A saccharine tale of two friends of a dying woman, charged by her to deliver her last words to others all across the USA. There are many tearful meetings. Almost nobody has a bad thing to say about the woman. The end was very predictable and, yes, boring. Plus religion had to be involved. After all that I ended the book with only minor insight into any of the three main characters. Pictures OK, story weak. ( )

Eh, I found the story to be jumbled and a little hard to follow. Some stories I don't think are suited to the graphic format and this is one of them. It is very much about relationships and how they change over time and I don't think the art really captured that sense of time moving, changing. I also didn't feel the characters were fleshed out enough. It was hard to see why these characters would be so closely tied together with how little information we got about each of them together or separately. ( )

ARC ebook provided by netGalley

Amelia Johnson is dying of cancer. But before she dies she asks her two best friends, Henry and Jillian, to undertake a journey together to deliver messages to six friends and family members spread out across the country. Henry is a filmmaker. Jillian is a writer. Both are opposites and have never met each other till now. Can they complete this one last wish for their best friend? Or will the journey fail?

The story at first really reminds me of the last episode of the TV show "Dawson's Creek" just in how it opens and the type of vibe that you get from the characters. And even though they use some trite ideas--a dying friend, two opposites put together on a journey alone--its told in a unique enough way to create an entirely different story. The writing does struggle at bit at times where it jumps from scene to scene without much of a transition, so that you don't really know how much time has passed or where the heck they are at the moment. It doesn't happen often, but it is a bit disconcerting when it does. Although the two main characters and most of the supporting characters are developed enough, I do wish they had left off the two guys that accompany Henry around. Because it really felt like overkill and we never really got to know them like some of the other characters, which is a shame because they seemed like they would have a good story to tell. It's a mostly well told story that keeps the reader going and the reader will weep at the end, even though they know whats coming. The story, even though a bit trite, is still something that anyone can relate to.

I really like the simplicity of the artwork in this book. It reminds me a lot of the classic Archie comic strip style...and no it isn't an insult. What the artist does well is use simple line and shading to illustrate the story. They never go overboard with detail or try to depict too much of the background where it would overwhelm the central figures to the story. Instead, by using just a basic approach they are able to put the focus on the central characters, which is what really matters to the story. They accurately capture human emotions so that even without reading the accompanying text we can tell what's going on. It works really well with the story.

I would give this book 3.5 out of 5 stars and I'd recommend it. I look forward to seeing what comes of the writers and artists next. ( )

It is no surprise to anyone here that I love graphic novels. Whenever a new one comes out, I can’t wait to devour it. Of course I try to be discerning about what I read, but when it comes to graphic novels...I gobble them all up! I picked up An Elegy for Amelia Johnson, basically, because it was on the shelf. I typically don’t like road trip stories but I thought I would take a chance on it because the illustrations looked interesting and it looked like it covered a lot of ground in under 125 pages. This novel met my expectations but, sadly, did not succeed them.

Amelia Johnson is ding of cancer when she contacts her two best friends, Henry and Jillian. Henry and Jillian have never met before but they’re about to get to know each other really well as Amelia sends them on a cross-country journey together. Henry has known Amelia almost all of his life but fell out of touch with her when she moved to New York City to go to college. This is when she befriended Jillian who was her roommate at Columbia University. The two women forged a bond that took them through some tumultuous times. However, they both emerged relatively unscathed. It is Amelia’s deathbed request that these two friends travel together across the country delivering DVDs on which Amelia has recorded her last words. Once on the road, Henry and Jillian realize that Amelia may have had ulterior motives when she chose them both to do this task. They also start to question if either of them ever knew Amelia.

This graphic novel has lofty goals. Any plot that involves deathbed requests AND a cross-country journey is striving a bit too hard to be sentimental and philosophical. I felt that the storyline was highly unrealistic and all of the characters were unlikeable. The emotional scavenger hunt to deliver Amelia’s last words did move the characters around but it didn’t help their development. It was clear from the synopsis on the back of the book what would happen in the end but even I was surprised by the amount of melodrama and cliches that were used. Overall, I think the illustrations were nice even if the story was weak. I think the author has room to grow and I look forward to reading his future works...but I may borrow them from the library instead of buying them.

www.iamliteraryaddicted.blogspot.com ( )

Amelia Johnson is losing her battle iwth cancer. She asks two close friends - documentary filmmaker Henry and writer Jillian - to travel the country to share her message with friends. Although the two begin the journey with many sparring moments, they ultimately realize Amelia's secret objective: to bring her friends together as a couple by sending them out on the task. Easy-to-read, rich with characters, and touching, the title is highly recommended. (139) ( )