KhepiAri

Book Review: Tithe a Modern Faerie Tale by Holly Black. Quote: Her hands felt very cold as she remembered the diner. What would it be like to be a puppet? What would it be like to watch your own hands disobey you? A book title I was pronouncing wrong for almost a decade now! I found Holly Black before I found Neil Gaiman, at the age of 15. Since then I have been trying to read stories she had written. Tithe is the story of a sixteen-year-old, Kaye, a blonde American-Japanese girl. Who grew up in clubs and pubs cleaning after her unsuccessful rock singer mom. Holly Black never sighs away from showing the dark, not so innocent and messed up world of teens. Kaye has dropped out of school, she smokes, she makes out, she works to keep her two unit family functional, and once she had friends from the faerie realm. The story takes a shift when her mom's boyfriend turns homicidal and they move back to her grandmother's. Kaye's life turns weird soon, she saves...

Graphic Novel Review: Kingdom Come by Mark Waid and Alex Ross. Quote: According to the word of God, the meek would someday inherit the earth. Someday. But God never accounted for the mighty. Once I was talking about Superhero comics, a question that was put forward to me was, why does humanity always want a saviour why can't it protect itself? That's the core ideology of Bruce Wayne's entire character development. Kingdom Come tackles this very question: does the world need Superman? Set in an AU offshore earth, where the second generation of superhumans who roam the planet. They are powerful and reckless, and have no respect for life and leave behind a trail of destruction. I began reading this book last year expecting a narrative that will explore the void left behind by the big three, but the book turned out to be just another Superman story. The event that leads to the chaos in this world is because Superman has exiled himself to t...

Graphic Novel Review: Persephone by Loïc Locatelli Kournwsky Quote: Oh great. Would little miss Botany care to fill is in, on what 'amazing plant' we are helping her hunt today? The answer to that my pet! Pop a seed and next thing you know, you're laughing so hard that you can't stop. Throw me the words 'Persephone and Hades', I will gobble up any piece of writing. So while looking for Persephone and Hades' art I found this graphic novel on Google books and I fell in love with it. This book is a very loose retelling of the Persephone myth, it is devoid of the romance element but definitely based on the snatching of Persephone to the underworld. Set in fantasy land, divided between the prosperous upperland Eleusis and the barren sun-bereft underworld Hades. A brief history of both the lands at the beginning sets the story in motion. Demeter is the strongest magician of Eleusis, who help end the war with Hades. The art is so dense, mangaesque, beau...

Cat Tales: Smoke Cat by Linda Newbery and Stephen Lambert Quote: She kept bending down to touch something. As Simon's eyes adjusted to the first grey light he could see shapes moving around at her feet, rubbing against her legs-- soft, fluid, furry shadows, like cats. Although they were shadowy, Simon could make out the different colours: black cats, white cats, tabby cats, pied cats, marmala de cats. Simon has moved into a new hundred-years-old house, made of red bricks and ambushed with wild green. While his mother and father are busy settling down, Simon is busy climbing up the apple tree. He spots an elderly neighbour who talks to her flower, named like humans. But as night comes Simon from his window finds out that his old neighbour is always calling out for Blue. A cat that roams around the fence but never heeds to anyone's call. It's a sweet book, the language is an example of clarity but is vivacious enough for a child to imagine everything up while it li...