Mini Review: Nimona by Noelle Stevenson

Series: None

Format: Graphic Novel

Author: Noelle Stevenson

Publisher: Harper Teen

Goodreads Summary

The graphic novel debut from rising star Noelle Stevenson, based on her beloved and critically acclaimed web comic, which Slate awarded its Cartoonist Studio Prize, calling it "a deadpan epic."

Nemeses! Dragons! Science! Symbolism! All these and more await in this brilliantly subversive, sharply irreverent epic from Noelle Stevenson. Featuring an exclusive epilogue not seen in the web comic, along with bonus conceptual sketches and revised pages throughout, this gorgeous full-color graphic novel is perfect for the legions of fans of the web comic and is sure to win Noelle many new ones.

Nimona is an impulsive young shapeshifter with a knack for villainy. Lord Ballister Blackheart is a villain with a vendetta. As sidekick and supervillain, Nimona and Lord Blackheart are about to wreak some serious havoc. Their mission: prove to the kingdom that Sir Ambrosius Goldenloin and his buddies at the Institution of Law Enforcement and Heroics aren't the heroes everyone thinks they are.

But as small acts of mischief escalate into a vicious battle, Lord Blackheart realizes that Nimona's powers are as murky and mysterious as her past. And her unpredictable wild side might be more dangerous than he is willing to admit.

Recently I've been getting into graphic novels and when I saw this one I had to get it. It was about a feisty shapeshifter, a conspiracy from the villains POV, and art; all put together in 300 pages. I will not lie, besides the plot the fact that this was a graphic novel that had almost 300 pages also swayed me to buy this one.

This Graphic Novel started out very simple, it had a simple plot, seemingly simple characters, and simple, anti-subtextual dialogue. However, I think that's where the brilliance of this novel really comes from because as the story progresses the plot becomes more complex, the characters are shown in a more complicated way like they are in fact people, the dialogue develops so it isn't so simplistic. The whole book grows and develops, not just the characters, and that brings you closer to the book and give you such a rewarding reading experience.

The plot was very interesting to read. It kept me interested in what was going to happen and what the characters were going to do, even though it was slightly predictable. I really loved how we got to see everything from the villain's POV because it made it feel much more unique and different. It also allowed us to really appreciate the characters because it highlighted the goodness and evil in everyone. It allowed the readers to see the goodness in the "villain" and the faults in the "hero".

The best thing in this whole story was the character depth the author slowly added. I don't necessarily want to say character development even though this story contained a lot of that because it was very focused on the emotions of the characters and whatever pain they had previously experienced. This was really highlighted by how the story slowly introduced the characters depth, as I previously stated because it allowed the reader to appreciate it much more.

Now, the final thing I would like to talk about is Nimona. She was one of the best characters I've read  and the fact that this was achieved in a graphic novel where character depth is a lot harder to achieve is so impressive. Her story goes from fun and silly to tragic in a heartbeat.  That is all I want to say about her because I think one reason her story was so impacting to me was because I didn't expect it.

Verdict: Read this graphic novel! It is the perfect for getting into the Graphic Novel genre and will still be enjoyable to veteran readers. It is also relatively cheap (at least for me) and I'm still impressed it almost had 300 pages because that is almost unheard of for graphic novels.




Happy Reading:

Fandom mash-Up (15)

This is a new fun feature hosted and created by Micheline over at Lunar-Rainbows. For this feature, there will be a new fictional scenario each week and you will create your dream team of five different characters from five different fandoms around this scenario.

You've decided to set off on an adventure across the world.  Who are your travel companions. 

The Doctor

Of course he is on this list. He is perfect because this is what he does, he travels and I would love to travel with him! Also, this doesn't specify which world, so we could go off and see the universe. 

Fred and George Weasley

I think they would make everything so much more fun and we would get into the best adventures together. Also, if we get into a pickle, they could use their magic to get us out of it. I also see them becoming good friends with the doctor. 

Merida (Brave)

She has this soul for adventure. She wants to explore and wants to see the world, which is one of the reasons why I think she didn't want to get married, because it would prevent her from following her dreams. She also stands up for herself and others, which I think would come in handy sometime down the road. 

Starfire (Teen Titans)

Starfire is an alian princess and because of that doesn't know much about Earth. She is always very interested in learning our cultures and seeing our world. So, I think she would love to come with on this adventure and since she has this bubbly personality she would be so much fun to be around. 

Katara
Katara has already traveled most of her world  and so I think she would be perfect to travel with, whether we were exploring earth or her world. Her healing abilities might come in handy as well. She is also really freaking awesome and I would love to be friends with her!


Who would you have on your team?Happy Reading

Harry Potter Moment (14)

Harry Potter Moment of the Week is a  meme hosted by Leah @ Uncorked Thoughts  and Micheline @ Lunar Rainbows Reviews. The idea is to share a favorite moment, magical item, character, spell, quote, object from the books, films or J.K.Rowling herself!  How to join up &  upcoming topics here.

Rename the books in the series from Ron's perspective 

This was such a fun topic to do!! I loved brain-storming ideas and remembering what Ron's big moments in each book were!

Ron Weasley and His New Two Best Friends

Ron Weasley and The Howler

Ron Weasley and Scabbers Vs. Crookshanks

Ron Weasley and My Best Friend Is Popular and My Other Best Friend is Dating

Ron Weasley and A Keeper Only Needs Luck

Ron Weasley and The Dreaded Love Potion

Ron Weasley and Death + Sadness = Fred

What were your titles?

Happy Reading!

Review: The Wrath & The Dawn by Renee Ahdieh

Grade: 4.5 Butterflies

Series: The Wrath and the Dawn #1

Author: Renee Ahdieh

Publisher: G. P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers

 Goodreads Summary:

A sumptuous and epically told love story inspired by A Thousand and One Nights

Every dawn brings horror to a different family in a land ruled by a killer. Khalid, the eighteen-year-old Caliph of Khorasan, takes a new bride each night only to have her executed at sunrise. So it is a suspicious surprise when sixteen-year-old Shahrzad volunteers to marry Khalid. But she does so with a clever plan to stay alive and exact revenge on the Caliph for the murder of her best friend and countless other girls. Shazi's wit and will, indeed, get her through to the dawn that no others have seen, but with a catch . . . she’s falling in love with the very boy who killed her dearest friend.

She discovers that the murderous boy-king is not all that he seems and neither are the deaths of so many girls. Shazi is determined to uncover the reason for the murders and to break the cycle once and for all. 

This book has been hyped up so much since it has released and I am very wary about reading hyped up books. So, needless to say, I was nervous going into this one. I had such high expectations and I was afraid this book wasn't going to meet them and I was going to be immensely disappointed. However, even with my high expectations I was blown away by this book! The characters were amazingly dynamic, the writing was breathtaking and made me feel all the emotions, and the plot was so gripping that I was on the edge of my seat the whole time!

One of the things that really stood out for me in this book was the amount of POVs it had. The way the POVs were set up it allowed you to see the big picture. You didn't get to see one single individual's story, you saw them all and how they all connected to one another. This was a wonderful way to tell this story because it accented the love story between Khalid and Shahrzad and really put together the story.

The writing was outstanding! It was so beautiful and breathtaking! I could not get enough of it! It captivated me and left me wanting more. Renee Ahdieh is a brilliant author! It was so amazingly written that all of the emotions the characters felt were so real. While reading this book I felt everything the characters felt and that just made the book! It gave the characters so much more depth and made the reading experience so much better!

The characters in this book were amazing! They were so beautifully written and, as I said in the last paragraph, everything the characters felt, you felt and that added so much to their depth. I think why I loved these characters so much was because they had faults, they weren't perfect. They had problems, they had trust issues, they had hatred in their hearts, and that made them seem so real! That also allowed us to see the good in them, especially Khalid. By highlighting the characters faults, it allowed the writer to have them grow and for us to slowly see their goodness. This made them so complex and wonderful to read!

On that note, I loved how there wasn't a clear evil person or villain; everyone had a valid reason for whatever they did, whether it was raging war or killing innocents. You could never really be mad at any of the characters, even the ones ruining other's lives because they never intended for it. No one wanted to ruin anybody's lives and when they did the guilt destroyed them. This just added so much to the story because it made the characters so much more complex since you could never fully hate any of them.

The only aspect that I didn't really like was how fast Shahrzad started developing feelings for Khalid. It was toeing the line between insta-love and kind of fast love. However, this didn't really affect the story for me because of the intense and raw emotions the characters felt and the author beautifully wrote. If this book didn't have this emotional aspect to it this kind of maybe not insta-love thing would have really bothered me, but the emotions made it seem real.

Overall, this was a beautifully written an emotional raw book that blew me away! I loved almost everything about it, the characters, the world, the plot, the feelings, everything! I can't wait for the next book because I need to know how their story ends, I need to know! I would highly recommend this book to every single person ever.

This book got...

4.5 Butterflies

Beautiful, this is a great book. 

Recommend if you like: Fantasy, the Raven Boys, & Love Stories

Happy Reading!

Fandom Mash-Up (14)

This is a new fun feature hosted and created by Micheline over at Lunar-Rainbows. For this feature, there will be a new fictional scenario each week and you will create your dream team of five different characters from five different fandoms around this scenario.

You've encountered a new monster you've never faced before and you need to learn more about it in order to take it down. Who do you want on your research/fighting team? Keep in mind that ideally, these people are both book smart and able to fight.

Chuck Bartowski
Chuck is a nerd, simply put. He his a computer genius and if any organization or governing body knows about it and are trying to hide this new monster he will hack into their servers and find out everything they know. Also, he can kick ass.

Sam Winchester
Sam was the obvious choice. He is a huge book geek, he loves researching and is very good at it, and he can get a wifi signal anywhere. So if we have to hide from the organization or governing body who are now trying to kill us, we can keep researching where ever we end up. 

Gandolf
Gandolf is the wise old wizard and not only does he know a lot about everything his magic would came in handy. His magic would open doors for us, allow us different ways to kill the monster, stun it, or make us invisible from the bad guys who are trying to cover everything up so it doesn't become public. 

Remus Lupin
Lupin is perfect I think. Not only  is he incredibly smart, but he knows a lot about monsters.He could help us research and make up a spell for killing it. Although, hopefully this whole situation will be settle before the full moon. 

Valek
Valek is known for his amazing fighting skills, but he is also really smart. He owns a freaking lot of books and I dare you to tell me he hasn't read every single one of those books and they are just for stopping intruders. Also, he is really good at spying so if nothing else he can break into the organization's headquarters and find something to blackmail them with so they won't kill us; or if that fails he can help us dismantle it so they can't harm anyone else. 



Who would be on your team?
Happy Reading