An assertive, endearingly deranged take on the well-known tale from a writer-artist duo readers will want to keep their eyes...
In Fuller and Baijnath’s debut graphic-novel reimagining of L. Frank Baum’s classic, Dorothy returns to an Oz corrupted by evil in a tale of bloody retribution.
Dorothy Gale returns home to find Uncle Henry and Aunt Em dead, their hearts cut from their chests. She clicks her silver shoes together, grabs an ax, and rides a tornado back to the land of Oz for vengeance. But something’s terribly wrong in Oz: the Munchkins have turned into vicious creatures with sharp teeth, and Dorothy’s friends, including the Tin Man, aren’t quite as genial as they once were. It seems that Glinda the Good Witch, who’s taken over the Emerald Throne, is no longer good and has allowed Oz to fall into ruin. Dorothy, the self-proclaimed “Witchkiller,” follows the yellow brick road to stop Glinda’s reign and find her loved ones’ murderer. Writer Fuller and artist Baijnath’s collaboration is unquestionably adult, opening with cops at a bloody crime scene. The bare-bones story focuses mostly on Dorothy’s revenge, leading to pages of nothing but action; Dorothy’s fighting off aggressive Munchkins (who literally munch) is essentially a massacre. Fuller, however, does ensure that readers see recognizable faces, including the Wizard, as well as unexpected consequences of Dorothy’s first visit, like the Cowardly Lion’s no longer having fear and becoming a beast. Baijnath’s bold artwork is impressive: images are full of atmospheric swirls, including the incessantly curving yellow brick road, as if characters are caught inside a cyclone. There are also plenty of flying body parts and loads of blood, so much that Dorothy’s silver shoes resemble the more popular shade of ruby. But Baijnath’s best visuals are the story’s calmer moments, as in the unmistakable elegance of Dorothy’s wordlessly trekking through the rain in a desolate Oz and approaching the blinding light of the Bright City. The writer and author take the story seriously, none of it tongue-in-cheek. Still, it’s hard not to smile when Dorothy declares, “I will not leave until the yellow brick road runs red with the blood of my enemies.”
An assertive, endearingly deranged take on the well-known tale from a writer-artist duo readers will want to keep their eyes on.Pub Date: April 7, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4935-1704-6
Page Count: 108
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: June 18, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
The phrase “tour de force” could have been invented for this audacious novel.
Four men who meet as college roommates move to New York and spend the next three decades gaining renown in their professions—as an architect, painter, actor and lawyer—and struggling with demons in their intertwined personal lives.
Yanagihara (The People in the Trees, 2013) takes the still-bold leap of writing about characters who don’t share her background; in addition to being male, JB is African-American, Malcolm has a black father and white mother, Willem is white, and “Jude’s race was undetermined”—deserted at birth, he was raised in a monastery and had an unspeakably traumatic childhood that’s revealed slowly over the course of the book. Two of them are gay, one straight and one bisexual. There isn’t a single significant female character, and for a long novel, there isn’t much plot. There aren’t even many markers of what’s happening in the outside world; Jude moves to a loft in SoHo as a young man, but we don’t see the neighborhood change from gritty artists’ enclave to glitzy tourist destination. What we get instead is an intensely interior look at the friends’ psyches and relationships, and it’s utterly enthralling. The four men think about work and creativity and success and failure; they cook for each other, compete with each other and jostle for each other’s affection. JB bases his entire artistic career on painting portraits of his friends, while Malcolm takes care of them by designing their apartments and houses. When Jude, as an adult, is adopted by his favorite Harvard law professor, his friends join him for Thanksgiving in Cambridge every year. And when Willem becomes a movie star, they all bask in his glow. Eventually, the tone darkens and the story narrows to focus on Jude as the pain of his past cuts deep into his carefully constructed life.
The phrase “tour de force” could have been invented for this audacious novel.Pub Date: March 10, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-385-53925-8
Page Count: 720
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Dec. 21, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PROFILES
PERSPECTIVES
Genetically engineered dinosaurs run amok in Crichton's new, vastly entertaining science thriller. From the introduction alone—a classically Crichton-clear discussion of the implications of biotechnological research—it's evident that the Harvard M.D. has bounced back from the science-fantasy silliness of Sphere (1987) for another taut reworking of the Frankenstein theme, as in The Andromeda Strain and The Terminal Man. Here, Dr. Frankenstein is aging billionaire John Hammond, whose monster is a manmade ecosystem based on a Costa Rican island. Designed as the world's ultimate theme park, the ecosystem boasts climate and flora of the Jurassic Age and—most spectacularly—15 varieties of dinosaurs, created by elaborate genetic engineering that Crichton explains in fascinating detail, rich with dino-lore and complete with graphics. Into the park, for a safety check before its opening, comes the novel's band of characters—who, though well drawn, double as symbolic types in this unsubtle morality play. Among them are hero Alan Grant, noble paleontologist; Hammond, venal and obsessed; amoral dino-designer Henry Wu; Hammond's two innocent grandchildren; and mathematician Ian Malcolm, who in long diatribes serves as Crichton's mouthpiece to lament the folly of science. Upon arrival, the visitors tour the park; meanwhile, an industrial spy steals some dino embryos by shutting down the island's power—and its security grid, allowing the beasts to run loose. The bulk of the remaining narrative consists of dinos—ferocious T. Rex's, voracious velociraptors, venom-spitting dilophosaurs—stalking, ripping, and eating the cast in fast, furious, and suspenseful set-pieces as the ecosystem spins apart. And can Grant prevent the dinos from escaping to the mainland to create unchecked havoc? Though intrusive, the moralizing rarely slows this tornado-paced tale, a slick package of info-thrills that's Crichton's most clever since Congo (1980)—and easily the most exciting dinosaur novel ever written. A sure-fire best-seller.
Pub Date: Nov. 7, 1990
ISBN: 0394588169
Page Count: 424
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Sept. 21, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 1990
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