One Week in the Library

A man inhabits a mystical library where the stories come to life, but not always quite as you'd expect.

This book seemed neat as a concept. The art work is fantastic, including the cover art designed to look an old-fashioned library card record.

The story itself is rather slight and intentionally vague/open-ended. To me, it came off as a bit overly pretentious, as if it is trying very hard to be high-art literature (but not quite making it).

Reading it wasn't exactly enjoyable, although it wasn't exactly not enjoyable either. I'm not sure I'd recommend it, except for a very specific audience who likes books about books, fractured fairytales, etc.

I thought this was an interesting idea for a graphic novel. The individual stories were interesting and for the most part were a fresh take on old tales. I was left wanting a bit more in the end though, but it was good enough that I will look for more from the author. ***

I expected a much more avant-garde graphic novel that what I got; a fairly standard formatted graphic novel with some philosophical discussion, meta inter-textual interplay, and an extremely abrupt ending (that I actually liked). For something advertised as "play[ing] with the graphic medium," I expected a lot of interesting formatting and interplay between the images and text, and instead got a graphic novel that sometimes (once, I think) switched to prose.

Some of the stories, in particular the quasi-Pinocchio encounter and the fly leading to the bird to the spider to the pig to the farmer and his wife, were really interesting and thought-provoking (I very much appreciated that the emotion conveyed by the latter story was without show more words, and that Pinocchio was a coward but his refusal to accept the truth turned him into the furthest thing he wanted to be), and I enjoyed the story of Marigold. I was just expecting more.

The ending was a little groan-worthy with the self-insertion, but the abruptness of him leaving the Librarian, with all his loneliness and unhappiness, mid-sentence was somehow fitting. show less

Picked this one up yesterday. Quick read. Each chapter is a day at the library. I think it is a statement of how we use books, and the effect that they have on us. Enjoyable.

A man is alone in a Library, some of the stories manifest, he uses them to live and to try to understand this world he lives in.

Not bad but it did fall flat at the end with some post-modern fourth wall breakage.

Ummmm no. Like so many before me, I was greatly disappointed by this disjointed graphic … novel? It held promise. Such promise was, alas, dashed. ⭐️⭐️ because promise ain’t nothin’.

Meta-joy :D