? Well, I don't know that I'll be recounting the plot of this one. What? Yeah, I thought we could have a brief discussion of Book the Thirteenth: The End And then sort of wrap up this little project in a somewhat less lengthy fashion. You're the blogger. So, what did you remember about The End before you re-read it? Alright, so we start right back up with the Baudelaires and Olaf as they sail away following the events of The Penultimate Peril . Long story short, they're shipwrecked on a desert island. Someho...

I'm not sure if you can see it from here, but Sunny looks pretty cool with sunglasses. Happy 13th of the month, readers (both hypothetical and otherwise)! You know what that means: it's time for me to revisit another entry in Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events! Sticking with that intro? Yes. All right. SPOILERS  ahoy! So, in our last outing you declared that The Grim Grotto  was pretty good because it sidelined the villains and brought back a sense of narrative momentum. Yes, but Lemony Snicket's author-ly tics were still starting to rub me the wrong way. Fair enough. Anyway, let's jump into: Book the Twelfth: The Penultimate Peril So, what do you remember about this book going in? Well, it involves Kit Snicket, sister of Jacques and Lemony, a pregnant V.F.D. volunteer and former paramour of Count Olaf. Eww, is the baby— His? Almost definitely not, also you don't learn about their previous relationship until the next bo...

All the chapters have these neat semi-medieval looking illustrations by  So, what's this book's deal? Remember that book The Inquisitor's Tale ? Indeed I do. Well, this book is also aimed at teaching kids about medieval history and the role of religion therein. You know kids today just can't get enough medieval history and theology. Anyway, it follows the adventures of the eponymous Boy, a hunchbacked child who loves animals (and is able to conmmunicate with them). Boy is also deeply ashamed of his different body and believes himself to be a monster. He works as a goatherd at the estate of Sir Jacques, a knight who suffered a severe brain injury in a tournament. Anyway, one day a pilgrim named Secundus passes by and asks Boy to help carry his bindle (you'll find out why later). After essentially buying Boy's services from the estate's Cook in exchange for a promise to pray for her at a pilgrim site, Secundus proceeds to treat Boy with nothing...