#CBR8 Review #04: Chew, volume 8 – Family Recipes, by John Layman and Rob Guillory

I feel like I’ve said this before, but this is one of those series that for some reason I never really read back-to-back, but end up having long breaks in between picking up new volumes. Is this a good thing? I’m not sure, but fortunately, I don’t run into that problem I usually have of forgetting the plot or characters when I come back after some time, as John Layman makes sure to do small recaps of characters and their abilities as the story goes along. It really doesn’t take anything away either, as the refresher is good, and is always tied into what is currently occurring the plot, so as not to become a distraction or drag the action.

In any case, what we have in this 8th volume of the Chew series is Tony Chu using his ability of gaining a psychic impression of the past of anything he eats, as a way to contact his recently deceased sister. Meanwhile, Tony’s late sister, Toni, has the ability to see the future of anyone she bites. She has therefore used this gift to see her own future and death, and now holds information that Tony desires in order to catch Toni’s killer. So what does Toni do, to prepare for her death and her brother’s desire to avenge her? She leaves a toe behind for Tony to eat, as a way to contact her and gain any information she may have.

The whole thing is a real trip, honestly, but Toni is such a fun and erratic character that it makes it an absurd but hilarious ride. And with the exception of some side-plot action with Tony’s partner at the FDA, John Colby, this volume is not really heavy on plot-progression, so much as giving information and developing characters. And you know what? Sometimes that’s exactly what you need, and I really enjoyed this instalment of the story. The art style of Rob Guillory also definitely fits the kind of strange and humorous nature of the story, though at some times I wonder what exactly is going on with the bizarre proportions of his human characters. But overall, it works really well with the tone of the series.

Am I planning on continuing with it? Absolutely. But once again, it’s just a question of when I managed to get around to it (so many books and series, with so little time, you know?).

[Be sure to visit the Cannonball Read main site!]

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

#CBR5 Review #20: Th1rteen R3asons Why by Jay Asher

Image
Jay Asher’s young adult novel Thirteen Reasons Why focuses on the important topic of teenage suicide, and how a young person may be led to it. While the writing is effective in demonstrating how a person’s actions may affect another in ways that they could never have imagined, reading this novel made me feel a little strange, almost as if it left a slightly sour taste in my mouth upon finishing it. Not in that the topic of suicide makes me uncomfortable like it does some people, but that there may have been ways to make the whole thing have more of an impact? The tone was a little more bitter than I thought it would be? I’m not sure. In any case, here is specifically what the story is about: Thirteen Reasons Why starts with a young boy named Clay receiving a series of cassette tapes anonymously in the mail. As he listens to them, he finds that they are from one of his classmates, Hannah, who recently committed suicide, making a list of thirteen people/incidents that in...
Read more

#CBR5 Review #33: Peter Panzerfaust, vol. 1 – The Great Escape by Kurtis Wiebe and Tyler Jenkins

Image
The simplest way to describe the comic series of Peter Panzerfaust would be as a mid-teens Peter Pan, fighting through World War II Europe with a group of French orphans. It’s the kind of thing that makes some people turn away as it seems ridiculous, while others are intrigued by how it could work, putting this classic figure of Peter Pan into a completely different and historically real universe. And does it work? I think it does, extremely well: Peter Panzerfaust takes the iconic image of the boy who never wants to grow up and turns his mythology on its head to become something else entirely. It’s not about not wanting to grow up, but about keeping a youthful spirit in a situation where you are forced to grow up before you are really even an adult. The first volume of Peter Panzerfaust (there are only two trade volumes as of now), entitled The Great Escape deals with how a group of young French orphans first meet up with the vivacious figure of Peter. The story is told fro...
Read more

#CBR5 Review #28: Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

Image
I started out reading John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men while picturing it as an old-timey travelling farmer story starring Walton Goggins and Hodor (hooray!). Oh, how amusing this was to me at first. And it really was the easiest way to picture the characters (with some slight changes, of course) in my head as it all went along. Until the course of the story started to fill me with worry and doubt, which ended up in just plain old heartbreak. I should have seen it coming; I did see it coming, but just like how you may watch a film even though you know you’re going to end up crying in it, I walked right into this one as well. That’s not to say that it made me intensely emotional or anything, but it kind of weighed a little heavy on my heart at the end. This could definitely be seen as a testament to the author’s abilities as a writer, and it really was a beautiful and brief story, but at the same time, I’m not sure if it was really for me at the end of all things… It is true,...
Read more