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kdahlo's review
2.0
I didn't realize this is a graphic novel adaptation of the musical which is itself an adaptation of a book. Doesn't work! The story line is fine, but there are a lot of dropped plot lines and motifs, weak characterization. I think this work was leaning too much on the musical and that structure, failed to fully adapt to the graphic novel format. Interesting art but I found it a bit unpleasant, and not really fitting with the story in any special way. Kind of spare in a 'Nancy' way, but not tightly inked. Didn't work for me.
_joy_'s review against another edition
dark
funny
inspiring
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
carolineinthelibrary's review
1.0
This was…weird to say the least. I don’t love the way the writing treats women or people who aren’t popular. I didn’t care at all about Jeremy or his success. In fact, when things were going his way it felt manipulative and sorta gross.
lotusgreenleaf's review
2.0
(this took such a long time to write lmao)
WHAT
WAS
THIS?!?!??!?!
I'm really confused. Why did I hate this book so much? I don't understand. This is thebook GRAPHIC NOVEL of my second favorite musical. I love the plot of the musical. I love the characters in the musical. THE ENDING MADE SENSE IN THE MUSICAL? AHHH
So I'm going to talk about each major part of the book, and then compare it to the musical. Hope this is interesting lmao.
Plot
MUSICAL: Jeremy is a loser. He kind of sucks lol. So he gets some drugs- I MEAN A PILL FROM JAPAN from the short kid who bullies him. Jeremy takes the dru-PILL and bam he's cool now. And his one friend Micheal (the best character) gets sad because Jeremy is blocking him from his life(like, the squip[that's the drug-I mean pill] is making it so that Jeremy can't see Michael.) Then Jeremy comes to his senses, chugs some Mountain Dew, and now everything is fine. (this is a very condensed recap, a lot more s**t goes down)
BOOK: Jeremy is a loser. He really sucks. He has one friend, Micheal, who is kinda a jerk not gonna lie. He has a crush on a girl named Christine Caligula, who is once again, a jerk. Christine is dating a guy named Jake. Jeremy joins theater to try to get closer to Christine, but she's a jerk and ignores him. So then Jeremy gets a SQUIP. And then he's cool. So he becomes friends with some girls and stuff, but Christine is still a jerk. Then there's a party, and Jeremy goes to it. He invites Micheal, WHO IS STILL BEING A JERK and kinda ditches him. Christine and Jeremy have a conversation in the backyard and are interrupted by Rich, who is clearly drunk. See, when someone is drunk, their squip deactivates. Then Rich sets a fire and burns down Jake's house(WHOAAAAA I THOUGHT I WAS DREAMING EVERYBODY WAS SCREAMING). And then Micheal and Jeremy are friends again and WRITE CHRISTINE A BOOK???? WHAT???
Ending
Art
Sooo the musical obviously doesn't have drawings, so I'm going to talk about the choreography instead.
I love the choreography in BMC, it's really good(especially at the end of More Than Survive, it's amazing. Go watch a slime tutorial right now). I wasn't a big fan of the art style in the graphic novel. It was boring and kinda lazy. The art is important to the story, so if the art isn't good, my opinion of the book goes down. :/
Overall opinion
I didn't like this book that much, the musical is better in every aspect. I can't think of a single thing this book did better, and I'm very disappointed. Hopefully the actual novel is better than this disaster. :/
WHAT
WAS
THIS?!?!??!?!
I'm really confused. Why did I hate this book so much? I don't understand. This is the
So I'm going to talk about each major part of the book, and then compare it to the musical. Hope this is interesting lmao.
Plot
Spoiler
MUSICAL: Jeremy is a loser. He kind of sucks lol. So he gets some drugs- I MEAN A PILL FROM JAPAN from the short kid who bullies him. Jeremy takes the dru-PILL and bam he's cool now. And his one friend Micheal (the best character) gets sad because Jeremy is blocking him from his life(like, the squip[that's the drug-I mean pill] is making it so that Jeremy can't see Michael.) Then Jeremy comes to his senses, chugs some Mountain Dew, and now everything is fine. (this is a very condensed recap, a lot more s**t goes down)
BOOK: Jeremy is a loser. He really sucks. He has one friend, Micheal, who is kinda a jerk not gonna lie. He has a crush on a girl named Christine Caligula, who is once again, a jerk. Christine is dating a guy named Jake. Jeremy joins theater to try to get closer to Christine, but she's a jerk and ignores him. So then Jeremy gets a SQUIP. And then he's cool. So he becomes friends with some girls and stuff, but Christine is still a jerk. Then there's a party, and Jeremy goes to it. He invites Micheal, WHO IS STILL BEING A JERK and kinda ditches him. Christine and Jeremy have a conversation in the backyard and are interrupted by Rich, who is clearly drunk. See, when someone is drunk, their squip deactivates. Then Rich sets a fire and burns down Jake's house(WHOAAAAA I THOUGHT I WAS DREAMING EVERYBODY WAS SCREAMING). And then Micheal and Jeremy are friends again and WRITE CHRISTINE A BOOK???? WHAT???
Ending
Spoiler
So in the musical, Jeremy gets rid of his squip and ends up with Christine. in the book, Jeremy still has his squip. So does he never get rid of his squip?? Also, what's with the book Jeremy and Micheal write and give to Christine??? I'm so confused by the endingArt
Sooo the musical obviously doesn't have drawings, so I'm going to talk about the choreography instead.
I love the choreography in BMC, it's really good(especially at the end of More Than Survive, it's amazing. Go watch a slime tutorial right now). I wasn't a big fan of the art style in the graphic novel. It was boring and kinda lazy. The art is important to the story, so if the art isn't good, my opinion of the book goes down. :/
Overall opinion
I didn't like this book that much, the musical is better in every aspect. I can't think of a single thing this book did better, and I'm very disappointed. Hopefully the actual novel is better than this disaster. :/
whitneymouse's review
3.0
I saw this at my local public library and I'm enough of a masochist that I knew I needed to read it despite thinking the original book is one of, if not the worst, books I've ever read and also being disillusioned with David Levithan after reading [b:Every Day|13262783|Every Day (Every Day, #1)|David Levithan|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1356993940l/13262783._SY75_.jpg|18464379].
Overall, this was a decent adaptation. It fixed a LOT of the issues that I had with the original book. To start with, Jeremy is more like the musical in that he's not already a terrible person pre-squip. He's just socially awkward (although they kept those weird tally sheets where he tracks how often each day people mock him). He doesn't objectify every girl he comes in contact with and is much more focused on Christine. The adaptation also got rid of the dad character (who was problematic on his own) and didn't reuse the 00s insults that had aged incredibly poorly. Christine mentions LGBT and non-binary people, which updates the book to be more inclusive and gets rid of the homophobic aspects of the original (which is unsurprising since this is routinely the one rep Levithan gets right).
Christine is still a mess as a character and honestly, I don't know how to write her in a way that would be more compelling without making her the main character, which would negate the rest of the story. In the original, she's very clear that she just got out of a serious relationship and is uninterested. In this one, her relationship with Jake is glossed over more and she seems more interested in Jeremy, but she comes across as very snide in many of her comments. She makes some comments that are a little much for someone she barely knows. Jeremy is weird, but she doesn't need to be rude.
Michael was updated to be Black now. I'm wondering if this was to reflect the casting decisions being made in the musical. I'm pleased with this change because the original version was very happy to appropriate various aspects of BIPOC culture, so this makes more sense.
The adaptation also got rid of the HORRENDOUS element of the first book where Jeremy witnesses a classmate sleeping with a girl and the boys in the school are piled in the door and taking pictures and video without her knowledge. The squip, while still misguided, gives less sexist advice (ex. in the original, he says "never be mean to a girl unless she's ugly", guys with girlfriends are so attractive to other women that they're "forced" to cheat, etc.).
The author's note says it's an adaptation of the book, not the musical, but there are nods to the musical throughout (ex. Michael sitting in a bathtub [in the original book, he's with his girlfriend], dialogue that says "Rich set a fire and he burned down the house", another bit of dialogue that says "It's better than drugs. It's a...quantum nanotechnology CPU.") It was fun to find some little Easter eggs if you're a musical fan.
The only other thing I want to highlight is that the art made a weird choice to use a limited palette where it's black and white except for a few pops of blue on each page. This would be interesting if it was used to highlight key aspects, which it is sometimes (ex. the Mountain Dew, the Squip pill, Chloe's eyes, etc.) but other times, it seems to just be so that it's not black and white (ex. lockers, the mall escalators, Michael's bedspread). I would've preferred this to be more purposeful.
Overall, I would be more likely to recommend this version of the story than I would the original book. This kept all the overarching story beats and plotline, but ditched the sexism, homophobia, and outdated insults. Much better.
Overall, this was a decent adaptation. It fixed a LOT of the issues that I had with the original book. To start with, Jeremy is more like the musical in that he's not already a terrible person pre-squip. He's just socially awkward (although they kept those weird tally sheets where he tracks how often each day people mock him). He doesn't objectify every girl he comes in contact with and is much more focused on Christine. The adaptation also got rid of the dad character (who was problematic on his own) and didn't reuse the 00s insults that had aged incredibly poorly. Christine mentions LGBT and non-binary people, which updates the book to be more inclusive and gets rid of the homophobic aspects of the original (which is unsurprising since this is routinely the one rep Levithan gets right).
Christine is still a mess as a character and honestly, I don't know how to write her in a way that would be more compelling without making her the main character, which would negate the rest of the story. In the original, she's very clear that she just got out of a serious relationship and is uninterested. In this one, her relationship with Jake is glossed over more and she seems more interested in Jeremy, but she comes across as very snide in many of her comments. She makes some comments that are a little much for someone she barely knows. Jeremy is weird, but she doesn't need to be rude.
Michael was updated to be Black now. I'm wondering if this was to reflect the casting decisions being made in the musical. I'm pleased with this change because the original version was very happy to appropriate various aspects of BIPOC culture, so this makes more sense.
The adaptation also got rid of the HORRENDOUS element of the first book where Jeremy witnesses a classmate sleeping with a girl and the boys in the school are piled in the door and taking pictures and video without her knowledge. The squip, while still misguided, gives less sexist advice (ex. in the original, he says "never be mean to a girl unless she's ugly", guys with girlfriends are so attractive to other women that they're "forced" to cheat, etc.).
The author's note says it's an adaptation of the book, not the musical, but there are nods to the musical throughout (ex. Michael sitting in a bathtub [in the original book, he's with his girlfriend], dialogue that says "Rich set a fire and he burned down the house", another bit of dialogue that says "It's better than drugs. It's a...quantum nanotechnology CPU.") It was fun to find some little Easter eggs if you're a musical fan.
The only other thing I want to highlight is that the art made a weird choice to use a limited palette where it's black and white except for a few pops of blue on each page. This would be interesting if it was used to highlight key aspects, which it is sometimes (ex. the Mountain Dew, the Squip pill, Chloe's eyes, etc.) but other times, it seems to just be so that it's not black and white (ex. lockers, the mall escalators, Michael's bedspread). I would've preferred this to be more purposeful.
Overall, I would be more likely to recommend this version of the story than I would the original book. This kept all the overarching story beats and plotline, but ditched the sexism, homophobia, and outdated insults. Much better.
thenextgenlibrarian's review
3.0
Interesting concept, one I know many students would take advantage of, if offered the chance. I never saw the Broadway show or read the novel. Might have to. I enjoyed this graphic novel adaptation. 3.5
wh101's review against another edition
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
jkenna1990's review
3.0
Eh, it was ok. I feel like every time I read one of Ned Vizzini's books, I end up not liking the main character. Also, the artwork wasn't that great. Character's faces would be distorted in weird ways and that was pretty jarring. It would take me out of the story.
I know the lesson this is trying to convey is be careful of technology, don't be to reliant on it! Combined with, be yourself! And sure I get it, I just think there books/graphic novels that did it better. Overall, I wouldn't really suggest this unless you are already a fan.
I know the lesson this is trying to convey is be careful of technology, don't be to reliant on it! Combined with, be yourself! And sure I get it, I just think there books/graphic novels that did it better. Overall, I wouldn't really suggest this unless you are already a fan.