Reviews

Empire State: A Love Story by Jason Shiga

amanda1793's review

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4.0

Cute. Fast paced. Rather realistic love-ish story.

Art is cute, colour palette is interesting, switching between the reddy-pink and blue.

Overall, I liked the story. I found it was a little fast, almost like a "Oh, they actually like each other...? Maybe?..." Because there really isn't a definitive response to that aspect of the story... I'd recommend this.

dembury's review

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2.0

The book basically starts off with a long conversation about how fat people are undatable and sad, so there's that. Then it pretty much just follows around the main character as he pines after his best friend and, despite being 25 years old, giggles when someone says the word "fuck". Ha. Ha. Yeah, that's...funny. Real SNL humor here. Iconic. Wow.
The plot is boring and just kind of meanders, which could be fine, but it's paired with an uninteresting main character who lacks any significant personality traits. The artwork is pretty nice, but that's about all I liked in this book. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

cosmonautchris's review

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emotional funny lighthearted reflective fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

A delightful book with fun yet stylish art, the story is both poignant and charming, with some nice laughs along the way. Jason Shiga is one of the great unsung heroes of indie comics scene. 

sparklethenpop's review

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4.0

I'll have to look for more from him, this was a quick read but I enjoyed it.

kim161084's review

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3.0

An unfinished and kinda typical love story (or not) between two friends where one could never tell the girl that he has feelings for her, and they remain being friends until the end of the book. It's a feeling of regret but that's how life is, isn't it? Things happen, and we have to accept it no matter how much regret we feel. Anyway, cute story and illustrations!!!

thisisstephenbetts's review

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3.0

A nice book, this. A good read, with some interesting formalist touches. I liked how much space he gives his panels (although that makes the book a quicker read than expected), and how Shiga uses different colouring to indicate different time periods.

Some of the dialogue is very good, particularly in the first half of the book. And I really liked just how out of place and unsophisticated Shiga manages to make his protagonist - some of the tech stuff was a little painful to read.

Overall, I wish this had been longer and more developed - what is there is good, but is far too slight to be satisfying.

daftplum's review

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3.0

It was good, but it ended so abruptly. I feel like there's still a story to be told, and I finished knowing less than before I started.

sducharme's review

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3.0

This is a reflective kind of story where not too much happens on the surface but probably the main character is growing and learning within. My issue was that I couldn't really tell where he was heading at the end, figuratively. I love the style of the art and the use of color to mark time periods. The dialogue flowed fine. I didn't care for the girl character too much - she seemed unworthy of the guy's interest. And he was a bit of a dud so I could see why she didn't really go for him too much.

hollyollyoxenfree's review

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1.0

Huh. I don't really know what to say about this one. In theory, this sounded like my type of book. In reality, I don't think I was the target audience at all. I guess the art was interesting, but I just really wasn't into the story or the characters at all, so that was disappointing for me. Sorry, I really wanted to like this one, but it just didn't connect at all.

sevenworlds's review

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3.0

A 3.5. Shows fantastic potential, but this book was way too short! I wanted to see more of all the different sections: Oakland in the past, present day Oakland, Jimmy's bus trip and time in NYC - they all felt a bit sparse. It had lovely depth of feeling and captured some very authentic and true moments.