here's a look at two books i have sitting in my To Be Read pile. i don't necessarily own these books, but they are books i intend to get around to reading soon!
One day David Small awoke from a supposedly harmless operation to discover that he had been transformed into a virtual mute. A vocal cord removed, his throat slashed and stitched together like a bloody boot, the fourteen-year-old boy had not been told that he had cancer and was expected to die.
In Stitches, Small, the award-winning children’s illustrator and author, re-creates this terrifying event in a life story that might have been imagined by Kafka. As the images painfully tumble out, one by one, we gain a ringside seat at a gothic family drama where David—a highly anxious yet supremely talented child—all too often became the unwitting object of his parents’ buried frustration and rage. [partial summary from Goodreads]
why i want to read this: first, i have yet to meet a graphic novel i didn't like. but more importantly, this one sounds like it packs an emotional punch to the gut that i've been sorely lacking these days. i've been reading a lot of books that are silly or smart or romantic...but none that have filled me with anxiety and emotion and dread. i'm ready for the emotional turmoil. BRING IT.
Where Things Come Back by John Corey Whaley
Just when seventeen-year-old Cullen Witter thinks he understands everything about his small and painfully dull Arkansas town, it all disappears. . . .
In the summer before Cullen's senior year, a nominally-depressed birdwatcher named John Barling thinks he spots a species of woodpecker thought to be extinct since the 1940s in Lily, Arkansas. His rediscovery of the so-called Lazarus Woodpecker sparks a flurry of press and woodpecker-mania. Soon all the kids are getting woodpecker haircuts and everyone's eating "Lazarus burgers." But as absurd as the town's carnival atmosphere has become, nothing is more startling than the realization that Cullen’s sensitive, gifted fifteen-year-old brother Gabriel has suddenly and inexplicably disappeared.
While Cullen navigates his way through a summer of finding and losing love, holding his fragile family together, and muddling his way into adulthood, a young missionary in Africa, who has lost his faith, is searching for any semblance of meaning wherever he can find it. As distant as the two stories seem at the start, they are thoughtfully woven ever closer together and through masterful plotting, brought face to face in a surprising and harrowing climax.
[partial summary from Goodreads]
why i want to read this: multiple narrators. character development. emotional depth. original story. AMAZING recommendations from fellow bloggers. male main character. a book that will make me ponder and gasp. yeah, i'm kind of pumped for this one.
have you read either of these? if so, tell me what you think! i just may bump it up on my TBR, thanks to you. no promises, but you never know.
I read stitches awhile ago for a class of mine and it is interesting. There aren't a lot of words, but the illustrations are done so well it tells the story. Interested to see what you think of it.
ReplyDeleteYay! I've read both of these. I like both in different ways. Stitches is very unsettling. Where Things Come Back is pretty deep. I mean, it's good. Both are good, hahaha.
ReplyDeleteHope you get to them SOON!
DUDE. I want so badly to read Where Things Come Back. Ginger has convinced this chick.
ReplyDeleteWhere Things Come Back is definitely making Twitter headlines.
ReplyDeletebut Stitches...i'm totally intrigued. however, i haven't found a graphic novel yet that i bonded with. i want to, i really do. but i just haven't.
Peggy - oooh, that sounds awesome.
ReplyDeleteApril - of course. of everyone on the interweb, OF COURSE you have read them both. you are a beast.
Jen - I KNOW. she's pimping it so well.
Ash - I highly recommend ROBOT DREAMS by Sara Varon as a good start to the Graphic Novel love.
Thank you for the discrete mention my dear friend :) You know my thoughts on this particular book. Oh yes you do. And it is currently on it's way to you.
ReplyDelete