Amazon.com:Rue Silver's mother has disappeared . . . and her father has been arrested, suspected of killing her. But it's not as straightforward as that. Because Rue is a faerie, like her mother was. And her father didn't kill her mother -- instead, he broke a promise to Rue's faerie king grandfather, which caused Rue's mother to be flung back to the faerie world. Now Rue must go to save her -- and must also defeat a dark faerie that threatens our very mortal world.
The Good Neighbors: Kin (Book One) combines two of my current obsessions, young adult literature and graphic novels! I haven't read many if any fairy/faerie books so this was a nice introduction. While I didn't totally understand all the faerie lore hopefully understanding will come as the series progresses. Kin introduces several plot lines, from two possible murders, to a suspicious and probably dangerous grandfather to a boyfriend that may or may not have Rue's back.
I loved the gritty feel the book gave off from the story but also the illustration style. Most of the graphic novels I read have a beautiful but clean style to them so it was really interesting to see something different in the illustrations of The Good Neighbors. The illustration style used in this book is really dark and expressive because of the use of, what looks like charcoal. I think this style fits perfectly with the subject matter. In a way it can almost be ugly as well, not ugly ugly but kind of gritty, if that makes any sense. It was almost like a rougher version (in line quality) of Charles Burns Black Hole to me.
I love how the Rue's world slowly starts to blur with the world of the faeries. There is one beautiful full spread of a club that's absolutely breathtaking near the beginning of the book! I can't wait to find out what happened next in this story!
The Good Neighbors: Kin (Book One) came out in paperback October 1st
Genre: Young Adult Graphic Novel
3.5/5 Stars
Review copy provided by publisher
I ALMOST bought this yesterday - only I put it back on the shelf because I was worried about two things - a) if I didn't like it I would have spent $13 on a teeny book and b) if I DID like it the second book is ONLY in hard cover! Argh!
ReplyDeleteBUT, only just now, in writing this comment did I realized that it's TED NAIFEH!! I loooooove his Courtney Crumrin series (read it, Alea! Read it!) and he's an amazing artist, and now I might have to go BACK and get it regardless. :P
Uh oh. Here's one for my wish list.
ReplyDeleteHmm, I really should try a graphic novel one day. Are they hard to understand?
ReplyDeleteI generally enjoy any kind of books with faeries in them but I've only read Tithe by Holly Black and that was when it first came out. Try Melissa Marr, Lesley Livingston, and Delia Sherman (and for really adult, Laurell K. Hamilton's Merry series). They all have GREAT fae series.
ReplyDelete