Merry Christmas. We may need to dispense with the cold/snow songs. They’re about as realistic as Santa at this point.
Mandarin Plaid ****
SJ Rozan continues to improve with each book in this series. This one has layers and moves well to its conclusion. I’m not gonna be totally sold on a white person writing from the perspective of an AAPI one but I think Rozan does a better job with it than she did in the first one. May have to go long with this series.
Lady Killer, Volume One ****
Pulpy fun. A fine way to pass a pleasant afternoon. Hit Woman story for the Mad Men Era. Will check out book two at some point.
Zatanna: The Jewel of Gravesend****
The artwork, the friendship group hopping around Coney Island, the evocative boardwalk summer nights are all awesome. The magic is eh. The Romeo and Juliet romance and all that intra-family drama is bleh. But I enjoyed it enough to want to see if they’ll come out with a second.
Batman, Volume 6: Graveyard Shift****
As per usual, I enjoy Snyder’s special curlicues on the Batman stories. Some of these are good, the Arkham one is really good and the teasers to Zero Year are great callbacks to one of my favorite arcs.
A Friend is a Gift You Give Yourself*****
Not as tightly written as I remember but still a ton of fun. Rena is the character that makes this story for me. That Boyle grounds her and builds off of her makes her persona and plight feel genuine and thus the rest of the story can move as well as it does. It’s a cinematically written book that’s crying out for a sepia toned film.
Joe Dogs: The Life and Crimes of a Mobster***
This book was so gloriously stupid. As someone who loves mob tales, I appreciated its unvarnished, irreverent look at 70s-80s mob life in Florida. Not a lot has been written about that specific locale despite its outsized importance to mobsters. It’s also hilarious that this mope is the one who brought down so many big shots. Shakespeare it ain’t but I enjoyed it immensely.
