Jason ShigaBesprekingen

Gr 3–7—This next-level pick-your-path adventure—part maze, part comic—involves winding through multiple
choices and outcomes to conquer the Leviathan. The gender-neutral protagonist, simple illustrations, sea-inspired
palette, and ability to play over and over will attract and engage a variety of readers.

The book basically starts off with a long conversation about how fat people are undatable and sad, so there's that. Then it pretty much just follows around the main character as he pines after his best friend and, despite being 25 years old, giggles when someone says the word "fuck". Ha. Ha. Yeah, that's...funny. Real SNL humor here. Iconic. Wow.
The plot is boring and just kind of meanders, which could be fine, but it's paired with an uninteresting main character who lacks any significant personality traits. The artwork is pretty nice, but that's about all I liked in this book. ¯_(ツ)_/¯

Very quick read. Enjoyable, but not particularly memorable, this book addresses the often-addressed 20-something issue of how to grow up and connect when you feel unprepared for the real world.

An awesome Choose Your Own Adventure for the 21st Century. You follow Jimmy, a regular kid, from an ice cream store to a mad scientist's lab. The comic book panels are connected by tubes that branch off when you have to make a decision for Jimmy. You can follow hundreds, nay thousands, of different paths. When I first picked this up, I was lost in it for hours. The story gets into theories of quantum physics and time travel. It kind of blew my mind. This may not be for every kid, but those who love it will reeeeeeally love it.

clever and original. i would play with it all day except that i have work to do and really, i should return it to the shelves so that the kids could check it out. it's genius. i have a new crush...

A nice book, this. A good read, with some interesting formalist touches. I liked how much space he gives his panels (although that makes the book a quicker read than expected), and how Shiga uses different colouring to indicate different time periods.

Some of the dialogue is very good, particularly in the first half of the book. And I really liked just how out of place and unsophisticated Shiga manages to make his protagonist - some of the tech stuff was a little painful to read.

Overall, I wish this had been longer and more developed - what is there is good, but is far too slight to be satisfying.

I mentioned in another review (If) that I had gotten a sudden desire to try a game-book or Choose Your Own Adventure-type book again. This came up on a couple of searches.

It's quite a special little book - its pages are made from heavy plastic, and it's formatted as a comic, but where you have to follow little nodes to get to the next panel. Every time the node splits, you can choose which path to take, and then follow it onto little tabs to take you straight to the next page. There's a bit of puzzle-solving to do in order to get the good endings, or to find the secret panels. I probably spent a couple of hours going through each page to make sure I'd found everything. The story is a bit bonkers and definitely aimed at children, but has a few metaphysically difficult ideas too. What a sentence.

there's also a secret page which can only be found by turning the pages like a normal book!

Anyway I really enjoyed it. It felt like a unique experience.

Amazon recommended me this after I read [b:Meanwhile|7229730|Meanwhile|Jason Shiga|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1327878248l/7229730._SX50_.jpg|8075007], also by Shiga. This is a detective story that relies heavily on knowledge of 1970s library systems and book-binding techniques, and it's wonderfully geeky. It takes itself seriously while also revelling in how ridiculous its premise is, and I liked that.

I kept getting caught in the same loops over and over. And when I finally got to the endings...whaaaat?? Arghhh, I'm a busy adult, I don't have time for this! That said, I can see kids getting into it. Go for it, kids!

Fun and different and should keep my kiddo busy for years!

I really enjoyed Shiga's earlier book Meanwhile. I was loking forward to the concept of this one, but feel it is a bit lacking. I think it would have been improved if there had been more puzzle elements. I won't spoil it, but I found the solution a bit disapointing.
I received an advance reader's copy from the publisher.

I've never encountered a choose-your-own-adventure in graphic novel form, and Meanwhile's series of tubes and tabs allows for an effortless read. But what truly makes this book unique is that its "pick any path" nature is actually relevant---even essential---to the story, itself. Very, very clever....

*reviewed from uncorrected egalley*

adult graphic novel. clever and original--I appreciate the correct grammar, though sometimes it gets a bit too crude/violent, by which I mean sometimes it gets extremely crude/violent--fortunately it's in a graphic format that can be easily skimmed to the next scene.

reviewed from uncorrected egalley (netgalley)

graphic novel (probably R rating for violence). second installment in which Jimmy continues to outsmart his would-be captors (which still involves killing lots of innocent people), finds out more about his demon-ness, and also finds a reason to live. I would probably read a third, if there is going to be one, but not sure where it might go from there.

reviewed from uncorrected egalley.

graphic novel. NOT FOR KIDS. Clever and original new series that will make you root for the main character, even though he's horrible.

originally read (print) 11-08-2011? Graphic novel. When one friend moves across country, the other friend follows her--but will it end well? Lots of touching and funny moments, and a small glimpse into the work of a public library clerk (though I doubt I've heard anyone but Demco say the word "Mylar" quite that much). Loosely inspired by the author's experiences riding a bus across the nation.

reread update (ebook): graphic fiction - Jason Shiga returns with his dark humor in a botched love story of sorts where 25 y.o. Chinese-American library employee Jimmy Yee makes a road trip (by bus) to meet his Jewish best friend (a book editor) Sara at the top of the Empire State building on President's Day.

february 2024 bingo challenge: cover is pink or red, takes place in New York City (and Oakland, California), published over 10 years ago, under 290 pages, reread

I bought this book a few years ago and read several of the scenarios. There is one in particular that relates to the Choose Your Own Adventure book "Inside UFO 54-40" and a solution to it that I always found a bit confounding. My son stumbled on this one today and loved it - it has to be seen to enjoy it.

This book is a visual choose your own adventure, very cleverly laid out. It involves complicated physics and metaphysics discussion in a fairly easy to understood manner. It is not a simple matter to come up with the solution, and the fun is playing through the many different scenarios.

I discovered this book and the movie "Primer" at the same time on a blog post. Both of them are connected and very interesting.

It was fun to see that Gene Luen Yang (author of American Born Chinese which I have just read) gave praise to the book on the back cover, as well as both R.A. Montgomery and Edward Packard, names that Choose Your Own Adventure fans will recognize.

Not an entirely original story - boy loves girl but is afraid to tell her, but when girl moves away boy goes after her across the country - but a decent execution. I found the bouncing between past and present a bit jarring and even though Shiga uses colour to indicate what's in the present and what's in past, it's still confusing at times. A few sweet moments but a bit of a 'so what?' book for me.

Yeah, I needed this. I forget why I put it on hold in the first place, but I'm happy that past-kate was on the ball. This is a hilariously dark book about a guy who learns that when his body dies, his consciousness just moves into the next person over. Jimmy gets pretty adept (and real creative) at killing himself, it's pretty impressive. I'm rooting for him through his blatant disregard for human life.

A visual "choose your own adventure" book. The stories were good, but it was the method Shiga used that intrigued me the most.

When I got this book, my first thought was, "I am too old for this book." And I couldn't figure it out. But I spent more time with it, and I think it's way cool. I can see a lot of kids really loving it. My other reservations about graphic novels (for me as a reader) still stand, but this format is super creative- bringing the choose-your-own-adventure concept to a whole new place.

Choose your own adventure, comic edition.

The slaughter comes to a conclusion with a bang and a whimper as the finale continues to make imaginative use of its central concept of immortality for action sequences but leads to a confusing and muddled ending. Still, it's a fun thrill ride up till then.

3,856 story possibilities deeply entwined. Nice, but still eh.