Reviews

Virgil by Steve Orlando

aki_flyte's review

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adventurous dark emotional tense fast-paced

5.0

cassmensah5's review

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adventurous challenging dark tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.75

crookedtreehouse's review against another edition

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4.0

If you've ever wondered what Kill Bill would be like if it took place in Jamaica, The Bride was queer, and the violence was played out by gun wielding cops instead of samurai swords, Virgil is your answer. [a:Steve Orlando|7214373|Steve Orlando|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1490717931p2/7214373.jpg] has written a really intense story about a Jamaican police force discovering that one of their own officers was gay and setting out to destroy his life.

It's a good story but it's very neatly wrapped up through the eyes of someone who liked their protagonist too much to make the story believable. Which is fine, there aren't a lot of believable revenge stories out there, but I wanted this one to be more realistic.

[a:JD Faith]'s art is strong, and he set up some interesting page layouts that, sadly, were a bit swallowed in the trade.

Overall, I enjoyed this book enough to read it twice, and had forgotten the shortcomings between readings but remembered the high points. It's short and self-contained enough that I'd be happy to read it again at some point.

heytayashleigh's review against another edition

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challenging dark tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? N/A

3.0


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tikitoka's review

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challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

cmcrockford's review

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4.0

Terrific art from J.D. Faith and some fierce ownage, though I'd like to hear smarter people than me talk about the queersploitation here.

perleerose's review

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dark emotional sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

the colors in this book are just *chef’s kiss*

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carroq's review

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2.0

Meh. That about sums up my feelings on this book. Virgil is the story of a gay police officer in Jamaica that gets outed, is beaten and left for dead, and goes on a killing spree.

This book does a great job of shining a light on how gays can be treated in society, whether intentionally or not. It's disturbing to see how quickly these characters turn on each other mostly because I could see it happening, although probably without the same level of violence shown in the book. For all that, I felt like the book was lacking in depth.

The illustrations are done well, but the color choices were odd. The vibrancy works for the locale and the subject matter. However, some images used colors that were so different from what the reader might expect that they seemed out of place. This book goes all out in so many ways. It might have been better served by toning something back.

esselleayy's review against another edition

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3.0

Straight up violent revenge fantasy made interesting with its queersploitation twist. We aren't given much reason to care for the characters or to really know them because Virgil gets to the asskicking/bloodspilling immediately. You'll root for him anyway.

nobodyatall's review against another edition

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3.0

Nice colours, fairly simplistic, rather violent.