Scooby Apocalypse, Volume 1 by Keith Giffen and J.M. DeMatteis, Illustrated by Jim Lee and Howard Porter

I loved Scooby-Doo when I was younger, absolutely loved. Come on, there was a talking dog, and a bunch of teens who chased after monsters and ghosts in their multi-colored van. I always loved guessing who the "monster" was at the end of the episode. There were many versions of Scooby-Doo, and I think I watched all of them. Scooby-Doo, Where Are You?, The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo, that weirdly 1980s A Pup Named Scooby-Doo, Scooby-Doo movies where they met the Harlem Globetrotters and other guests, even the Laff-A-Lympics. I was fairly obsessed with the character*, and I never even smoked any drugs whatsoever.

 The Scooby Apocalypse series seemed pretty intriguing, and my library's website had the first volume. It's sort of a grittier story. Velma works at a secret underground facility, the Complex. She and the other scientists have developed nanites and secretly slipped them into all of the people everywhere. It was supposed to make the population more peaceful, but she found out that they really are meant to control their minds.

Velma decides to inform the general public. She contacts a journalist to get the new out, one Daphne Blake of Daphne Blake's Mysterious Mysteries, a show that airs late at night on the Knitting Channel. Daphne and her cameraman Fred meet with Velma, who takes them back to the Complex to show them her evidence. On the way, they run into her fellow employee, Norville "Shaggy" Rogers. He's a dog trainer who is very close to Scooby, one of the dogs whose brain was enhanced for the smart dog program. All four of them, plus the dog, are in the facility's Safe Zone when the alarm goes off. The nanites have somehow been activated.

 What greets them outside the Safe Zone is terrifying. People have been transformed into monsters. The monsters have been killing and eating those who haven't transformed, and killing and eating other monsters. The gang ends up escaping the Complex in an experimental vehicle known as the Mystery Machine. They travel around, encountering more monsters, gathering supplies, and trying to contact other Complex locations to figure out a plan of action. In the meantime, they are being hunted by the monsters and a group of smart dogs looking for Velma to fix their implants and for revenge against Scooby, led by a dog named...Scrappy-Doo. That made me laugh. 

Scooby Apocalypse was definitely a unique take on the series. There's a pretty interesting mystery behind what is going on with the monsters. I'm not sure if I will keep up with the series, but I'll definitely consider if/when the next volume is on the library's website.

* My first ever compact disc** purchase was a compilation of Scooby-Doo themes called Scooby-Doo's Snack Tracks. It included a remix of the Scooby-Doo, Where Are You? theme, which I thought was awesome at the time. It probably wasn't.  (Never mind, it's amazing: https://youtu.be/i0utce5qsH4?list=PL5CD1CA1A9125BFA5 #sarcasm...kinda)
** I am an old :(

iZOMBIE 1-4 by Chris Roberson

I am a HUGE fan of the iZombie television show. Before the show premiered, I read an article (Though I cannot remember what it was) that listed the differences between the show and the graphic novels of the same name. Even so, I wanted to read the series myself.

It turns out that the show didn't take much from the graphic novels, aside from a title and the concept of a zombie who eats brains and gains the memories from the brains' owner. There are far more differences, such as:

• The main character's name: Gwendolyn Price/Gwen Dylan in the comic, Olivia "Liv" Moore in the show
• Gwen works and lives at a graveyard, obtaining brains from the corpses. My concern had been that the formaldehyde used in preservation would make the brains inedible, but it's actually an organic cemetery that doesn't preserve bodies, which seems odd. Is that an actual thing? She paints the memories she gains. Liv works at the coroner's office and obtains brains there. When Liv eats a brain, she gains talents and personality traits as well as memories.   
• The universe of the comics contains many supernatural creatures besides zombies, such as vampires, werecreatures, ghosts, mummies, etc. The TV show wisely focuses solely on zombies, though part of me would appreciate the chaos of multiple monsters. 
• In the comics, Gwen is friends with a ghost named Ellie and a wereterrier named Scott. They were both wisely omitted from the show. Liv's friends from the show: Peyton, ex fiance Major, and coworkers Ravi and Clive are not featured in the comics, but for a reason.

•  The reason is that Gwen doesn't retain many memories from being alive. Her family and friends believe she is dead, and she doesn't remember them anyways. Liv remembers everything from her former life, and none of her friends and family (Save her boss Ravi...this was written a while ago because now a lot more people know as of the completed second season) know that she died and became a zombie. 

The first book, Dead to the World, introduced the characters. Gwen, Scott, and Ellie were trick-or-treating when they encountered a mysterious man.

You have to appreciate Gwen's Shaun of the Dead

Gwen eats a brain later and discovers that the mysterious man murdered the brain's owner in some sort of ceremony. The man turns out to be a mummy named John Amon who teaches Gwen the nature of zombies. See, there's this whole oversoul and undersoul thing.  Oversoul is the brain: "thoughts, memories, and personality." Undersoul is the heart: "appetites, emotions, and fears." Ghosts are bodiless oversouls. A bodiless undersoul is a poltergeist. Vampires have an oversoul, but drink blood because they lack an undersoul. The opposite, having the undersoul but seeking the memories of the oversoul is the zombie.

Meanwhile, a pair of hunters comes to town and starts to take out the local vampire population. One of them, Horatio, asks out Gwen. This is somewhat distressing to Scott, the wereterrier friend who has a crush on Gwen. I'm going to admit that I don't remember everything that happened and in which book. At some point, Gwen remembers her younger brother. Scott the wereterrier meets him and falls in love with him. The brother makes a pact with a comic book writer to be possessed with the spirit of his character, who is actually real and kind of homophobic, which messes up their relationship (That old cliche again!) Ellie the ghost makes friends with a Frankenstein monster and they end up falling in love. The mummy guy turns out to be kind of evil and a zombie. Also, his former friend has been working on a plan to summon a big bad entity that will destroy the world.

Out of the two, I definitely prefer the TV show. It's more streamlined and funny, though I would probably be super stoked if Rob Thomas brought on a wereterrier. The novels were not completely without their own charms. However, the lack of Ravi was unforgivable.  

Deadpool Killogy by Cullen Bunn

The Deadpool Killogy is comprised of three graphic novels. The first, Deadpool Kills the Marvel Universe, starts when Professor Charles Xavier has Deadpool committed to Ravenscroft Asylum. What he doesn't know is that the famous Dr. Benjamin Brighton who heads the hospital is really Psycho-Man. The supervillain plans to brainwash Deadpool, hoping to form a super army, but it doesn't work out like he planned. He ends up making Deadpool's  subconscious stronger.

It's true that Deadpool has always had voices in his head, but now there is just the one very loud voice. That voice makes him see the truth: everyone in his universe doesn't really exist. They are just entertainment, not really alive. So it's up to Deadpool to put them out of their misery.

"Well, whoever they are--those little peeping toms out there in Never-Never Land--they're gonna want to keep their eyes peeled. They're gonna want to see what's next. They're gonna want to watch this world burn!"

Deadpool sees us see him

So, he kills them all. We see Deadpool fighting multiple heroes and villains. He shoots Spider-Man, blows up the Avengers, even kills Thor with his own hammer. They all end up dead or otherwise incapacitated. The book ends with Deadpool creeping up on the writers as they are brainstorming the ending:

Is it wrong that I'm scared?

"I kill and I kill and I kill...but it's never enough. There's always another Spider-Man...another Captain America...another Ms. Marvel..."

Deadpool killed the entire Marvel Universe, but it didn't help. In Deadpool Killustrated, he enters the ideaverse. You know how every story is the same story over and over? The characters in classic literature are the "inspirational building blocks" for the Marvel characters. If you kill the inspiration, they will cease to exist. 

Therefore, Deadpool has to become "metacidal." The majority of the book is Deadpool encountering, then murdering, characters from Captain Ahab and Moby Dick to the Little Women to Don Quixote. The characters start to morph into equivalent heroes as they die, indicating that the ideaverse is falling apart.

Eventually, Sherlock Holmes puts together a task force to track Deadpool down and stop him. The new subconscious is put into Frankenstein's monster at one point, which is kind of cool. I didn't really understand the voice when I was reading the book because I read the second book first, before I realized it was a trilogy.  

"At long last, he came to a conclusion. If he --if Deadpool was the only one who realized the world was fictional...then perhaps Deadpool was the source...and all the fragments of the multiverse were his dreams made real. This, of course, did not mean his search for nothingness would end. Quite the opposite, in fact. If all the worlds were to die, so too must all Deadpools..."

The third installment, Deadpool Kills Deadpool shows that Deadpool still hasn't been able to destroy the universe. We start with a Deadpool who is fighting a giant robot (Okay, we actually open with someone throwing Headpool in a microwave). He is attacked by another Deadpool, an evil one. The Deadpool Corps helps the good, at least better, Deadpool and fills him in.

There are versions of Deadpool all over the multiverse, and now Evil Deadpool is on a mission to take them all out. Since Deadpool is the origin of everything, according to Watcher (Guy with large head, omnipotent, traditionally watches but doesn't intervene), who is now a Deadpool fanboy, if Evil Deadpool succeeds in killing them all, the universe will cease to exist.

The Deadpools all choose sides. The versions of Deadpool are entertaining, such as Dogpool, Kidpool, Grootpool(!), Beardofbeespool, and my personal favorite: Pandapool!

"The species that endangers you!"

There were lots more that didn't get names. The tone of the third book is a lot different from the first two. I think it's because the Deadpool we focus on isn't the same one who was narrating before. Honestly, all three are basically the same: existential crisis, kill, kill, kill. The hundreds of Deadpools made the book entertaining enough, so overall I was satisfied with the conclusion.

I have enjoyed reading about Deadpool. I expected violence and snarkiness, but I didn't expect him to be sympathetic. Maybe I'm reading too much into it, maybe I'm like those women who write letters to serial killers or whoever makes that weird Creepypasta pin where they feel bad for Jeff the Killer even though he is fictional and gross, but I saw some real pain in Deadpool. In a weird way, killing everyone is his way of saving them, being a hero. I hope I'm not misinterpreting this horribly. It makes the character seem a lot more complex and interesting.

The reason I decided to read this series is that I was intrigued by Deadpool Killustrated while I worked at the bookstore. I requested it from the library, then realized that it was the second book in a trilogy and decided to read one and three as well. The meta stuff is right up my alley. I'm not going to pretend that I don't see some flaws in Deadpool's logic, but I'm willing to suspend my disbelief.

It's a bit gimmicky, or like someone's fanfic, but in a good way. What would happen if Deadpool fought the Fantastic Four? The Three Musketeers? A million versions of Deadpool? (Answer to every question: blood, death, dismemberment.) Overall, the Killogy was entertaining and had a lot more philosophy than I expected. It was a pretty good intro to the Merc with a Mouth, though I'm sure there are lots of things I didn't understand. 

 

Nearly Gone by Elle Cosimano

"I wasn't nearly, I was enough..."

Nearly Boswell lives with her mother in a trailer park. Her dad abandoned them years ago, so mom has to dance at the local strip club to make rent. Thankfully, Nearly is super smart. She is competing to be the top student in her physics class so she can earn a huge scholarship and get out of the trailer park. He only competition is her best friend Anh.

Years ago, Nearly read an ad in the classifieds that she is certain was from her father. Now, she steals from her mom's tip money to buy newspapers in hopes that he will contact her again. She spots an ad that sounds like it's meant for her, telling her to look under the bleachers at school. The cheerleader that she tutors is found, naked and unconscious, under the bleachers. A second ad follows. By the time Nearly figures it out, she is too late to save another student she tutors.

It's at about this point that Nearly goes to the police. She shows them the ads, but they are dismissive of her claims. After a third ad and the murder of another student she tutored, they start to see the connection. Unfortunately, they decide that the connection means that Nearly is the murderer. To keep tabs on her, they enlist the help of bad boy turned informant Reece. They have one of those prickly relationships where they hate each other until they inevitably fall in love.

Nearly Gone is an intriguing mystery. I didn't even figure out who did it until really close to the end. I almost forgot the whole semi-paranormal touching thing that Nearly does where she can read people's emotions, but it really doesn't matter to the plot anyways. I liked Nearly, she was smart and had a tough attitude and drive. Reese was okay, but not good enough for my collection of YA boyfriends. The story gets a little gory at times, but I enjoyed that aspect. It is nice to have another book for the fairly rare YA mystery genre.

I received my copy of Nearly Gone from Netgalley and Edelweiss, courtesy of Kathy Dawson Books. It's available for purchase now.

Paper Valentine by Brenna Yovanoff

This was another weird book that I totally loved. I wonder if that says something about me? Maybe, but I don't think it's a bad thing.

I'll see if I can describe the plot as simply as possible. Someone has been murdering girls. They are around 12-13 years old, and they are found surrounded by cheap toys and a paper heart. Hannah finds out the details by looking at the crime scene photos developed at her cousin's photo shop. She has been having a tough time already because her best friend, Lillian, died of an eating disorder just six months ago. She had been the Queen Bee of their group, the Regina George. Therefore, they were sad that she died, but they didn't always miss her. Nobody else knows that Lillian may be dead, but she isn't gone. Hannah's friend still haunts her, commenting on her life and urging her to solve the murders.

As the book goes on, we get more details. Hannah starts to think about how it didn't have to happen. How her friend killed herself while everyone else just watched.

"And maybe, when everyone is always competing to have the most ironic thing to say and wear the most unique outfit and be the most special, maybe it starts to feel like you don't have a choice. Because the truth is that if everyone's special all the time, then really, no one's special, so maybe all that's left is to be perfect, because at least that's something you can measure..."

Hannah gains a love interest in the form of Finny Boone. He's a tall, bleached-haired rebel without a cause. He steals off-brand Zippo lighters from convenience stores, but he also gets back Hannah's beloved Alice in Wonderland bracelet from a thug. I really loved Finny. It's unfortunate that he may be a suspect in the murders.

Eventually, Hannah is haunted by the dead girls as well as Lillian. The only way to put the ghosts at rest is to find their killer.

I just loved this book. I loved the mystery aspect. I loved the numerous descriptions of Hannah's adorable sundresses. I already said this, but I loved Finny Boone. I loved snarky Lillian the ghost.

I received my copy of Paper Valentine from Edelweiss and Netgalley, courtesy of Razorbill. It's available for purchase now.

Embrace by Jessica Shirvington

Normally, I toss angel-based books to the curb. There's no real reason, it's just not something that interests me. I don't do angels and fairies (Though there are always exceptions). My only reasoning for grabbing the advanced copy of Embrace from the bookstore was because of the purple cover, and the description was intriguing.

Embrace is about a girl named Violet. On her 17th birthday, she finds out that she is half angel, a Grigori. The Grigori protect humans from fallen angels. These angels blend in with normal people, but some of them want to punish humanity. Grigori can sense these angels and they have the power to strip away their powers or send them back for judgment.

All of this is understandably a lot for a teenage girl to process. What makes it all the worse is that Violet's friend, the guy she is pretty much in love with, Lincoln, is also a Grigori. He trained with her, spent practically every day with her, and never once let on that he knew who she really was. The betrayal makes Violet start spending time with her new friend Phoenix. He's one of the fallen angels, but he seems trustworthy. Phoenix actually tells Violet about herself and the whole Grigori situation, unlike Lincoln.

Meanwhile, the fallen angels have been working together to kill the Grigori. Violet didn't want to become a Grigori, but then Lincoln is injured. The only way to save him is for her to embrace, which is the angel transformation process and the title. I liked Embrace, but I expected it to be more. Violet starts out all about Lincoln, then she spends most of the book with Phoenix and Lincoln barely shows up. I ended up really liking Phoenix but kind of forgetting why I was supposed to like Lincoln. I liked that Violet was a strong character, but I thought she was a little too driven by the men in her life. In her home life, she sometimes never sees her father for days at a time...could this be related?

Sorry to go so deep into my Teen read. Something just bugged me a bit about this book and I'm trying to work out what it is. It's got the typical paranormal romance formula: supernatural element + love triangle= bestseller. The Grigori parts were actually awesome. It reminds me a lot of Season 4 of Supernatural, but I loved Castiel and all that angel stuff. I think the love triangle stuff was what brought things down a bit. Like I said, she spends the majority of time with Phoenix when Lincoln is supposed to be her one true love, and he is barely part of most of the book. Couldn't he have held a boombox over his head or punch Phoenix, be proactive at all? Despite a valiant effort, Embrace wasn't quite able to sway me completely on angel books. Maybe next time will be better.

I got my copy of Embrace courtesy of Sourcebooks. It's available for purchase now (The ebook is only $6.99 at B&N right now, though that probably won't last very long).

Wanted by Sara Shepard

Once upon a time there were four girls, fair as the snow but unable to tell the truth. Long ago, their most intimate friend Alison vanished and was later found slain. In the last installment of their tale, the dastardly Billy Ford, builder of gazebos, was accused of the heinous crime. We now follow our heroines into the end of their saga (Until the new book comes out July 5th, the year of our lord 2011).

Wanted begins with the DiLaurentis family gathering men and women from every village around to share a most hidden secret. Mrs. DiLaurentis had born another daughter, identical to tragic Alison. The second child had the same hair golden as the sun and eyes as blue as sapphires, but her head suffered a form of delirium. As a result, Courtney was sent away and never spoken of until now. Her goodly physician assured her family that her brain is no longer vexed by visions and frustrations, thenceforth, Courtney returned to Rosewood and Rosewood Prep.

Courtney appeals to our duplicitous heroines one by one. She offers them their innermost desires, as though she has corresponded with them for years. To Spencer, Courtney is the sister long wished for and long denied. To Emily, Courtney is the girl forever yearned for, love reciprocated at last. To Hanna, Courtney is a means of regaining the power of her kingdom. Fair Aria is the only maiden lacking need of Courtney. Alas, it appears as though Courtney wishes to steal Aria's gentleman Noel, much as her sister Alison did years ago.

Soon, dear readers, young Courtney reveals a truth to her guileful companions: she is in truth Alison posing as Courtney. That fateful night at the conclusion of their seventh year education, Billy Ford had slain Courtney in place of her rightly-minded sister. Alison's dearest family believed her to be her addled-minded doppelganger and sent her away for years.

At last, the merry group of friends achieve the second chance they never expected. Following the school's prom festivities, the girls hearken to Courtney-now-Alison's family estate in the Poconos. Aria, so distrustful of Courtney-Alison now attends the proceedings after young Noel was found kissing his old love. At last, it appears as though serenity has returned to our unconscionable four. Yet, throughout our tome, we have received reports that pernicious gazeboman Billy Ford may not be as heinous as he first appeared. If Ford was not the murderer in days of yore, who could have committed the foul crime? And are our fair fabulists in danger whilst relaxing with their newly rectified friend?

*Read no further past this point, lest you find out the even greater secret at the conclusion of Pretty Little Liars.*

In order to forge greater bonds in the chain of friendship, the young maidens reenact the fateful night of Courtney's murder. Alison once again attempts to compel her friends. Once they emerge from their state of sleepfulness, Alison has vanished once more. Then the mythomaniacs find the letter. It tells the story of two sisters. As we knew, Alison had been posing as Courtney. What had never been revealed was that Courtney had played the part of Alison. When our storytellers had been rescued from obscurity by Alison and placed in their positions of power, Alison had been Courtney. After years spent locked away as Courtney, the true Alison became just as addled as her sister. Hence, it was Alison who killed her sister and tossed her in the pit. Alison slain poor pedophile Ian Thomas, and Alison snuffed the candle of sightless Jenna Cavanaugh. As a final act of vengeance, true Alison alights the house in an attempt to end the lives of our duplicitous four. Our heroines escape, but the villainess is ensnared by her own trap. It may not be the end, yet, as neither hide nor hair is found of the true, insane Alison DiLaurentis, also called A, tormentor of the Pretty Little Liars.

*Returning to normal, spoiler-free speech*

So, that was a fairly exciting speech. I'm not sure how I feel about a ninth book. Everything is pretty wrapped up at this point. Am I going to read the ninth book? Hells yes!

The Good Thief by Hannah Tinti

I once had a conversation with a coworker which ended in the conclusion that orphans are a hot commodity in literature. Starting with Dickens' Oliver Twist, through the Boxcar Children, Harry Potter, and the Baudelaires, the orphaned child automatically becomes sympathetic to the audience because of the parentless status. Orphans develop independence and responsibility much faster than normal children out of necessity. Orphans can go on all sorts of dangerous adventures and meet nefarious people because they have nobody stopping them.

The Good Thief is the story of one of these orphans. Ren is a young man with a mysterious past. He was left at St. Anthony's as a baby. He has only one hand and no memories as to how he lost the other hand. One day, a man named Benjamin Nab arrives and claims to be his long-lost brother. Benjamin gives a story about how Ren lost his hand. Benjamin takes him away from the orphanage. This turns out to be a story. Benjamin tells a lot of stories. He's a con man and gets money through the worst means possible. Ren is appalled at the actions of his new family, Benjamin and his partner in crime Tom.

Ren, Benjamin, and Tom arrive in a small former coal mining town and rent a room from Mrs. Sands. She takes good care of Ren and he becomes attached to her in return. In order to earn money, the trio set out robbing graves to sell the bodies to a nearby doctor.

One night while digging up corpses, the trio digs up Dolly. Dolly is a huge man with huge hands. He was made for killing. Ren becomes friends with Dolly. He doesn't want Dolly to kill, but Dolly was made for killing. The acquaintance with Dolly eventually leads to a run-in with the Hat Boys, a gang of men working for Mr. McGinty, who owns the large mousetrap company and basically the city. Mr. McGinty ends up holding the keys to Ren's past. It's pretty awesome how everything ends up coming together in the end.

Overall, Ren was a likable main character. He had sympathy built in, from being an orphan and from missing a limb. Further, he acted as moral compass for everyone in the book. Ren was the one who helped the sick landlady and tried to kiss the beloved mare, said the rosary over and over. I wanted things to work out for that plucky little one-handed orphan, and I'm happy that they actually did.