Traveling light: Easy reads for your summer getaway
The evolving trend of young adult fiction seems to have changed greatly since I first started reading it, and then decided I was adult enough to transcend that fine line. If youngsters these days aren’t satisfied anymore with the innocent adventures of Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys, or the cutesy love problems of Sweet Valley High, it’s because they’ve probably already developed a fanaticism for modern-day fantasies — wizards, witches, vampires, and angels — because they just don’t get enough of that on television.
Whether still in the young adult category or not, a few light and fast-paced reads to look into when traveling this summer are Twilight: The Graphic Novel illustrated by Young Kim and Thomas E. Sniegoski’s The Fallen, which pretty much embody the fresh literary cravings of today’s youth.
Twilight: The Graphic Novel
Sparkling vampires in the likes of Edward Cullen have become well-accepted in today’s pop culture. If it wasn’t enough to have read the book or seen the poorly-made film adaptation of Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight, the new graphic novel illustrated by Korean artist Young Kim is the cherry that tops this addiction.
Although Twilight: The Graphic Novel doesn’t tell the complete story within its first volume, it is at least engaging and entertaining enough to keep you curious about how the story will progress. In this first volume, the love story between the lead characters, Bella and Edward, are only unfurling, but the intense action and main conflict of the novel is barely represented. What it offers, as with the first book, is the cute and intriguing revelations of their unusual relationship.
The experience of reading the graphic novel (this one is illustrated in manga style) changes the experience from what one gets while reading the novel or watching the film. The visual representation of characters might be unfamiliar to the average Twilight fan expecting a cartoon version of Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart. But the manga panels tell the story in a succinct, simple and unique manner. The illustrations are not overly busy, and the use of minimalistic black and white is balanced by the elaborate positioning of frames and narration.
However, the dialogue in the book could be better. Some thought bubbles just contain lumps of punctuation marks, as if “!” was a grammatical sentence or thought, while others drawl out lengthier paragraphs. Although the art is purely manga, faulty details in font and layout became distracting.
Nonetheless, taking into consideration that the original Twilight story is not one of my favorites in its clichéd and anti-feminist depiction of the lead character Bella, the graphic novel is at least an easy and pleasantly enjoyable way to jump on the Twilight bandwagon, without having to read the novel or sit through the darned film.
What to expect: A lot of hilarious onomatopoeia (“clench,” “vroom,” “squeak,” “swish”), one sexually energetic Bella thought bubble, manga style action scenes, reference to French composer Debussy.
The Fallen
If sparkling vampires isn’t your thing, maybe half-bred angels are. Formerly a comic book writer, Thomas E. Sniegoski centers his first action-packed adventure story on a boy, Aaron Corbet, whose life takes a crazy turn on the brink of his 18th birthday.
On his birthday, Aaron develops a splitting headache, has disruptive nightmares, soon discovers he has mysteriously attained the ability to understand different languages and can even converse with his dog. These abilities will later on be explained by his being a Nephilim, the son of an angel and an earth woman. His self-discovery begins as a series of strange and unnatural events occurs and he meets a man who insists upon his prophetic destiny.
It was not so much the unfolding of the events that got me interested in the book as much as the concept of the story itself. The book challenges our commonly agreed-upon concept of angels; things I learned from years of Catholic schooling and the ones I learned from pop culture (in such movies as Dogma and Constantine). It deconstructs our fairytale notions of angels and even questions our ideas of what is good and what is evil.
The story is grounded in history and theology, but is simplified for everyone’s appreciation. The development of the story is exciting, though ironically, the most difficult parts for me to read were the climactic fight scenes.
When stripped down, The Fallen presents a plot that plays on the Matrix-like concept of the average Joe who becomes “the one.” The intricacies and sensitivity of the issues brought up by the novel make it an exciting and unexpectedly pleasurable read, even for those who are dubious about fantasy.
What to expect: heartwarming man-dog relationship, minimal romance, angels drinking whiskey and smoking cigarettes and references to The Dave Matthews Band.
