I’ve read enough Penny Reid now that I can tell you what I like about her books. She’s very funny and she uses first person narration incredibly effectively. Often one’s inner life can be so different from one’s public persona and that juxtaposition, when done well, greatly adds to the characterization. That said, Elements of Chemistry also got this response from me, spoken out loud and with a great deal volume: She needs to be punched in the head. But more on that later. Kaitlyn […]
Get your kicks on route sixty-six
The book opens with an Allen Ginsberg-ish beat poet and a Neal Cassady-esque novelist squabbling over who is actually the true artist and free spirit, blah blah blah. Then they set off on the road (arr arr). After the events of Blacksad: A Silent Hell, John and Weeks are parting ways at the airport in New Orleans. Weeks has to get back to the city and his job at the paper. John is flat broke (after refunding his fee in the previous case) and needs […]
Yeah the devil’s gonna get you man, as soon as you’s born
In A Silent Hell, John Blacksad and his reporter pal Weekly head down to New Orleans and become involved in searching for a missing blues musician. Right off the bat, the look of this book is arresting. Bringing the Crescent city to life. From the rainy shadowed city scapes of the first book, we are thrust firmly into the Louisiana sunshine. And my, is it ever grand. The dappled sunlight, the bustling street and of course the color and chaos of Mardi Gras. Just ravishing. The […]
Nobody can live without a past
John Blacksad is a private eye, the real deal, straight out of a Dashiell Hammett novel or a delicious film noir. He’s got a complicated love life, an uneasy relationship with the local cops and, often, an eye for vengeance. Oh, did I mention that Blacksad is a cat? But see, it’s not the Disney or R Crumb kind of cat. He’s not a cat doing human stuff. John and the other animal characters in this book are humans (and all their quirks and foibles) […]