95:100 Shocking Elation by Stefon Mears

Cleon Johnson is an artist who creates more than a simple visual medium for people to enjoy. For those with implants, his art is keyed in to let them feel the emotions that he wants to convey in ways that mere words or images cannot possibly convey. He wakes on this morning of an artist's reception ready to face his adulation upon the opening of his newest exhibit only to find instead that he forgot to run some processes correctly and the people that went through it already have suffered horribly and the world that once couldn't get enough of his art was now ready to cancel him completely.

An interesting take on where technology can take us in the future and also how careful and mindful we need to learn to be when using it.



Page count: 22p/22,733p ytd/331,430p lifetime

94:100 Spider-Gwyn: Ghost-Spider Vol.1: Spidergeddon by Seanan McGuire & Rosi Kampe

Gwyn is generally just trying to kick it on her Earth, do band stuff, catch bad guys, the usual, when she gets pulled into another dimension and her usual transport back to her own seems to be broken. She hooks up with that universe's Peter Parker and Mary Jane only to find out that in this universe, Gwyn has turned into the Gwyn-Goblin and Peter and MJ want Spider-Gwyn to help them get their friend back.

That covers the first couple of issues in this graphic novel. The rest is dealing with the deaths of different Spiders across the multi-verse and Gwyn volunteers to help let those universes that have lost their Spiders know what happened to them so they aren't left wondering. By the end of that, she is feeling lost and deciding to stay home for a while but that's when Spider-Ham shows up and convinces her that she has to come with him.

So full disclosure, I'm not a huge comic fan (that's my husband). I enjoy the movies but really, my only true comic love has been Elfquest (seriously, go check it out. It's AMAZING!) but my husband keeps bringing stuff into the house and I've started picking out certain ones that I'm interested in. My interest is really simple; I have to have a reason to like the character before I even consider reading the comic, the artwork has to be at least reasonable (if it's too messy or ugly in my opinion, I can't get over it and will walk away without reading it no matter how good the story might be), and I tend to go for comics written by authors I like.  This means that I generally have zero idea of the other storylines that are going on with that particular character and how things all work together and I'm ok with that.

That being said, my first exposure to Spider-Gwyn was from the "Into the Spidervsere" movie.  I thought she was fun so when I saw that Seanan McGuire, a favorite author, was writing a comic series for her, I was in. I have zero knowledge of how this ties in with any other comics about Spider-Gwyn. The story was entertaining and didn't make me feel lost (which I appreciated) and the art was generally fine.  I'll keep going with this series.




Page count: 112p/22,711p ytd/331,408p lifetime

93:100 The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne

It's 1942, Bruno is 9 years old and is not happy to find out that his family is having to leave their comfortable house in Berlin and go to some house away from all his friends. It has something to do with his father being super important and The Fury trusting him with a super important job at Out-With.  Once they get there, it's worse than Bruno could have imagined with no one to play with and officers coming and going all the time. The he discovers the fence and there is a boy on the other side wearing striped pajamas who becomes Bruno's only friend, even if he must keep it secret.

As an approachable way to introduce some of the horrors of the concentration camps to children, this book is ok but really, it's best use is as a fantasy book.  The horrors are glossed over, Bruno acts much younger than his supposed 9 years with constant mispronunciations of things that would not have been common, especially in his own thoughts, and his sister is both too young too old for her supposed 12 years.  The fantasy is really that the commander's son would be allowed to walk right up to the fence and just have these playdates with a child on the other side with no idea why they were there and with no guards anywhere around ever. That does not seem plausible based on the books I've read by survivors.  The story itself is almost sappy sweet which, again, does not mesh with the horrors of the time and those living in the concentration camps. It's almost like it's trying to absolve those who perpetrated those horrors of their sins by making it seem like it was not so bad.  I'm glad I read it before giving it to my son to read. I don't want that history glossed over.

Page count: 216p/22,599p ytd/331,296p lifetime

92:100 Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 1: Cosmic Avengers by Brian Michael Bendis

This volume seems to be bringing everyone together after something separated them.  Peter's father looks to be coordinating with some other potential baddies that want to see the Guardians, and especially Peter, dead. Earth has been declared off-limits and the Guardians and Iron Man may be teaming up to keep it that way.

A free read on the Kindle. Looked potentially interesting but not sure that it's interesting enough to want to pay for it.


Page count: 144p/22,383p ytd/331,080p lifetime

91:100 Woman at Point Zero by Nawal El Saadawi

Firdus grew up poor in Egypt and learned early on that men were the only ones who mattered in society.  She wanted to go to school and her uncle helped her but she soon found out that, again, she was subject to the whims of the man her ruled her life. She was thrown out because of the jealousy of her uncle's wife and now must learn how to survive on the streets as a woman in a patriarchal society. It's not long before she realizes that without a husband, her prospects are limited and she ends up a prostitute. Rather than diminishing her though, she is able to realize her own power in that position and is able to be beholden to no one until a man comes in and decides he will now be her pimp. Firdus can only take it so long before she kills him in order to reclaim her own agency. As a result, she is sentenced to death. This is a man's world after all and her agency does not matter.

A true story told by Firdus as she sat on death row. She wanted no clemency, since to have that was to give up her agency again and she would prefer death. Firdus suffers constantly due to the men around her but because she is a woman, that is her "place".  A moving and powerful story that is too familiar to too many women around the world. I can't say I enjoyed it because it's a hard read but it was gripping and important.


Page count: 142p/22,239p ytd/330,936p lifetime

90:100 Quality of Darkness by Stefon Mears

Patreon short story.  He's a businessman about to leave on a trip when he has to grab something from the office at night.  As he's there, the lights go out, all of them, completely, and then there are screams.  Now something is in the office with him and it knows he's there.

Fun little horror story.

Page count: 22p/22,097p ytd/330,794p lifetime

89:100 Final Girls by Mira Grant

Dr. Jennifer Webb has designed a new therapy combining virtual reality, a drug cocktail, and psychology for healing past trauma by introducing new traumas that force confrontations differently.  We start with the scenario of two sisters who had become estranged undergoing treatment to heal their relationship which consists of a throwing them into a scenario where they are trying to escape a monster in a corn field.

Esther Hoffman is a journalist for a science magazine who has always been skeptical about funky new treatments and has signed up for a treatment from Dr. Webb in order to debunk her methods.  Knowing that if Esther can't do so it will mean great press, Dr. Webb agrees.  That's where things go sideways because this is a Mira Grant book.

Mira Grant writes horribly awful things in well researched detail that seem to be prescient (please go read Feed and then look at today's news cycles if you don't believe me) so I really worry about how this one will turn out in the future.  But honestly, as usual with her work, I could barely put it down and this was after my 13 year old had been hounding me to read it as he is also a huge fan.


Page count: 112p/22,075p ytd/330,772p lifetime