Karissa E. (ophelia99) reviewed Patricia Briggs' Mercy Thompson: Moon Called Volume 1 TP on + 2527 more book reviews
Previously I had read the first three books in Briggs' Mercy Thompson book series. The series is pretty good but I just didn't like Briggs' writing style all that much so I stopped reading it. When I saw the eGalley for a graphic novel series based off of the book series on netgalley(dot)com I thought I would give it a read and see if I liked it better than the full length novels. The adaptation was very well done and I enjoyed reading it.
People checking out this graphic novel probably already know the story of Mercy Thompson. She is a shapeshifter (shifts into a coyote) that works as a mechanic in a garage. She has a runaway werewolf show up and he is in trouble. She gets pulled into a plot where weres are trying to capture and drug other weres and ends up trying to help save them.
First let's talk about illustration. The illustration wasn't my favorite when I started the book; it was a bit too stylized for me and I wasn't keen on how Mercy was depicted. I have to admit though that as I continued to read this graphic novel the style grew on me; and by the end of the book I decided that the illustration style fit the story well and really began to enjoy it. My only other problem with illustration was that a lot of the male werewolves looked similar and it was hard to keep them straight based on picture alone.
Next let's talk about the adaptation of this story from full length book to graphic novel. I think it was really well done. It's been a while since I read the full length novel, but from what I can remember, all of the main points were worked into this graphic novel nicely. I was impressed by how the author was able to weave this complex story into an engaging graphic novel and make it so easy to keep track of what was going on. I really think the story was actually enhanced by being adapted into a graphic novel; the adaptation was just really well done. It will be interesting to see how the author deals with the story as it gets increasingly complex in future installments.
There is also a bonus story at the end about the runaway werewolf and how he got to be a werewolf. Honestly this was not very impressive...the illustration was pretty sparse and the story was predictable without anything exciting twists.
Overall this is a very good adaptation of the full length book, Moon Called. The illustration style takes a bit of getting used to, but in the end I thought it suited the story well and enjoyed it. I would recommend Mercy Thompson fans check it out; I would even recommend that people who aren't crazy about the full-length books but do enjoy urban fantasy graphic novels check it out.
People checking out this graphic novel probably already know the story of Mercy Thompson. She is a shapeshifter (shifts into a coyote) that works as a mechanic in a garage. She has a runaway werewolf show up and he is in trouble. She gets pulled into a plot where weres are trying to capture and drug other weres and ends up trying to help save them.
First let's talk about illustration. The illustration wasn't my favorite when I started the book; it was a bit too stylized for me and I wasn't keen on how Mercy was depicted. I have to admit though that as I continued to read this graphic novel the style grew on me; and by the end of the book I decided that the illustration style fit the story well and really began to enjoy it. My only other problem with illustration was that a lot of the male werewolves looked similar and it was hard to keep them straight based on picture alone.
Next let's talk about the adaptation of this story from full length book to graphic novel. I think it was really well done. It's been a while since I read the full length novel, but from what I can remember, all of the main points were worked into this graphic novel nicely. I was impressed by how the author was able to weave this complex story into an engaging graphic novel and make it so easy to keep track of what was going on. I really think the story was actually enhanced by being adapted into a graphic novel; the adaptation was just really well done. It will be interesting to see how the author deals with the story as it gets increasingly complex in future installments.
There is also a bonus story at the end about the runaway werewolf and how he got to be a werewolf. Honestly this was not very impressive...the illustration was pretty sparse and the story was predictable without anything exciting twists.
Overall this is a very good adaptation of the full length book, Moon Called. The illustration style takes a bit of getting used to, but in the end I thought it suited the story well and enjoyed it. I would recommend Mercy Thompson fans check it out; I would even recommend that people who aren't crazy about the full-length books but do enjoy urban fantasy graphic novels check it out.
