GNA Review: The Infernal Devices: Clockwork Angel by HyeKyung Baek and Cassandra Clare

Title: Clockwork Angel
Series: The Infernal Devices Manga #1 
Author: Cassandra Clare
Manga-ka: HyeKyung Baek
Genre: Young Adult Fiction, Graphic Novels, Teen Ages 13+
Publisher: Yen Press, Hachette Book Group
Format: Paperback, 243 Pages
ISBN-13: 978-0-316-20098-1
Release Date: October 30, 2012
Source: Borrowed from Wentworth Library
Rating: 5/5

Tagline(s): ~NONE~

Summary: Tessa Gray thought her journey to London would be the beginning of a new life, but she never could have envisioned the dark turn that life would take...

Abducted upon her arrival, Tessa is introduced to London's Downworld, the sordid supernatural underbelly of the city, and informed that her future will be recast to service a man known as "The Magister." Only the intervention of the London Institute's Shadowhunters delivers the girl from this fate, but sinister forces are still gathering around Tessa. Even so, Tessa's attraction to two of the young Shadowhunters who have taken her under their wings may prove more dangerous by far...

Review:

This adaptation of Cassandra Clare's Clockwork Angel has been highly anticipated by fans worldwide, and I was no different. But I'm always wary of graphic novel adaptations of my favorite novel series, because a lot of the time the story becomes too watered down to be truly enjoyable. I've found that many adaptations published by Yen Press are very well done and the story retains its original depth. I didn't feel like I was missing anything while reading this graphic novel.

HyeKyung Baek's artwork is absolutely gorgeous. The emotions of the characters and the atmosphere of the setting are brought to visual life with the stunning artwork. The characters turned out to be pretty close to how I pictured them while reading the novel, well except for Henry (LOL). I was a little disappointed about the lack of visible runes--that's one of the things that set Shadowhunters apart from Mundanes. The stele looks more like a magical wand--I pictured the stele more like a magical tattoo gun. And the seraph blades look like regular swords, instead of a weapon of angelic power.

I know I'm being a little nit picky about the details, but I figure it's a lot more easier to draw the story as it's described in the novel accurately than it is to make a movie version. That's why I give more leeway to movie adaptations than graphic novel adaptations. It's harder to make the supernatural elements in a movie than in a graphic novel.

Aside from these finer details, I thought the character designs and architectural designs were perfect. Very appropriate to the time period.

All in all, I really enjoyed reading this Clockwork Angel graphic novel. And let me tell you, those moments we all swooned at while reading the novel are a thousand times better when you can see them right in front of you.

Jem Carstairs

Will Herondale

Tess Gray

About this Author:

Cassandra Clare was born overseas and spent her early years traveling around the world with her family and several trunks of fantasy books. Cassandra worked for several years as an entertainment journalist for the Hollywood Reporter before turning her attention to fiction. She is the author of City of Bones, the first book in the Mortal Instruments trilogy and a New York Times bestseller. Cassandra lives with her fiance and their two cats in Massachusetts.

About this Manga-ka:

HyeKyung Baek is a bestselling manga creator in South Korea well known for her stylish flair and sense of drama. Her skills are ideally suited to bring the lives of the original Gossip Girl cast to life.

GNA Review: Twilight: The Graphic Novel Volume 2

Title: Twilight: The Graphic Novel Volume 2
Series: Twilight: The Graphic Novel #2
Author: Stephenie Meyer
Adapter & Artist: Young Kim
Genre: Young Adult Graphic Novel Adaptations, Supernatural
Elements: Vampires, Psychic Abilities
Publisher: Yen Press, Hachette Book Group
ISBN-13: 9780316133197
Release: October 11, 2011
Rating: 5/5

Tagline(s): ~None~

Summary:

Having uncovered the dark secret of her enigmatic classmate, Edward Cullen, Bella Swan embraces her feelings for him, trusting Edward to keep her safe despite the risks. When a rival clan of vampires makes its way into Forks, though, the danger to Bella has never been more real. Will she make the ultimate sacrifice to protect the people dearest to her?

The second volume of Twilight: The Graphic Novel completes the visual adaptation of Stephenie Meyer's worldwide bestselling debut novel and is a must-have for any collector's library.

Review:

Adaptation

The adaptation of the story was expertly done. With some graphic novel adaptation of novels such as Twilight, the story ends up watered down which causes holes in the story. With this adaptation that story ran smoothly and didn't leave me wondering how it got from one point to the next.

Art

The art, oh my goodness, the art. I think Young Kim's art is the most beautiful art I have ever had the pleasure to look at in a graphic novel. She took the descriptions of the characters from the book and really brought them to life with her art. To be completely honest, that characters in the graphic novel turned out looking exactly as I imagined they did. I love how the flashbacks, the first meeting with James' coven, and the end were done in color. Now, I usually don't like graphic novels done in color, but in this adaptation the color in the moments I mentioned adds depth, character, and drama to the scenes. It adds to the art instead of taking away from it.

My Final Thoughts:

From my review I'm sure you already know how much I loved the adaptation and art, so I won't comment on that anymore. I just want to say that any Twilight fan would have to be stupid not to check out the graphic novel adaptation. It's something no fan of Twilight should miss. I absolutely loved it!

About this Author:

Stephenie Meyer's life changed dramatically on June 2, 2003. The stay-at-home mother of three young sons woke up from a dream featuring seemingly real characters that she could not get out of her head.

"Though I had a million things to do, I stayed in bed, thinking about the dream. Unwillingly, I eventually got up and did the immediate necessities, and then put everything that I possibly could on the back burner and sat down at the computer to write—something I hadn't done in so long that I wondered why I was bothering."

Meyer invented the plot during the day through swim lessons and potty training, and wrote it out late at night when the house was quiet. Three months later she finished her first novel, Twilight. With encouragement from her older sister (the only other person who knew she had written a book), Meyer submitted her manuscript to various literary agencies. Twilight was picked out of a slush pile at Writer's House and eventually made its way to the publishing company Little, Brown where everyone fell immediately in love with the gripping, star-crossed lovers.

Twilight was one of 2005's most talked about novels and within weeks of its release the book debuted at #5 on The New York Times bestseller list. Among its many accolades, Twilight was named an "ALA Top Ten Books for Young Adults," an Amazon.com "Best Book of the Decade...So Far", and a Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year.

The highly-anticipated sequel, New Moon, was released in September 2006, and spent more than 25 weeks at the #1 position on The New York Times bestseller list.

In 2007, Eclipse literally landed around the world and fans made the Twilight Saga a worldwide phenomenon! With midnight parties and vampire-themed proms the enthusiasm for the series continued to grow.

On May 6, 2008, Little, Brown and Company released The Host, Meyer's highly-anticipated novel for adults which debuted at #1 on The New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller lists. The Host still remains a staple on the bestseller lists more than a year after its debut.

On August 2, 2008, the final book in the Twilight Saga, Breaking Dawn was released at 12:01 midnight. Stephenie made another appearance on "Good Morning America" and was featured in many national media outlets, including Entertainment Weekly, Newsweek, People Magazine and Variety. Stephenie headlined the Breaking Dawn Concert Series with Justin Furstenfeld (lead singer of Blue October) to celebrate the release in four major markets across the US. Breaking Dawn sold 1.3 million copies in its first 24 hours.

The Twilight movie, directed by Catherine Hardwicke and starring Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart, was released on November 21, 2008. Twilight debuted at #1 at the box office with $70 million, making it the highest grossing opening weekend for a female director.

Stephenie lives in Arizona with her husband and three sons.

Here is a list of interviews with Stephenie Meyer, and links to the text, audio, or video.