Mini-Reviews: Volume 17

In which I go on a tangent, making one review not-so-mini and I gush just a bit about a comic.

 

Mr. Mercedes by Stephen King

☆☆☆☆

I think this was one of my favorite King novels I’ve read in a while. It wasn’t overly long, and though it didn’t have the usual supernatural touches he puts into his work it definitely had some good creep factor to it. Brady is one of the more deranged and weird characters I have read from him.
It also had plenty of the ‘hard-boiled’ detective tropes you find in both TV and fiction, which I don’t necessarily think he was trying to subvert. I think perhaps he was just writing it because he wanted to do so that way – which I was alright with. I read this only for a fun adventure and I don’t read a whole hell of a lot of detective fiction anyway.
This was a Book Club book for me and someone in the meeting mentioned **POSSIBLE SPOILERS HERE** the death of a female character as a ‘fridging’ trope. I’m not sure if I agree totally with that, as the death wasn’t used as fridging in the typical sense. The only person that took any drive from her death was a traumatized and already slightly messed up niece. Hodges didn’t have the usual reaction to the death that you’d expect. I’m still on the fence on this. She also had impact and development in the story, which most fridge victims don’t. It also could just be a well disguised fridge, I’m not sure right now. Still pondering this one.
With that said – and wow that turned out longer than normal on these-  I’m pretty excited to pick up the next volume, its definitely on my ‘to-buy’ list now.

 

Stone Mattress: Nine Tales by Margaret Atwood
☆☆☆☆

This was so close to a 5*s, so close. I thought it was going to be three stories in but unfortunately the charm it had of linking those stories together slacked off as the stories stopped being connected from what I could see. I really enjoyed the rest of the them but I especially loved the ones that linked together.

 

 

 

I Hate Fairyland: Volume 1 by Skottie Young
☆☆☆☆

This was nothing but fluff, gore, and hilarity. The main character was a young tender girl who dreamed of Fairyland and wound up being transported there! She had one simple quest, retrieve a key and she could go home.
That was over 20 years ago and she’s still stuck in the body of a child.
Oh. My. God. I couldn’t stop the fits of giggles I had throughout this one. It’s heavy on gore and blood and just over the top but if you enjoy that go for this one. I also have a HUGE sweet spot for grouchy heroes. Gert is just that. Definitely recommend.
Also I learned, fun fact, that supposedly Skottie Young grew up here around where I live. That was neat!