Rob Reger

Full review: https://wanderinglectiophile.wordpress.com/2018/04/25/review-the-lost-days-emily...

I dearly loved this novel! Seriously. It was the exact change of pace I needed and turned out to be way better than I had anticipated.

The whole book is written in an epistolary style were Emily relays events and thoughts to you through journal entries. In among those entries you get the added bonus of sketches, doodles, photos, etcetera and it makes for the most wonderful reading experience. The show more story line was interesting and engaging. I was afraid that the plot line would be shallow and lost due to a focus being placed on the desired concept of the book (doodles, peculiar and strange characteristics, angst, etcetera) and not the story within, but it wasn’t. There is a legitimate and entertaining story to be experienced within the doodled and quirky journal entries.

Although Emily is in fact strange and peculiar, as well as an angst-y troublemaker, she’s still a very likable character. I marvel at the dept you get from her character in this book. Epistolary style writing tends to make it hard for me to connect with the characters, but that was never an issue in this book. Her character is clear and understandable throughout. The other peripheral characters are also felt out and interesting, which just makes the whole of it that much better.

I almost didn’t give this book a full five stars because it didn’t “fit” in with my other five star reads, but then I asked myself “Why the hell not?!” I really enjoyed this book and dinging it a star because it didn’t “fit” the mold seemed not only like an oxymoron but incredibly stupid of me. It’s now one of my favorites (as pretty much all my 5 star reads are) and has a permanent home on my bookshelf. show less

It's seemed odd to me when a backstory is made up for a character who was essentially created as a design icon. Emily the Strange is the epitome of "cute goth" and most of what's been written around the character in the past hasn't been all that great (the comics are a bit disappointing). But this was fun. Partly, I think, because she has amnesia for most of the book and is exploring her own character, solving a mystery, discovering the world, and actually making friends (which the character show more just does not normally do). The book doesn't take itself seriously at all, the illustrations are fun, and while a few things are left unresolved it wrapped up pretty well. show less

I bought this book last year for my nine year old – it’s written for young adults, but we fell in love with the cats. After a quick flick through, there was no subject matter to worry about, just some long words and a large quirk quotient. She loved it and has been pestering me to read it too ever since – so I did, and it utterly charmed me too with its madcap ways…

Emily the Strange started out as a design on T-shirts back in the early 1990s, and went from there to some art books, show more comics and finally an illustrated novel, (No 2 is imminent). But who is Emily? - here’s the blurb …

"13 years old. Able to leap tall buildings, probably, if she felt like it. More likely to be napping with her four black cats; or cobbling together a particle accelerator out of lint, lentils, and safety pins; or rocking out on drums/guitar/saxophone/zither; or painting a swirling feral sewer mural; or forcing someone to say “swirling feral sewer mural” 13 times fast … and pointing and laughing."

She’s certainly one of a kind – and no stranger to doing things for herself! The start of the novel, which is told in diary form, sees her waking up on a park bench in a strange town called Blackrock all on her own and she doesn’t remember a thing. But this amnesia doesn’t faze her at all, she sets out to find out who she is and what’s happening in the strange town. She adopts the coffee bar ‘El Dungeon’ as a home from home and sleeps in a box in the alley behind. Raven behind the counter looks after her and soon she adopts four lovely cats – or rather they adopt her…

There’s a definite dystopian/gothic/fantasy/steampunky/geeky feel to the book which I loved. Emily is one smart cookie; she’s a girl after my own heart being a list-maker, scientist and cat-lover. This is one black (with red highlights) covered book that bucks the trend – wonderful illustrations, a hip West-coast sensibility and vocabulary, high quirk quotient – and no vampires! Highly recommended. (9/10, I borrowed this book back from my daughter!). show less

Full review:
https://wanderinglectiophile.wordpress.com/2018/06/06/review-stranger-and-strang...

Once again, I am surprised at how much I enjoyed this book. No reason for that really, I just find it interesting that I have enjoyed ETS as much as I have.

Another strange, yet good story in the Emily the Strange world (see what I did there?? *nudges with elbow* Eh? Eh?). I found myself giggling out loud quite a lot with this book. Could be that there was more humorous content this time around or show more it could be that I’ve grown accustomed to Emily and how she navigates the world in her peculiar way. I want to say it’s the former, but I suspect it’s actually a combination of both. Regardless, I loved it.

Written in epistolary style again, we get to enjoy the candid journal entries of Emily as she deals with her latest scheme and subsequent mishap. As in the first book there are doodles, pictures, and such adorning the pages of the book that make reading it even more fun. I really like how well developed our protagonist’s (antagonist’s?) character is. She has very specific interests and proclivities and it makes her memorable and surprisingly, lovable. I am not a cat person myself, but I adore that Emily is. Her relationship with her cats is fun to read about, especially in this book (spoiler free, so I’m not saying why – but you can always contact me if you want to hear it from me). Although I found myself momentarily frustrated with the OtherMe situation, I have to admit, it certainly provided a sufficient amount of conflict to keep me wanting to see how the issue was resolved. I saw it coming, but I really liked the concept (magic system?) behind how Emily managed to duplicate herself – I wont say more in order to avoid spoiling it for anyone, but it was fun seeing how the two Emily’s moved through this story.

For a change of pace, an easy read, a fun read; I definitely recommend stepping into the world of Emily the Strange! show less