Leigh DragoonBesprekingen

Absolutely delightful. Fun alternate take on the original with fun, quirky art.

I liked the art style, but the story itself was vague and full of plot holes, not to mention unfinished (particularly since there doesn't seem to be a sequel in sight.)

Beautiful graphics but the story was a little bit clunky. We need some backstory on evony even though we get a little bit of it. I did like the humor of the profit which and her guard…A little bit of a comedy team. I want to know how the profit which was banned along with the guard. That was not really explained. I think middle schoolers would like this, I’m curious to see if there’s going to be a sequel.

Some parts of this were very charming, but a bit mediocre overall. I thought the art style was unique. I loved witty Ymyr! I'd read a book two.

I don't want to be harsh, because I think this title will be very appealing for kids. Magic, graphic novel, a call-out to the March sisters, and the inclusivity of Laurie and his grandfather as a Black family -- those are all super appealing.

To me, as an adult, it just didn't work.
1: Changing all the various talents that the girls have in the original to magic talents could have been very cool, had they been better explained. As it is, I mostly just felt like this book was trying to superimpose motivations on the characters to fit the plot, because that was the plot in the original story, and not because it made any sense for this group of characters where they are.

2: I do not think that trying to encompass magic as a motivation for the Civil War works very well at all in this instance, because in this instance it felt like it diminished the role slavery and racism had in the real war and tokenized the Black characters.

3: There's a ton of unintentional shorthand in here -- for example, Aunt Josephine's crankiness about the Marchs and their "Transcendentalist ways" is very sketchily explained. The clothing everyone is wearing is generic and not at all appropriate to the time period -- not that anything stood out as egregiously modern, but nothing genuinely looked authentic, either. There's just a lot of stuff like that, where the details are left behind because it is assumed that the reader read the original and will appreciate how bringing magic to the story makes it magical. That's not how it works, really. That's lazy storytelling.

Dang, I didn't mean to be so grumpy about it, but I really wasn't impressed, and I wanted to be.

Advanced Readers Copy provided by Oni Press

Little Women is one of my favorite classic novels, so when I saw this was a mashup of Little Women plus WITCHES, I was super excited. The resulting comic is a little light on plot, with lots of promise but not enough development to be satisfying.
In this retelling, Laurie is a Black teen living with his Black, formerly enslaved grandfather. The way the comic is colored, it's nearly impossible to differentiate the grandfather's skin from his features. I could have excused it since the illustrations overall aren't highly defined and carry a whimsical feel common to children's graphic novels... but the white characters are lit properly. This felt like a clumsy attempt to tie slavery to the narrative without taking the time to metaphorically and physically draw the Black grandfather as a full person.
Magic is used in the South by slaveowners to keep enslaved people restricted to their property and for punishment. This does come into play late in the book, but it didn't work as a way to mash together the Little Women callbacks and the magic worldbuilding in the story.

Overall, I wanted too much and the book ended up as something I won't be recommending for purchase at my library.

A bland reimagining of the March sisters as witches. The world-building is rather vague with the time and setting being the same as the original Little Women novel, but there are lots of witches, but some are hunted and others are considered okay if they are registered and behaved. The witch stuff actually doesn't seem that important, as it's all rather dull family life minutiae reflecting the source material until a villain and a big confrontation are tossed in for some excitement at the end.

The art is okay, but I did have frequent trouble telling apart Beth, Jo, Meg, and Marmee. Come to think on it, their personalities were a bit hard to distinguish also.

Anyhow, it's all blandity, bland, bland, bland.

I'll start with the good: it was an action packed dystopian just like I was promised. The leads weren't the average trope for the genre. And Leigh Dragoon is an epic name. After that, this fell flat on its face.

Now some of this might be because I read the graphic novel and this was originally a book to complex to adapt properly, but I have to review this on what I read. The plot was underdeveloped, and the novel was under the impression that I already knew what was going on and gave me no hints as to what the world was like and the characters. The character development was lacking. The world wasn't explained either. At first I thought it was in placed warped and different from ours like in The Hunger Game, but suddenly the States were still existing. Everything was just lacking and I came out of this almost the same as when I went in. I feel like it was expecting me to read the book first and just know what was going on.

IN a future where war is ever present and the poor are oppressed one boy grows to be a hero to people but the powers that be want him dead.

Interesting but now I want to read the book.½

Fighting with purpose brought Day and June together. She thinks he is the enemy until she takes the time to understand his purpose and what the Republic is trying to accomplish. Common goal brings a united fight!

I received a copy of this book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions expressed here are my own.

3.5 stars really

Little Witches is a graphic novel based on the classic Little Women.

When witchfinders move into the house next door, the Marches must hide their magic in fear that they will be blamed for the things that have been disappearing in Concord. Soon though, those missing objects become missing people. Laurie, one of their new neighbours, and Jo try investigating on their own. A strong storm soon takes hold of Concord and a stronger magic than either the Marches or Laurie have seen before is at play here. The question is, can the defeat it? Or is it too strong to fight against?

I really enjoyed reading Little Witches. I thought that the art style was very simple and cute, an artist style that I think is very good for younger readers (this book is categorised as a middle grade book on NetGalley). This book followed a very simple plot. It was very easy to follow when reading. You also don’t need to have read or know Little Women, which this is based on/inspired by, to enjoy or understand the story.

My only complaints would be that I felt that the ending was too simple and the conclusion as to why things and people were going missing, as well as the storm hitting Concord, was too short. It felt like the climax of the story fell a bit short. It felt like the mystery was building, the identity of the villainous mage was revealed, the danger was building and then it was quickly resolved and the story was finished in a few pages. I left me feeling a little disappointed.

I also would have liked a little more magic. There is some magic shown but I would have liked to have seen more. If there is any more books in this book they might explore the magic in more detail. As Amy started learning magic from their Aunt Josephine. Jo, Beth and Meg’s magic was briefly introduced and explained so I think it would be really interesting if their magic could be explored further.

I received a copy of this book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions expressed here are my own.

Little Witches is a graphic novel based on the classic Little Women.

When witchfinders move into the house next door, the Marches must hide their magic in fear that they will be blamed for the things that have been disappearing in Concord. Soon though, those missing objects become missing people. Laurie, one of their new neighbours, and Jo try investigating on their own. A strong storm soon takes hold of Concord and a stronger magic than either the Marches or Laurie have seen before is at play here. The question is, can the defeat it? Or is it too strong to fight against?

I really enjoyed reading Little Witches. I thought that the art style was very simple and cute, an artist style that I think is very good for younger readers (this book is categorised as a middle grade book on NetGalley). This book followed a very simple plot. It was very easy to follow when reading. You also don’t need to have read or know Little Women, which this is based on/inspired by, to enjoy or understand the story.

My only complaints would be that I felt that the ending was too simple and the conclusion as to why things and people were going missing, as well as the storm hitting Concord, was too short. It felt like the climax of the story fell a bit short. It felt like the mystery was building, the identity of the villainous mage was revealed, the danger was building and then it was quickly resolved and the story was finished in a few pages. I left me feeling a little disappointed.

I also would have liked a little more magic. There is some magic shown but I would have liked to have seen more. If there is any more books in this book they might explore the magic in more detail. As Amy started learning magic from their Aunt Josephine. Jo, Beth and Meg’s magic was briefly introduced and explained so I think it would be really interesting if their magic could be explored further.

This is the graphic novel of the third Vampire Academy book. I enjoyed it since it follows the general story; however, much of the characterization and plot tension is lost in this format.½

2.75