Review: Chew, Volume 1: Taster's Choice by John Layman and Rob Guillory

Quick hit - here's a comic I read. I haven't picked up comics lately, but I was amused by the concept of this one: the main character can see the past history of everything (except beets) when he ingests it. Set in a slightly future time where chicken has been banned due to bird flu, our lead starts as a cop going after a gang member and ends up being recruited by the FDA for his unusual talent.

The artwork is interesting, if also regularly gross due to content. With the exception of a few faces that for some reason repulsed me more than was appropriate, I thought it was quite well drawn. It's odd but amusing, and I'll continue on with the next volume.

Review: Bedlam Boyz by Ellen Guon

I read this book because it was available free as an ebook, but I can't really recommend it. It's a coming of age / discovery of magic novel with a backdrop of gang violence and... elves. Uh. Honestly, I feel like if it had gone with just the gangs + magic, I probably would have liked it more. The whole book never quite fit together in my mind.

Point of interest, it is a lot more ethnically diverse than the average novel, so I guess it has that going for it. And I did finish it, even if I felt it was somewhat lackluster. The hook, such as it is, is a teenage runaway discovering that she has the ability to heal people. Gangs want her, elves inexplicably want her, and some random lady from social services also happens to be a magic user who wants to help her. It's... something.

Review: Starters by Lissa Price

Starters is a post-apocolyptic young adult novel. The concept is that there was a war with bioweapons that the US was only partially prepared for: they vaccinated the young and the elderly, but hadn't got to the main working-age population before the weapons hit cities. The book starts a few years after this, with the population now divided into "starters" (0-18) and "enders" (80+, it seems... up to 200, apparently this is a future with extended lifetimes).

The main character is an unclaimed teenager - homeless after the deaths of her parents and looking after her young brother, and legally unable to work due to legislation of the working age as over 18. The sci-fi concept kinda failed here... the theory in the book was that this legislation was because Enders were afraid they wouldn't be able to compete for jobs, but then it seems like so much money is with the Enders that it wouldn't really be relevant. The concept is a little rough anyway, since they definitely imply that no one is left in the mid-ages, but that's hardly believable. Perhaps it's just simplified because a) kids book and b) character's point of view.

Anyway, she ends up going to a company that gets around the kids-working clause by renting out their bodies to Enders who want to be young again for a short period of time. The Starter is supposed to go into a sedated sleep for the time while the Ender controls their body, etc, etc.

It's an interesting enough starting point and a solid YA novel. Also, although it's a two-book set (Starters and Enders, respectively), the first book has a coherent arc and a satisfying ending. It's fine as a standalone, although I intend to read the other one as well.