I really liked this graphic novel. The majority of these stories were truly creepy and had a wonderful gothic feel to them. And the artwork was stunning.

Book: Read a graphic novel or a book set in a school or academic setting.

I have some time to spare today, which means I can get some reading done. One of the books I will try to finish today is this one. On a first glimpse, the art style seems to be beautiful.

Book: Read a graphic novel or a book set in a school or academic setting.

...and I liked it.

I decided about an hour before the movie started that I was going to go see it, so I was in a bit of a rush, but judging by the theater showtimes it looked like it'd be gone after Wednesday. It was either go today or see it on DVD later.

I don't think I've ever read any of the Venom comics, and the one preview of the movie I vaguely recalled seeing didn't excite me. But I heard that Eddie and Venom were surprisingly fun together, so I figured I'd give it a shot.

I wish the portion of the movie prior to Venom's introduction had been about half as long, and I'd love to see a superhero(ish) movie in which the main dude does not have a girlfriend or any girlfriend-related drama. The only plus was that Anne didn't require any saving, but that's at least partly because Venom left her behind.

That said, Venom and Eddie were great to watch together, like some kind of weird buddy comedy. You have to be relatively okay with lots of casual death, though. It reminded me a little of Deadpool in that respect. Eddie only seemed to be bothered if Venom ate them, but lots of people were definitely dead by the end of the movie, even if Venom didn't bite their heads off.

I did like this book though thought the flow wasn't great in a lot of places. Way too many things felt over explained too. And the action scenes were kind of blah. I did love how Bardugo brought in the Greek mythology in her story though (we revisit Helen of Troy) and I loved the whole idea behind it.

"Wonder Woman: Warbringer" is a nice little set up of showing Wonder Woman as a teenager who is doing what she can to prove herself to her fellow Amazons. Due to her mother Queen Hippolyta bringing Diana to life through clay, Diana is seen as outside the Amazons by many on Themyscira. While Diana prepares to run a race, she sees a young woman (Alia Keralis) in the ocean about to drown, deciding to save her, Diana sets things in motions that could see the end of Themyscira and the World of Men. When Diana goes to visit the Oracle and is told that Alia is a Warbringer (a direct descendant of Helen of Troy) and the best thing she can do is to let Alia die, she decides to do what it takes to keep Alia safe even if it means traveling to Alia's world.

I really liked Diana in this one. Bardugo shows that she (Diana) is smart and capable. Diana may not know what the World of Men is like, but she catches on quickly and promises to be there for Alia and Alia's friends and her brother no matter what. I do wish that we had time to delve into Diana bit more. We know that she feels separate from the other Amazons and that she wants to be battle-borne like them, but it definitely feels like she has no one she can really trust or talk to until she meets Alia.

I love that Alia and Jason (her brother) are portrayed as black. I initially thought due to the last names that Alia and Jason would just be seen as Greek. Alia and Jason's friends Nim and Theo are also POC as well which was great to see. Nim and Theo are loyal to the end and there are hints of romance between Alia and Theo that we really don't get into since most of the book is the five of them running from attackers. 

I wish that all had been developed a bit more too. Diana is the best developed, but Alia, Jason, Theo and Nim felt a bit thin to me after a while. Probably because they keep running and are trying to figure out to keep the world exploding into war. 

The writing was okay. We are able to get into Diana's head a bit more. Maybe this would have worked better as a first person via Diana instead of third person via everyone. I think the book just got too jumbled after a while. The flow was not that great though. It felt like the book kept just randomly ending after a while. Also reading about people running for their lives and occasionally fighting is boring. Bardugo tries to set up a romance between Diana and Jason and it didn't work at all. I hard shrugged that thing and wasn't feeling it.  Same issue with Alia and Theo. I feel like it's a YA requirement to have love triangles or whatever going on in YA books. 

I also didn't like the twist/reveal since it made zero sense and just felt like it got put in there to show even more conflict. 

The setting of the book moves from Themyscira, to New York, and to Greece. I didn't really get a good sense of locations beyond Themyscira though. I think that Bardugo could have made New York and Greece come alive a bit more. 

The ending sets things up to show that Diana is eventually going to be Wonder Woman. She's totally clueless though and I thought the whole thing made zero sense since she should know what she looks like. 

A very short, but powerful graphic novel about a young girl coming to terms with a death of a family member.

Beautiful, touching and heartbreaking are a few words that come to mind when thinking of this story.

This was hard to read. I was crying at the halfway point and really sobbing at the end. I could put myself in the little girl's shoes. Death is a thing I never can quite wrap my head around and it really terrified me as a kid and even as an adult. I loved the art style. I loved that the little girl used her imagination to help her deal with her loss.

This story would be good for any young person going through something similar. It could help them understand death and that their loved one did not abandon them.

*Provided by Netgally*