a graphic novel and a graphically enhanced novel

[psocoptera]

Finally read Illuminae! (Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff.) It's a found-document story that also sometimes uses elaborate graphic layouts to convey action, like, sentences about fighter ships moving through space being laid out in white along curving lines on a black background. Definitely gimmicky, and some of the dark grey-on-black felt like it would be hard to read for anyone with worse eyes than mine (there was this one page especially that I thought *must* have a printing problem... except it happened right at a major turning point so who knows...), but mostly well done and more engaging than I thought it might be. They used the format in some interesting ways for pacing and managed to pull off some stuff I didn't see coming, which in the world of YA science fiction is a good trick! I wouldn't recommend it unless you like both YA and fun-with-typography, one or the other of those things will annoy you if you don't, but I did enjoy it and will probably read the rest of the trilogy.

The Witch Boy is a 2017 middle-grade standalone graphic novel written and drawn by Molly Ostertag, who draws Strong Female Protagonist. Very good, with a "fuck arbitrary gender restrictions" message, and my kids have both enjoyed it (I think Q is more looking at the drawings than following the plot). I'm gonna nominate it for the Graphic Hugo, a category in which I'm often flailing for things to nominate.

Comments

[glynhogen]

Adding The Witch Boy to the list. Kaia's a big fan of graphic novels, so this could be a good one to slot in after Drama and Ghosts.