River Readers

The stakes keep rising with Nathan's 12th birthday coming up. Emma and Ray attempt to come up with ways to prevent him from being shipped out (and subsequently eaten by demons), but Nathan has plans of his own. Mom presents Emma with a disturbing opportunity.

This series is pretty dark, but surprisingly free from gore. Will our earnest protagonists survive? Only future volumes will tell.

Jetta and her family are the most talented shadow puppeteers in Chakrana, mainly due to Jetta's unique supernatural abilities. She is able to bind the souls of the dead to her puppets, creating spectacles never before seen. As impressive as her talents are, she must never let anyone outside of her family know what she can do since necromancy is illegal. Nevertheless, she and her family hope to parlay their increasing fame in shadow puppetry into a trip to Aquitan, the overseas seat of power.

Volume 3 of this dark fantasy manga series find our characters in more dire circumstances than they've ever seen. As escape plans coalesce and former enemies become allies, hopes are also higher than ever until Mother decides to play her hand, throwing all plans into disarray.

Cager had no intention of finding himself aboard his father's lunar cruise ship, the Tennessee. But he was also not particularly conscious when his best friend, Billy Hinman, and long-time caretaker, Rowan, strapped him into his transport to the ship. It's a rehab mission, you see. Cager's been addicted to Woz for years and Billy has decided that the ideal place to detox is the luxury space ship. Now, the three of them are the only living passengers aboard the massive ship (that they know of, anyway).

An imaginative retelling of Moby Dick, but instead of sailors hunting the white whale, it's the whales hunting a legendarily dangerous sailor (or demon, perhaps). Our narrator is Bathsheba, a part of an all-female pod with a Captain who has declared that her destiny is to destroy the infamous Toby Wick. It's a destiny that may destroy them all instead and Bathsheba knows it.

This unique graphic novel takes us on an epic journey to reclaim lost love. When Mia joins the reconstruction crew, she doesn't expect the crew to become her family. She's still trying to get her life together after a challenging childhood and adolescence. As such, she's prone to making mistakes and taking risks that could jeopardize the entire crew. The rest of the crew, however, has more or less "adopted" her into their ragtag space family and are willing to do what it takes to keep everyone safe and together.

On the morning of April 28, 1986, patrons and staff alike filed outside during what they originally believed was a fire drill at the Los Angeles Public Library. Roughly half an hour later, smoke in the air confirmed that this was not a drill. For seven hours, firefighters fought the blaze the wound up destroying hundreds of thousands of books as well as countless other items from a wide variety of collections. It was the largest library fire in the US. Investigators determined that the fire was likely arson, so the hunt for the culprit began.

This slim graphic novel is, quite literally, exactly what the title implies it would be. Author Archie (a non-binary/genderqueer comic artist) and their friend, Tristan (a cisgender male) cheerfully explain the ins and outs of using non-binary pronouns while explaining the damage done when requests to use correct pronouns go unheeded. After explaining how they/them pronouns work, the pair provide ways to make workplaces more inclusive and Archie has a few words of advice for fellow non-binary people. It's quick, it's easy, and absolutely non-threatening or condescending.

When Elli was a young child, she was identified as the next Valtia, or queen of Kupari. The Valtia is the only person in the kingdom to have perfect mastery over both fire and ice magic. To this end, the Valtia is the primary protector of the entire country. The Kupari don't even have a military, such is their trust in the powers of the Valtia. When the current Valtia dies, Elli will be her successor and has trained for it her entire life. Unfortunately, when the current Valtia does actually die, the magic fails to move into Elli as its supposed to.

One of the last things that the farm boy Worstley expects is to have a surly pixie bestow Chosen One status upon him. Although the pixie giving his goat the ability to speak was also unexpected. Worstley and the goat, Gustave, head off to meet their destiny at a nearby bramble-encased castle containing a sleeping princess and her equally unconcious court. It seems like as good a place as any to meet one's destiny.

A pair of teenage boys decide to create a mecha suit to take on the bullies at school. It...doesn't go as planned. In fact, their peers are pretty OK with the whole robot-suit thing, leaving our protags with little left to fight.

I mostly hated the main characters, which makes any reading experience a bit less fun even though Kochalka is generally a fun writer/artist. Mechaboys was just OK. Not great, not terrible. A very quick read though, so even if you don't like it, at least it's over quickly

*This review was originally published in the Jefferson City News Tribune on 11/11/18*

A group of teens struggle to navigate the complexities of adolescent life. The narrative switches from teen to teen (and graphic style to graphic style), each part picking up where the last one left off. In the background, there's frequent mention of a missing girl and the theories that she might have been abducted by aliens. Is it tied into the fact that everyone's phone seems to be out of service? Who knows? There aren't any real answers here. Presumably, they'll be addressed in future volumes.

After months of boring work in a bakery and being turned down by every medical school she's applied to, Felicity strikes upon an opportunity that she can't resist. Her estranged former friend Johanna is set to marry Felicity's idol, Dr. Platt, who might be willing to take a woman on as an apprentice. Felicity concocts a scheme to get to Germany, which requires the assistance of a lady pirate with an entirely different set of motives. One should never meet one's idols though; Dr. Platt turns out to be far from the enlightened physician that Felicity has made him out to be.

The world as we know it is ending. Evolution has reversed itself, affecting every living creature on earth. Science cannot stop the world from running backwards, as woman after woman gives birth to infants that appear to be primitive species of humans. Twenty-six-year-old Cedar Hawk Songmaker, adopted daughter of a pair of big-hearted, open-minded Minneapolis liberals, is as disturbed and uncertain as the rest of America around her. But for Cedar, this change is profound and deeply personal. She is four months pregnant.