Don Hertzfeldt

I feel like you either love Don Hertzfeldt or you don't, but I happen to be someone who loves his work, and oh boy, does this deliver. I starts out delightfully humorous at first, with the spin on the back of the hardcover, the copyright page, the 'other books by' page, and then it becomes fragmented, connecting and touching back to earlier works (not that it's necessary to have seen them to read this). The narrative develops slowly, and then in typical Hertzfeldt fashion becomes alarming, show more delightful, despairing, horrifying, hopeful, existential.

I devoured it at once, and I am looking forward to devouring it more slowly. If you like his animation and his other art, you will like this book. show less

Life on Earth does its thing; meanwhile, the universe.

The short, silly, non-religious, cartoon version of Tree of Life. Its visuals might not inspire the same sense of awe (although they are impressive by normal standards), but it is infinitely more watchable. Also, first.

Concept: C
Story: D
Characters: C
Dialog: A
Pacing: A
Cinematography: B
Special effects/design: A
Acting: B
Music: A

Enjoyment: A

GPA: 3.1/4

A man with unspecified neurological problems, chapter two.

The comedy of the Beautiful Day trilogy, and Hertzfeldt's masterpiece. I can't think of anything else that combines hilarity and beauty like this, keeping both of them going at the same time. The sequence in which we learn Bill's family history is probably the best thing from any film I've ever seen.

Concept: B
Story: C
Characters: B
Dialog: A
Pacing: A
Cinematography: A
Special effects/design: A
Acting: A
Music: A

Enjoyment: A plus

GPA: 3.7/4

I didn't know what to expect with The End of the World by Don Hertzfeldt. However, I do like graphic novels, so I decided I'd give this one a try. When I won a copy of this book in Goodreads, I was over the moon!

First off, the illustrations are great. Don't go in expecting fantastic illustrations because these are not. They basic stick figure drawings...okay, maybe a tab better than just stick figures but not by much. I don't mean that in a bad way because I loved how simple the show more illustrations were. They fit the subject matter of this novel perfectly.

I loved how random this book was. I imagine it will leave some people confused because it seems a bit muddled and all over the place, but that's just the way it's meant to be, and it works. It made me appreciate this graphic novel that much more. It doesn't make sense, but yet, it does. You'll just have to read this graphic novel yourself to see what I'm getting out. It's hard to explain.

This is a very quick read since most of it is illustrations with a quick sentence. I think it took me all of about 15 minutes to read, give or take a few minutes.

I would definitely recommend The End of the World by Don Hertzfeldt. It won't be everyone's cup of tea, but it was definitely my cup of hot cocoa!
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Thanks to the publisher for sending me a paperback ARC of The End of the World by Don Hertzfeldt. I won this title in a Goodreads giveaway and was not obligated to write a review. show less