Morning Glories, Vol. 1: For a Better Future (edition 2011)

This was a strange book, but I had to keep reading to find out what was going on. It's a bit violent, but the story and characters grabbed me and kept me reading. Of course it leaves you hanging- guess I'll have to read the next one. ( )

A group of teens from different countries and backgrounds converge on a prestigious prep school. They discover they all have the same birthday which is the beginning of mysterious events. There are creepy teachers, a weird ghost thing, and the new students find they are cut off from the outside and that their families seem to have lost all memory of them. The art work in very detailed and show off the well built physiques of the characters. ( )

A friend of mine was posting on tumblr about this series and it looked interesting enough for me to read and so I managed to get a copy. She was right, it was AWESOME. It's about a very creepy high school and some new students who are trying to fight back -- and it's not going very where. There's death and violence, there's gore and love and some of the best art I've seen in a graphic novel. Definitely not for the faint of heart, but it's perfect for me. ( )

Full review posted on Across the Litoverse

Morning Glory Academy is one of the most prestigious prep schools in America—as the collection opens, six troubled teens pack their lives into a single suitcase each and tie up loose ends in their hometowns. Casey's thrilled with her scholarship, while Ike's mother can't believe the school would scout her psychopathic son. Zoe's a serial dater with a disinterest in school, Hunter's a Canadian sweetheart from a broken home, Jade (formerly Jane) has an obsession with vampires and a clear stalker streak, and Fukayama Jin has a quick wit and a killer's instinct. However, once the teens arrive on campus—in a drug-induced blackout, no less—their fight for survival begins, and the mysteries behind these hallowed doors reveal themselves one by one…

Nick Spencer's written quite the introduction to his series, and his main cast possesses quite the loveable crew of anti-heroes. I took an immediate shine to Casey, the blonde bombshell who's also the leader of the new recruits. She's clever, organized, and she puts a bit of fear into her über-sadistic teachers. Also, I will have to honour fellow Canadian, Hunter—his talents have yet to be seen at this point (aside from his good-natured, beta-male approach to this murderous new life), but I get the sense he's got a few tricks hidden up his sleeves.

I found Joe Eisma's panels were well-structured and the pacing of the horrific scenes was good—the nightmarish images averaged about one-per-comic and tended to occur after a page flip (again adding to the general warning at the start of this post…). I did find some of the artwork became repetitive at times and duplicate panels or panels with minimal differences between them were regular features.

I expect I'll pick up the next volume in the series, if only to delve deeper into the dark secrets of Morning Glory Academy. Of course, next time around, I'll make sure to start reading well before 10 PM…

Ideal for: Readers craving a labyrinthine mystery in their sci fi horror; Teens looking for clever, convoluted, sixteen-year-old protagonists; Fans of secret societies, government training programs, or other sinister (and lowdown) groups. ( )

Summary: Morning Glory Academy (motto: For a Better Future) is one of the most prestigious - and secretive - prep schools in the country, but all there is not as it seems. Six new students, all from very different backgrounds, but all sharing the same birthday, arrive at the school, unsure of what to expect... but torture, murder, imprisonment, and giant secret laboratories were certainly not part of the brochure. Now they're going to have to work together if they ever have a hope of figuring out what's going on, and of escaping Morning Glory for good.

Review: I finished Volume 1 feeling pretty damn lost... but I can't tell yet whether it's a good kind of lost, or a bad kind of lost. There's a lot going on, with not a lot of explanation for anything, and I finished this volume in a "what the hell just happened here" kind of daze. I liked the characters; the kids are an assortment of high school cliches (snobby rich kid, bumbling nice-guy nerd, etc.), but there's at least a hint that they've all got more going on under the surface. The adults were less well-defined, and I occasionally had a hard time telling if a given adult was someone we'd seen before, or just a random henchman. I also had a hard time piecing together the geography of the place, which seems to have an endless number of sinister sub-basements and dim hallways and hidden rooms, but also brightly-lit dorms and classrooms. I'm definitely interested enough in the story to keep reading, but I just hope that as the series progresses, at least some of the pieces start to fall into place. 3.5 out of 5 stars.

Recommendation: Morning Glories is about half dystopia, half action movie, mixed with a healthy dose of boarding school story, so if that sounds appealing, and you don't mind not getting all (or any) of the answers right away, then dive in. ( )