Mount Readmore Book Review, 2018 27/200
Meanwhile By Jason Shiga
Hardback Edition
Finished on 2/23/2018
Description:
Chocolate or Vanilla? This simple choice is all it takes to get started with Meanwhile, the wildly inventive creation of comics mastermind Jason Shiga, of whom Scott McCloud said “Crazy + Genius = Shiga.” Jimmy, whose every move is under your control, finds himself in a mad scientist’s lab, where he’s given a choice between three amazing objects: a mind-reading device, a time-travel machine, or the Killitron 3000 (which is as ominous as it sounds). Down each of these paths there are puzzles, mysterious clues, and shocking revelations. It’s up to the reader to lead Jimmy to success or disaster.
Genres: Graphic Novel, Sequential Art, Children’s, Sci Fi, YA, choose-your-own-adventure
Chocolate Ice Cream: Destroying Mankind since 2010
Spoiler-ific review
Time travel! Mind reading! Genocide boxes! This book has it all! Can you solve the mystery before it’s too late?
This is a choose-your-own-adventure-esque graphic novel, where you make diverging choices on behalf of the character, where your choices influence the fate of mankind. One of the choices you make early on destroys mankind, and you then have to solve multiple puzzles to bring everyone back to life.
This mind-bending book was fun to read from beginning to end. You are a little kid who must choose between chocolate and vanilla ice crime, and that choice will determine the fate of the planet. If you do accidentally wipe out mankind, it’s up to you to set everything right using a mad scientist’s inventions for good.
I’ll admit that as an author I’m in awe of the amount of work which went into hand illustrating this work of art. Everything is hand drawn, and by and large everything could be understood. However I was sleepy when I read this, and I made mistakes because the illustrations are hard to understand from just a glance. I think this would have been better on a computer, being able to click links to go from page to page… but I’m nitpicking. As a work of art this was fantastic, and I’m impressed by the author’s discipline.
Highly recommended if you are a parent and you want to get a gift for your kid.
Stay Sunny!
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