“Look, Ezekiel Blast, the past is like gum stuck to the bottom of your shoe. When bad stuff first happens, it
3.5 STARS! Brilliant, and yet lacking.
“Look, Ezekiel Blast, the past is like gum stuck to the bottom of your shoe. When bad stuff first happens, it’s like when the gum is sticking to everything—the road, the sidewalk. And you can’t wear that shoe into the house because it will get all involved in the carpet and the bathroom rug, but when you try to scrape it off on the edge of the sidewalk or the edge of the porch, or you try to rub it off in the grass, it won’t come off. So you have to just live with it. You walk along, your foot trying to stick with every step, but gradually as the gum gets dirtier and dries out more and more, it loses its stickiness. And eventually, without ever actually removing it, you forget the gum is there. Except maybe on a hot day the gum gets soft and a little sticky again, and you think, Oh, yeah, gum on my shoe.”
You know, I've always wondered—we say my eyes stung or burst or burned, and all that is good and true, but to me it feels more like being stung by a vicious bug and starting to swell up and then generally failing to be of any use.
And reading this book, my eyes were stung by a vicious bug and started swelling up and generally failed to be of any use.
Lost and Found could've easily been a five-star read; it had everything: clever, weird, and creative observations and ideas; amazing, thrilling plot, unforgettable characters; unique magic-micropower-whatever-you-wanna-call-it; and much witty, hilarious dialogue.
The only problem (which is also kind of a big one) is that the whole book was an endless string of dialogue, sprinkled with occasional endless streams of thought. There were no descriptions of anything. At all. Places? Barely. People? What. Expressions? Haha. Tones? Don't even think about it. Feelings? What are they even. The fact that the characters had actually left the house and were walking to other houses? Duh. Even plays include a note on tone or movements of the characters. It felt like only reading the subtitles of a spectacular film, if the subtitles also included conversations in our heads as well as on our lips.
Yes, those were all awesome, fantastic, perfetto, but they weren't enough. Seriously, this is Orson Card! Sure, I haven't read anything else by him yet but, I mean, it's Orson Card. Truth, I can see why Orson Card is Orson Card, the genius in this book is testament enough. And truth, this was an ARC. But. I can't believe they gave out ARCs at such an early stage and that the finished copy would actually have the missing 100-150 pages of...well...everything.
All that aside, I truly enjoyed this book. Hell, I even loved it. And no, I didn't mind that most all the characters sounded the same smart-snotty, because it was such an entertaining, brilliant, creative smart-snotty that I couldn't help but crave more despite it being quite unrealistic.
I loved it, and it drove me utterly insane.
“It’s driving me crazy.” “We’re all just a quick bike ride from crazy, Ezekiel,”said Dad. “It almost never requires any driving.” “Dad, I carry crazy in my pocket all the time and keep taking it out to look at it...makes me wonder if it’s sanity I keep in my pocket and it only looks like crazy because I’m already bonkers.” “As good a description of human life as I’ve ever heard,” said Father.
I received an ARC through NetGalley for an honest review. Many thanks to Blackstone Publishing!...more
In this fun and queer young adult contemporary comic series, you’ll be treated to ⤵
✦ A chemical and explosive enemies-to-still-getting-there gay romanIn this fun and queer young adult contemporary comic series, you’ll be treated to ⤵
✦ A chemical and explosive enemies-to-still-getting-there gay romance between two teen fencers who want to throttle each other. There is building tension, deliciously taut; there is petty rivalry, childishly entertaining; and there is sports—oh yes there is sports with stressful competition and tragic heartbreak and whatevernot.
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✦ Lots and lots of casual, delightful queerness and diversity—from bi boys and gay boys and transboys to racial diversity and various social classes and family backgrounds. My rainbow heart was weeping in joy. Someone give this book an award for glorious beauty. *clutches chest and dies*
✦ An overwhelming amount of heartwarming cuteness in lessons of kindness, adorable bonds between characters, and friendships peppered with boarding school misadventures—what more do you need? Oh, you need more? Alrighty.
✦ The confident and stubborn sweet little puppy by the name of Nicholas Cox whose life is a tragedy but his will will shake worlds. He’s my angry baby and I love how he handles bullies with style—meaning he doesn’t let them drag him down and marches into battle with his unpredictable cluelessness and bold hotheaded attitude.
You might say he’s too angry and overconfident; if you do, I’ll tell you to kindly shoo. Because when your life starts at the rock bottom, when your privileged half-brother has everything you can only dream of, the only way to rise, to succeed, is through sheer determination and certainty that you can and that nothing can stop or beat you.
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✦ Also an arrogant, holier-than-thou jerk named Seiji Katayama whose arrogance is not unfounded (he truly is exceptionally skilled) and whose infuriating shetbag attitude makes sense because of his secret insecurities, but that still does not change the fact that I want to pummel him. Just why, no why, should he be named Seiji and keep reminding me of my Robin Hood Souji in The Burning God?
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✦ If you’re still unconvinced, then I give you: C.S. Pacat’s LOL-inducing, stomach-aching humour and top notch storytelling technique—both getting better and better with each issue as the hilarity grows and the writing awes you with its perfect building of drama and tension.
✦ And last but not least, Johanna the Mad’s madly scrumptious and captivatingly refined art that turned this series unforgettable, making characters and stress jump out of the page and greedily drag you down into their depth and adding to the humour until it chokes you. I stan.
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What are you waiting for? If you enjoy young adult contemporary comics and gay boys being in love, then read this. I went in with no expectations, I came out addicted—even though I needed more from this graphic novel in some cases. Still, I loved it and here’s the character sheets for your amusement ⤵
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