Book Birthday Review: Shadow Service Vol. 1 by Cavan Scott, Corin Howell, Trionna Farrell & Adrian F. Wassel

If you know me, you know will always love a gory graphic novel. And this is definitely one of them. Shadow Service is an addicting book that I really loved checking out. The story was extremely gripping and the art was mind boggling, I really could never have thought of anything like it in a million years. A new twist on magic powers and demon possession, I really couldn’t get enough. I can’t wait to see what the next volume is all about.

4/5 Stars 128 pages
Published April 20th 2021 by Vault Comics

Following a girl named Gina, she tries to live her life as what she knows is a witch, with crippling insomnia due to her powers. This entangled with her past makes her life tough, and even her job doesn’t help that out. She hunts down people who have gone missing, and one night on one of her jobs, she finds something that she never expected. Not only a gored dead body, but a man feasting on the remains. After attacking her she finds herself kidnapped and taken to a boy named Hex, who’s actually four hundred years old.

He wants her for her powers. And he’s willing to stop at nothing to force her to help them out with what they need to do. But Gina doesn’t like that at all. Honestly a lot of this book is blood, guts, gore, and Gina running away. And that’s just how I like it. Like I said earlier, this book was so exciting and interesting that I really can’t wait to see what happens in the next volume. I loved the art a lot, especially on the monsters, demons, and gore. I definitely recommend checking it out if you like graphic novels like that!

If you’d like to grab a copy, you can here!

And if you’d like to keep up with some of the creators, you can here on Twitter!

Adrian F. Wassel

Corin Howell

Cavan Scott

Thanks for reading! Hope you’re doing well and staying safe from demons and monsters and everything else.

Disclaimer: Some of the links in this post are affiliate links. We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.ca and affiliated sites.

My Top 5 Books of March 2021

Hey everyone! Hope you’re having a great day so far. It’s the beginning of a new month, so you know what that means? I’m going to go over my favourite books of last month! I can’t wait to tell you all about them. And of course, my individual reviews and links for you to buy the books yourself if you’re interested will be added to them too. So lets get started!

First off we have Down World by Rebecca Phelps!

As the site of a former military base, there have always been rumors that East Township High School was the site of experiments with space and time. For years, students have whispered in the hallways of a doorway created within the school, one that can access multiple timelines and realities, a place known as the Down World.

As the new kid in school and still reeling from the unexplained death of her brother Robbie, Marina O’Connell is only interested in one thing: leaving the past behind. But a chance encounter with handsome Brady Picelli changes everything. He will lead Marina to a startling discovery. The Down World is real and the past, present, and future are falling out of balance.

Brady is determined to help Marina discover what really happened to her brother. However, what is taken from one world, must be repaid by another. And Marina is about to discover that even a realm of infinite possibilities has rules that must be obeyed.

You can check out my full review here, and grab a copy for yourself here!

Second is Creatures Volume 1: The City that Never Sleeps by Stephan Betbeder, & Djief

In a post-apocalyptic New York City obliterated by a Big Night that wiped out most of civilization, bands of children struggle to stay alive in the wreckage, hunting for food under billowing clouds of toxic fog and running from hungry zombies. One child is endowed with the power to keep them at bay, but will it be enough to protect the survivors from the terrifying creature that has just risen out of the Hudson River? Meanwhile, a raving old man with a house full of books says the worst is yet to come…

Here’s my full review, and here’s where you can get your own!

Third is The Famoux by Kassandra Tate

Fame can be deadly.

Out of the wreckage of environmental collapse, the country of Delicatum emerged. Its most popular celebrities are the Famoux, uniquely beautiful stars of a reality TV show called the Fishbowl. In a world still recovering from catastrophe, they provide a 24/7 distraction.

Sixteen-year-old Emilee Laurence is obsessed with the Famoux—they provide a refuge from her troubled home life and the bullies at school. When she receives an unimaginable offer to become a member herself, she takes it. Leaving behind everything she’s ever known, Emilee enters a world of high glamour and even higher stakes.

Because behind their perfect image lies an ugly truth—an anonymous stalker has been dictating the Famoux’s every move, and being popular really is a matter of life or death. 

You can see my full review here, and here’s where you can get a copy for yourself!

Fourth is Inhuman by Denis Bajram, Valerie Mangin, & Rochebrune!

A small exploratory vessel crashes onto an unknown ocean planet after its crew is seized by a sudden madness. After escaping their sinking ship, the five survivors are helped to the surface by giant squid-like creatures who guide them to what appears to be the planet’s only island. To their surprise, they are greeted on the shore by primitive humans, who prove to be welcoming despite their cannibalistic rituals. But their fixed smiles and total docility suggest that something more sinister is going on. Are the castaways doomed to join them in submitting to the will of the mysterious Great One?

Here’s my full review, and here’s where you can grab a copy!

And last but not least is The Fall Volume 1 by Jared Muralt!

Readers who found themselves gripped by the apocalyptic adventure of Robert Kirkman’s THE WALKING DEAD and who were moved by the emotion in Cormac McCarthy’s THE ROAD will not want to miss Jared Muralt’s THE FALL.

After just losing his wife, one father will have to face a world in freefall; shaken to its core by an economic, social, political and health crisis without precedent. Facing seemingly unreal and very unexpected dangers, he will do whatever it takes to protect his loved ones in a country on the brink of collapse. In this internationally acclaimed series, Jared Muralt not only tells the story of one family struggling to survive, but also questions the very reasons that brought mankind to this apocalypse.

You can check out my full review here, and here’s where you can get a copy for yourself!

Wow! I can’t believe that three out of five books last month were comics. I mean I can believe it, I read a lot of them, but I’m surprised! And the other two were wattpad published books, which is crazy to me! Mostly because I’ve never really noticed anything from the actual wattpad publisher that has really caught my eye before, but that changed in march! I can’t wait to see what my favourites for this month are.

Have you read any of these books? Are you thinking about getting some of them? What were your favourites last month? I want to talk! Anyways, thanks for reading.

Review: Vampire: The Masquerade Volume 1 by Tim Seeley, Tini Howard, Blake Howard, Adrian F. Wassel, Dev Pramanik, & Nathan C. Gooden

4/5 Stars 160 pages
Published March 16th 2021 by Vault Comics

With a beautifully dark and gothic artistic style, Vampire: The Masquerade Vol. 1 is a very interesting book about, you guessed it, vampires, and a game I’ve never played before.. These vampires, however, are a little different than the usual, being part of a secret society existing alongside our own, and anyone who dares cross them or reveal their secret is bound to be hunted down and killed in cold blood sooner or later. Perfect for the comic book readers that love a dark and grungy story full of blood and mysteries or anyone who has played the tabletop game.

Starting off right in the action, we see a vampire woman killing a human girl for finding out about her kind. Clearly, they will stop at nothing to hide their secret. Having fangs and drinking blood aren’t the only things that these vampires have though, because some can also use blood magic. But there’s an internal war going on in their society, threatening to split the city into two sections, Minneapolis, and the Minneapolis separatists. And that’s never good, especially for anyone caught in the middle. And to make things worse, there’s a group of killers mutilating and taking body parts from other vampires. And they’re unlike anything I could have imagined. I had a feeling from the beginning that this was going to be a very dark bloody book, and I was right. And I loved it.

Overall, this book was a great read and I really enjoyed getting to know more about everything going on. The characters all had real problems to deal with, other than being vampires, and I really enjoyed that, especially Cecily’s. I think she’s my favourite. I also really liked that there were character sheets to fill out in the back with tons of information for those sheets. It makes me want to try to play the game! If you like dark stories with tons of blood and mystery, and lots of points of view all weaved together, than I definitely recommend checking this out!

Photo by cottonbro on Pexels.com

If you’d like to grab a copy, you can here.

And if you’d like to follow some of the creators on Twitter, you can here!

Tim Seeley

Tini Howard

Adrian F. Wassel

Dev Pramanik

Thanks for reading! Hope you’re doing well and staying safe from vampires.

Disclaimer: Some of the links in this post are affiliate links. We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.ca and affiliated sites.

Review: Dryad Vol. 1 by Kurtis J. Wiebe, & Justin Osterling

Filled with beautiful art depicting beautiful people, this book starts out with a nasty diaper change in the middle of a forest. Who could have guessed? Not me, that’s for sure. After a long hard journey, Yale and Morgan find themselves and their twins in a beautiful green village. But things can’t stay peaceful forever, can they? This story is a great tale of doing what you have to do to protect the ones you love.

4/5 Stars 144 pages
Published January 19th 2021 by Oni Press

After a class trip to a local ruin outside their peaceful town, Yale and Morgan’s twins can’t get them out of their heads. They just have a feeling about them, and they’re determined to figure out what exactly that feeling is. But after making it back to there, their group is viciously attacked and kidnapped by guards from the city that their parents escaped from with only their lives and the clothes on their back. And after the guards realize that one of the teens is missing, they go on a savage hunt for them through the town. But after finding them, they realize that they don’t just want the twins, they want Yale and Morgan as well. And this leads them to a forced adventure back into the city, where they’re left fighting for their families lives against soldiers.

This story was really fun to read. The art style is almost relaxing, even though it’s depicting a lot of fighting and monsters and even switches at one point to super futuristic tech in the city. It’s books like these that are getting me more and more into the fantasy side of things, and I’m glad I got the chance to check it out. I’d definitely recommend looking into it yourself, if you think it would be something you’d like. I’ll for sure keep an eye out for the second volume!

If you’d like to grab a copy, you can here!

And if you’d like to keep up with one of the creators, you can here!

Thanks for reading! Hope you’re doing well and staying safe from scary city guards!

Disclaimer: Some of the links in this post are affiliate links. We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.ca and affiliated sites.

Review: Open-Hearted by Nicolas Keramidas

A beautiful true story of one man’s journey through his second heart surgery, wrapped up in a little ball with a ton of cute art and silly little things along the way. Something I’ve never really known anything about, I was intrigued to find this book, and couldn’t wait to start it. After all, it’s unlike anything I’ve read before. What I should have expected was how emotional it was, and it really taught me how hard it is on not only the person getting the surgery, but also on their friends and family. I’m really glad I got to check it out.

5/5 Stars 208 pages
Published January 20th 2021 by Europe Comics

Nicolas Keramidas was just a man working at Disney, living his best life, until one day everything turned on its head. Born with four separate heart defects he had to have surgery as a baby, but he didn’t really think anything of it aside from his every two years check up. Even then, though, he never thought something would happen. And then something happened. He needed another surgery, and it was unlike anything he, or I, could have imagined. This book is a very detailed journal of the journey he took to fix his heart.

If you like true stories about real people with real problems, and you like comics and cute artwork, than this book may be perfect for you. It’s informative, detailed, and exactly what I needed to break up my usual reading. I highly recommend checking it out if you get the chance! It was a pretty quick read, and I finished it in under a couple hours with a break in the middle.

If you’d like to grab a copy, you can here!


Thanks for reading! Hope you’re doing well and staying happy.

Disclaimer: Some of the links in this post are affiliate links. We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.ca and affiliated sites.

Review: Inhuman by Denis Bajram, Valerie Mangin, & Rochebrune

What a way to begin a book. A space ship full of people crashes into an eerie red ocean on an alien planet, and though the wildlife doesn’t look too friendly from appearance alone, they actually come up to help them to the surface so that they don’t drown. Lost without their ship and equipment, they are very surprised to learn that the aliens on the surface are actually human. How could that be? I couldn’t wait to find out.

5/5 Stars 94 pages
Published January 20th 2021 by Europe Comics

The deeper I got into this book, the more intrigued and confused I was, but in a good way. I think that’s just how the characters felt. After discovering that the people living on the island are human, they’re desperate to get information from them, but they almost seem to be in a trance. They eat, sleep, procreate, and work, and those are the only things that they care about, and care to think about. But it goes deeper than that. They talk about The Great One, that they’re doing their living and work for. And when the group of astronauts find a way into a underground green paradise, the society of people living down there are doing the exact same thing. What is going on here?

I found this book really fun to read, and I couldn’t wait to see what the mystery actually was. I did find the writing a little hard to read, but I think that’s just because I’m not great at reading handwriting style text. I did think the art fit the story perfectly though, and was very beautiful. I definitely recommend checking this book out if you’re into scifi graphic novels! I would love to have a copy for my bookshelf.

If you’d like to grab a copy, you can here!

And if you’d like to keep up with the creators, you can here!

Denis Bajram & Valerie Mangin

Thanks for reading! Hope you’re doing well and not crashing into any strange planets out there!

Review: Creatures Vol. 1 The City That Never Sleeps by Stephan Betbeder & Djief

Before I say anything, I just need to talk about the art for this book, because it’s just so adorable and somehow fits so well with the dark story that the plot holds, I wish I had it on my walls. It’s unlike anything I’ve read lately, and I really just can’t get enough about it. Following a group of young people in a zombie apocalypse, this one’s a little different, seeing as the zombies are attracted to sugar and food instead of human flesh. That’s not going to stop the last living people though, some have turned to cannibalism. This was a book I thoroughly enjoyed reading.

5/5 Stars 80 pages
Published January 20th 2021 by Europe Comics

A family, and a group of kids with their back up against the wall, fighting for every day. That’s what this book is about. Just trying to survive. And that’s what makes a great zombie book. It’s also about a boy with powers, and a girl who’s trying to keep her family together. The worst part is yet to come though, because when an eerie green storm takes over their city, that’s when the creatures come out. Trapped out in the storm surrounded by monsters, the small group of children are forced to fight their way back to their base, and make it to safety.

This book was everything I wanted it to be and more! With the art and the unique story, I was sucked in from the very beginning, and I loved how detailed everything was. I didn’t feel like I was missing anything at all, and I would love to have a copy for my bookshelf and comic collection. I really liked that all the characters were so different and had their own struggles and still their stories tied together really nicely. I can’t wait to check out the next volume!

If you’d like to grab a copy, you can here.

Thanks for reading! Hope you’re doing well and staying safe from zombies, and monsters, and scary green storms!

Disclaimer: Some of the links in this post are affiliate links. We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.ca and affiliated sites.

Review: Levius/est Vol. 1 by Haruhisa Nakata

Honestly what really drew me into this book was the description. It depicted an epic arena battle between mechanically enhanced humans, and so that’s what I thought I was getting. What this book really was, however, was a kind of prequel to that, which don’t get me wrong was interesting, but I found it really hard to follow. You ever feel overstimulated? Because that’s how this book made me feel. It just had so much going on all at the same time that I couldn’t really follow any of it.

2/5 Stars 212 pages
Published November 19th 2019 by VIZ Media LLC

That being said, I loved the art. Not so cartoony like a lot of the others I’ve read, it was more realistic and I really enjoyed that about it. I think it perfectly captured the robotic parts of the people and had a kind of style that really stood out to me, and matched the story. If only I could have followed the story more closely. From what I got, there’s a boy named Levius who lost his mother really young. Then he flashes forward into some kind of scientific hospital and he’s being held unconscious to heal. There’s another man there Zack who knows him but who knows this other girl more, who’s being held in an artificial environment filled with robotic creatures and landmines so that she can’t escape and kill everyone in there. And then there’s another girl, Natalia, who also knows Levius, but wants to be with him. And they’re all crazy good at fighting. See what I mean? I’m not really one hundred percent sure on anything because I just had such a hard time following it.

I might just be completely lost because it’s the very beginning volume and not everything has been explained, but if the other volumes are like this one, I feel like it might just not be for me. If I get the chance to check out the next one, I might give it a chance just to be sure, but I’m not going to hunt it down. I think if you’re able to get into it more than me you should definitely give it a chance, because it totally could just be me not getting it at all, and I think that the art is worth checking out over anything else.

If you’re interested in checking it out, you can here.

Thanks for reading! Hope you’re doing well and staying safe.

Disclaimer: Some of the links in this post are affiliate links. We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.ca and affiliated sites.

Review: Jujutsu Kaisen Vol. 1 by Gege Akutami

4/5 Stars 192 pages
Published December 3rd 2019 by VIZ Media LLC

Not something I usually read, this book really caught my eye not only because of the cover, but because of the really impactful description. I mean, how could you say no to a book about a boy turning into a demon curse while also fighting them along the way? I had to check it out! It’s like I didn’t even have a choice. What I didn’t know however, was just how gory a black and white book could be, and really just how strange something like this could be for me to read. That being said, I really did enjoy reading it.

Following a junior high aged boy named Yuji Itadori, it closely depicts his life as he not only joins a new kind of club at his school, but also as he loses his grandfather and basically those two things turn his life upside down. After rescuing his new friends from a curse they accidentally unleashed due to their own lax nature surrounding a demonic object, he learns that the demon is basically hunting them down for said object to eat it and become stronger, so he decides to eat it himself. What he doesn’t know, is that it’s really a one in a million chance that he’ll live through it. But guess what? He does. And now he lives with a demon inside his body, that can take over when he gives it the chance and change his physical appearance and give him crazy powers.

Photo by Khoa Vu00f5 on Pexels.com

This book was really strange for me, and now even in a bad way. It had be laughing at just how absurd it was and I think that’s really funny. How often does that happen to you? It makes me want to read more books like this, because usually I’m not too keen to jump at things like this. I’m more of a superhero comic kind of girl. But I’ll definitely give more chances out when I see them. If you’re looking for something gory and kind of funny and interesting to read, I definitely recommend checking this out. The art is very simple but impactful, especially for the demonic parts, and like I said at the beginning, it’s really gory at times. I can’t wait to see what happens in the next volume.

If you’d like to grab a copy, you can here!

Thanks for reading! I love stepping outside of my comfort zone with books, do you? Hope you’re having a great day!

Disclaimer: Some of the links in this post are affiliate links. We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.ca and affiliated sites.