I had to change my list a little for my Graphic Novel section because the only copy of Runaways: Pride and Joy was stolen from the library last year and I didn't want to pay for one book. But a friend of mine gave me another option. The Young Avengers. And thankfully my library had volumes 1, 2 and Civil War which includes the Runaways.
I have Vol. 1 five stars, Vol. 2. four stars, and Civil War three stars because though it involved the Runaways, the story was hard to follow and the artwork bugged me.
I really enjoyed vol. 1 and 2 because it incorporated the original Marvel characters and then also brought in a scrappy group of new characters who are pretty awesome. You have Hawkeye, Patriot, Wiccan, Hulkling, and Speed. The story is a pretty basic plotline where the Avengers had disabanded and in their wake these young heroes show up to pick up the slack, which makes both the Avengers and their parents angry.
Marvel has gotten a fair amount of backlash over the fact that they had no gay superheroes until about the last 1980's as far as I can tell. Then they slowly started to integrate them in, but still got backlash for not being as awesome at creating gay characters as DC (that's what I've read, I'm still a little behind on that research) and only recently has there been a new gay superhero who has had his own comic, but I don't really know what's going on with him either. What I did discover was that a lot of comic readers didn't like the inclusion of Teddy (Hulkling) and Billy (Wiccan-his name used to be Asguardian but when people found out about him being gay there was the worry of them making fun of his name and he changed it to Wiccan). Many readers were okay with them being gay, but didn't like the fact that their relationship seemed "transparent".
I liked their story, despite what other people said. That may have been because I don't know much about any other character relationships or how things work in the Marvel universe, but I liked them. I thought it was nice that they were already in a relationship when the story started and that yes, they were gay, but there were bigger picture issues to deal with including Patriot's drug problem, Hulkling's paternity, the fact that Wiccan and his brother (who later joined as Speed) were part of a bigger conspiracy.
The stories were great and I liked the art (except in one section where they looked way too young and shiny. It was a weird art style) but all in all I thought that it was great. I loved the part in the series when the boys are about to tell Billy's parents they're superheroes and trip over their words instead the parents basically misinterpret what they're trying to say and instead hug them, telling them "Oh! We already knew you two were in a relationship, we were just waiting for you to tell us. Welcome to the family Teddy!" It was cute and sweet and I didn't think it was strained at all. I'm still waiting to get my hands on Children's Crusade so maybe something happens in there that made people mad, but as far as I could tell I liked the fact that the boys were gay and in a relationship.
I didn't like the Young Avenger's crossover with Runaways though. The Runaways series is a lot darker than the Young Avengers and it has a weird art style that I didn't really like. But it's a big more diverse in the fact that one of their characters is transgender (not by choice but whatever) and the fact that that character's girlfriend stayed with him/her after the change even though she wasn't considered lesbian to begin with. It basically showed that attraction and love can span even the greatest of changes. But I just wasn't moved by it. I spent the majority of this comic going "okay... and I still have no idea what's going on, can the Young Avengers just come back already?"
In the end I thought the Young Avengers was a great comic, I loved Billy and Teddy, and the female characters, though typically built like female comic book women, didn't bug me as much as they usually do.
Sunday, March 16, 2014
There Are No Words for Proxy by Alex London
Through this list of books I've somehow managed to find books that I either love to death or books that I hate with a fiery passion (I'm looking at you Almost Perfect). Proxy falls into the first category.
This book was designed to be just like any other YA novel with a character who was nothing special, an orphan, basically take a dystopian trope and Proxy fits it. But that's what makes this book so awesome. Proxy is basically a regular YA novel that just happens to have a gay protagonist. He's basically the equivalent of Tris or Katniss but gay and black, which is even better. There's even a ton of Jewish aspects to the story, including the part that Syd, the Proxy, is carrying something called Yovel, a virus meant to bring on the Jubilee--the forgiving of all debts.
I loved everything about this book. The first three chapters were hard to understand, but they set up the tone of the world and from there everything just fell into place. It was fast paced, the characters of Syd and Knox were beautiful. Syd was in a crappy place in life but instead of moping around he was sassy and sarcastic but willing to help those in need. When he was hurt because his Patron, Knox, did something stupid he refused to let them see him cry. He had a great inner strength. Knox is the typical bad boy who made stupid decisions and even got a girl "killed". What I loved about him was that he may have seemed like a straight jock, he later revealed himself to be of the "anything goes" mindset meaning that he was more than willing to flirt and kiss Syd as he was willing to flirt and kiss Marie. It made him interesting and while he was fairly superficial at the beginning, he really did grow over a short 76 hour or so period into someone that I grew to love.
The side characters were a little bland though. Marie was nice but didn't have much of a personality other than being a Causegirl who wanted to bring on the Jubilee. Egan, Syd's friend, had some good points, but he really wasn't all that interesting. He existed just to move Syd and Knox from one place to another and then get killed. The villains were very reminiscent of the Erudite leader from the Divergent Trilogy and honestly the story seemed to move very fast at the end, but it all came together very nicely and left space for the second book which is coming out this year and it left me desperate to find out what the hell happened to Knox.
All in all I loved this book. I loved the futuristic aspect, I loved the fact that this book has the potential to appeal to both male and female readers, I loved the fact that Syd was gay and that his sexuality wasn't part of the story. He just happened to be a gay kid who was bound for greatness. I loved the fact that this story had Jewish elements because that seems to be something you don't see in YA novels. If there's anything remotely religious in the teen novel it tends to be something like Catholicism but even then it's really not there.
This book is filled with so many things to reach a diverse group of readers who may have otherwise felt alienated from the YA genre. I hope to see more books coming out like this one. Also, it's published by Philomel books, which is an imprint of Penguin Books. In the end I give this book a full five stars and I've already preordered the next book, Guardian, out May 29th.
This book was designed to be just like any other YA novel with a character who was nothing special, an orphan, basically take a dystopian trope and Proxy fits it. But that's what makes this book so awesome. Proxy is basically a regular YA novel that just happens to have a gay protagonist. He's basically the equivalent of Tris or Katniss but gay and black, which is even better. There's even a ton of Jewish aspects to the story, including the part that Syd, the Proxy, is carrying something called Yovel, a virus meant to bring on the Jubilee--the forgiving of all debts.
I loved everything about this book. The first three chapters were hard to understand, but they set up the tone of the world and from there everything just fell into place. It was fast paced, the characters of Syd and Knox were beautiful. Syd was in a crappy place in life but instead of moping around he was sassy and sarcastic but willing to help those in need. When he was hurt because his Patron, Knox, did something stupid he refused to let them see him cry. He had a great inner strength. Knox is the typical bad boy who made stupid decisions and even got a girl "killed". What I loved about him was that he may have seemed like a straight jock, he later revealed himself to be of the "anything goes" mindset meaning that he was more than willing to flirt and kiss Syd as he was willing to flirt and kiss Marie. It made him interesting and while he was fairly superficial at the beginning, he really did grow over a short 76 hour or so period into someone that I grew to love.
The side characters were a little bland though. Marie was nice but didn't have much of a personality other than being a Causegirl who wanted to bring on the Jubilee. Egan, Syd's friend, had some good points, but he really wasn't all that interesting. He existed just to move Syd and Knox from one place to another and then get killed. The villains were very reminiscent of the Erudite leader from the Divergent Trilogy and honestly the story seemed to move very fast at the end, but it all came together very nicely and left space for the second book which is coming out this year and it left me desperate to find out what the hell happened to Knox.
All in all I loved this book. I loved the futuristic aspect, I loved the fact that this book has the potential to appeal to both male and female readers, I loved the fact that Syd was gay and that his sexuality wasn't part of the story. He just happened to be a gay kid who was bound for greatness. I loved the fact that this story had Jewish elements because that seems to be something you don't see in YA novels. If there's anything remotely religious in the teen novel it tends to be something like Catholicism but even then it's really not there.
This book is filled with so many things to reach a diverse group of readers who may have otherwise felt alienated from the YA genre. I hope to see more books coming out like this one. Also, it's published by Philomel books, which is an imprint of Penguin Books. In the end I give this book a full five stars and I've already preordered the next book, Guardian, out May 29th.
Monday, March 3, 2014
Why Would Someone Do This to Sage?: Almost Perfect by Brian Katcher
"No one likes a martyr. You're a self centered ass-hole, but this wasn't your fault.
Everything between the beginning and the ending of this book was complete and total insanity and so freaking problematic. Also, it kinda crushed my soul. Seeing Sage say the phrase "I tried and I failed" killed me like no other. It was hard to deal with the last few chapters of this damn book and I really wanted to put it in the freezer (F.R.I.E.N.D.S style).
I'm going to start off with my rating and go from there. I'm giving this book two ratings actually. One is for the story overall and the other is for what kind of message it's sending.For characters and story I'm giving this book 2.5 stars out of 5. For the message I give this book 5 out of 5 stars.
I didn't rate this as 2.5 stars because it was a horrible book. The writing was really good and the character development was pretty awesome once you realize that Katcher was writing Logan as an asshole and that's not how he sees everyone. The fact that he had other characters in the book that could grasp the situation and explain in the way pro trans* advocates would, shows that he knows what he was talking about.
I'm rating the book this way because it tore at my soul, I hated Logan, Sage's actions often pissed me off, and I just desperately wanted it to end. Doesn't mean it's not realistic though. I appreciate it, I just did not like it. I'm never going to read it again and I won't stop someone from reading it either. I just really disliked it, but not enough to give it three or more stars.
I talked to a friend who heard him talk at an ALA conference about this book. He wrote it for a 'gotcha' effect. Brian Katcher, a straight author, wrote Almost Perfect with the intent of making it a love story that would draw in straight readers (and hopefully open minded readers) of a story about a boy falling in love with a quirky new girl named Sage and then hit them with BAM! Sage is a boy! The publishers ruined that though, by spoiling the secret of the front cover, which ruined the effect and made this from a love story into a story about a straight boy dealing with love towards a trans* girl.
I really don't want to get bogged down talking about the intricacies of the book. The story is pretty straightforward and honestly everything goes to shit when Sage tells Logan. Since the story is told from Logan's perspective so we get a lot of his angsting, working through intense homophobia, listening to his narcissistic ramblings, and screaming at his ambivalent actions. He's really not a likeable character except during the first three chapters and a few scenes afterwards.
When Sage reveals herself to him, he threatens to punch her, then works through his anger. Then he ostrocizes her, and then is like 'okay, we can be friends' then he gets jealous when he sees her with other guys and has sex with her, and then when his sister sees her penis (she hasn't gone through the full transition) he freaks out and tells her to leave him alone because he doesn't want to be a fag. And then she gets beaten up and he rushed to her aid and freaks out when she admits that she's going to give up being a girl because it's not worth it and he freaks out again saying that she can't give it up, it's who she is! His character development is mind-boggling and kind of intricate but I still hate him, even though he went on this big life change of acceptance he's still douche-y. For the majority of the book he acts like everything is happening to him, like the universe is out to get him and cause him heartache.
Sage herself is an interesting character. She's tough and strong personality wise, but very willing to be pushed around emotionally by douche-y mcdoucherson, AKA; Logan. She really is female, she feels like she was born in the wrong skin and does her best to embody her gender, even after the first guy she's ever liked hates her for her genitals. It's only when she's physically beaten for them that she decides to give up. It's not worth the hatred and pain to even try anymore and she is institutionalized and tells Logan that she's just going to be a man. And considering the fact that she almost killed herself when she wanted to be a woman and her father told her he wished she'd never been born (and only uses masculine pronouns with her) you know that there's a very large chance that she might try to kill herself again. I'm glad that she tells Logan and the reader that she won't change, but that she wouldn't be with Logan or wait for him. I'm also glad that Logan finally pulled his head out of his ass to realize that not everything was about him and that he shouldn't put his happiness on other people.
Sage and Logan are perfect examples of hatred, trans*phobia, and what society can do to people, how it can shape, build, and even destroy the strongest willed of people. That's why this book hurt the most, because it displayed some of the highest forms of pain that can be delivered to a person, just because they decide to go against the norm. That's why I gave the message 5 stars. It's a tough story told from an unconventional point of view. Usually these stories are told from the point of view of characters who are already marginally open minded, so having it told from a stereotypical American jock p.o.v. made that all the more intense and poignant. This is not a happy book, but it's definitely a book filled with a very strong message and deserves the Stonewall award that it won. But I'm never reading it again if I don't have to.
Everything between the beginning and the ending of this book was complete and total insanity and so freaking problematic. Also, it kinda crushed my soul. Seeing Sage say the phrase "I tried and I failed" killed me like no other. It was hard to deal with the last few chapters of this damn book and I really wanted to put it in the freezer (F.R.I.E.N.D.S style).
I'm going to start off with my rating and go from there. I'm giving this book two ratings actually. One is for the story overall and the other is for what kind of message it's sending.For characters and story I'm giving this book 2.5 stars out of 5. For the message I give this book 5 out of 5 stars.
I didn't rate this as 2.5 stars because it was a horrible book. The writing was really good and the character development was pretty awesome once you realize that Katcher was writing Logan as an asshole and that's not how he sees everyone. The fact that he had other characters in the book that could grasp the situation and explain in the way pro trans* advocates would, shows that he knows what he was talking about.
I'm rating the book this way because it tore at my soul, I hated Logan, Sage's actions often pissed me off, and I just desperately wanted it to end. Doesn't mean it's not realistic though. I appreciate it, I just did not like it. I'm never going to read it again and I won't stop someone from reading it either. I just really disliked it, but not enough to give it three or more stars.
I talked to a friend who heard him talk at an ALA conference about this book. He wrote it for a 'gotcha' effect. Brian Katcher, a straight author, wrote Almost Perfect with the intent of making it a love story that would draw in straight readers (and hopefully open minded readers) of a story about a boy falling in love with a quirky new girl named Sage and then hit them with BAM! Sage is a boy! The publishers ruined that though, by spoiling the secret of the front cover, which ruined the effect and made this from a love story into a story about a straight boy dealing with love towards a trans* girl.
I really don't want to get bogged down talking about the intricacies of the book. The story is pretty straightforward and honestly everything goes to shit when Sage tells Logan. Since the story is told from Logan's perspective so we get a lot of his angsting, working through intense homophobia, listening to his narcissistic ramblings, and screaming at his ambivalent actions. He's really not a likeable character except during the first three chapters and a few scenes afterwards.
When Sage reveals herself to him, he threatens to punch her, then works through his anger. Then he ostrocizes her, and then is like 'okay, we can be friends' then he gets jealous when he sees her with other guys and has sex with her, and then when his sister sees her penis (she hasn't gone through the full transition) he freaks out and tells her to leave him alone because he doesn't want to be a fag. And then she gets beaten up and he rushed to her aid and freaks out when she admits that she's going to give up being a girl because it's not worth it and he freaks out again saying that she can't give it up, it's who she is! His character development is mind-boggling and kind of intricate but I still hate him, even though he went on this big life change of acceptance he's still douche-y. For the majority of the book he acts like everything is happening to him, like the universe is out to get him and cause him heartache.
Sage herself is an interesting character. She's tough and strong personality wise, but very willing to be pushed around emotionally by douche-y mcdoucherson, AKA; Logan. She really is female, she feels like she was born in the wrong skin and does her best to embody her gender, even after the first guy she's ever liked hates her for her genitals. It's only when she's physically beaten for them that she decides to give up. It's not worth the hatred and pain to even try anymore and she is institutionalized and tells Logan that she's just going to be a man. And considering the fact that she almost killed herself when she wanted to be a woman and her father told her he wished she'd never been born (and only uses masculine pronouns with her) you know that there's a very large chance that she might try to kill herself again. I'm glad that she tells Logan and the reader that she won't change, but that she wouldn't be with Logan or wait for him. I'm also glad that Logan finally pulled his head out of his ass to realize that not everything was about him and that he shouldn't put his happiness on other people.
Sage and Logan are perfect examples of hatred, trans*phobia, and what society can do to people, how it can shape, build, and even destroy the strongest willed of people. That's why this book hurt the most, because it displayed some of the highest forms of pain that can be delivered to a person, just because they decide to go against the norm. That's why I gave the message 5 stars. It's a tough story told from an unconventional point of view. Usually these stories are told from the point of view of characters who are already marginally open minded, so having it told from a stereotypical American jock p.o.v. made that all the more intense and poignant. This is not a happy book, but it's definitely a book filled with a very strong message and deserves the Stonewall award that it won. But I'm never reading it again if I don't have to.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)