The Invisibles are those who resist the stagnation of outside-this-world conspirators, whose goal is the ultimate suppression of individuality - mostly I thought of the Auditors of Reality from Discworld with the added bonus of sexual fetishism. 'Say You Want a Revolution' collects the first eight issues of the series, but I read 'Bloody Hell in America' first - and that was better. This one gains points only for contextualizing the characters for me.

The story centers on the recruitment of an awful boy to the side of the Invisibles. He's special, so he escapes lobotomization and there's some Matrix-ish initiation plot to go through - I don't care if this one was first, what I care about is I saw the other one a gillion times before I ever heard of this.

The second part gets a little more complicated and follows Shelley and Byron around, and we tour the '100 Days of Sodom' (which was accurate enough to be boring) and we end up...its a setup arc, its not going to go very far.

One other thing: for such a bold, breaking the mold kind of book the art was blah. Conspiracy theorists should like it, but the one conspiracy nut who likes comics doesn't give a damn about the title, so take that for what its worth.

Invisibles

Next 'Apocalipstick'

I could say I read 'Bloody Hell in America' before 'Say You Want a Revolution' out of some tribute to chaos and refusal to submit to chronological tyranny, but in truth it was on top of the stack.

Here's the rough idea - the Invisibles are a group of people fighting against a sinister outside force that wishes to project total conformity onto the world, which pretty much works out to be total annihilation. The Invisibles are rarely more than one step ahead at any given moment and must use the most unorthodox methods possible to succeed. Insert a lot of psycho-mumbo-jumbo and conspiracy theories and you have it.

I'd never read any Grant Morrison before, which is weird when I think about it, but I think I get the general idea behind his work. Its not subtle. I liked it, and spoiler alert, I liked 'Bloody Hell' better than 'Revolution'. There were plenty of digressions here, fan-service nudity and "far-out" use of drugs, conspiratorial stoner conversations and dated references, but the story was tighter and the villains more sinister.

With only four issues to go on I didn't get much development out of a lot of the characters, Boy and Frost in particular. Still, if I stumble across any more collections of this I'll read them.

Invisibles

Next: 'Counting to None'

Previous: 'Entropy in the U.K.'

This story just jumps right into the friendships of the four girls: Monica, Nora, Grace & Ozzie.  We read mostly about Nora and where she is later, after the others have gone on.  She suddenly hears from the group of girls wanting to get together.

Nora is just trying to live her life in her own way.  Now with the girls asking to get back together after so long - and with no warning - since none of them have been in touch in so many years.  Should she give them a chance?

If a reunion in Chicago is a way to face the past...can these 4 women put to bed the old pain and fears?  Can Nora forgive and move on?  Will it tear them all apart?

I was kind of humbled by the simple and yet profound way the author approached the topic.  Highly unusual for a story to take this direction and it works, somehow.

***This ARC was given by Edelweiss and its publisher for an honest review.

Turning Winds Home for Girls takes in troubled and orphaned girls.  This is where four teenage friends meet and form a strong bond over their unique status of having no parents present in their lives, no visits, no contact, and no phone calls.  Nora, Ozzie, Monica and Grace form The Invisibles, a family of their own, at least until graduation.  Self-proclaimed ring leader of the group, Ozzie, decides that they should all forget and move on after tragic events after graduation.  Ozzie, Monica and Grace move out of town and on to bigger and better, or so it seems; meanwhile Nora stays in town with the Shadow of the Turning Winds Home.  Nora has a job at the library, her dog Alice Walker, her collection of favorite first lines from books, and all the pain of the secrets she has kept from her childhood.  Nora desperately wishes her friends would reunite again, and with one phone call from Ozzie fifteen years later, The Invisibles rise again. 



This is a heartwarming story of friendship, pain, redeeming yourself and moving on.  Each of the four girls carries around an amazing load of baggage from their childhood.  I loved The Invisibles group, they form as a wonderful therapy.  The rules are amazing and what the girls try to do for one another shows true companionship, but as children they can only make themselves feel better at the moment and not actually solve any of the deep-rooted issues in their lives.  Each of the girls was very interesting and with their own personalities, Nora was my favorite of the group quiet, reserved, observant and I loved her first line collection.  It was interesting to see how each woman’s baggage and personality affected them as adults and how they came to eventually deal with it.  The emotions were real and raw with issues that many women might face, abusive relationships, body insecurities, sex, postpartum depression, money and abortion. 




This book was received for free in return for an honest review.