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Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Scott Pilgrim Volume 5 by Bryan Lee O'Malley

Twists! Turns! Twins! Scott Pilgrim vs. the Universe has it all. Also, killer robots, the parental Pilgrims, and various other traumatic events. Scott's moved in with Ramona, turned 24, everything seems to be going really well -- and then --

I'm actually finding it very difficult to say anything about this fifth installment of Scott Pilgrim's saga without giving anything away. This volume is absolutely packed. So much happens, and it starts happening straight from the beginning. Things that happen make me want to shake various characters, or possibly even sledgehammer them (+2 against angst) and yet, despite the angst and the dumb decisions, I still love them. And I am dying to know what happens to them now.

One thing I can talk about, albeit briefly, is that while I do find some of the decisions dumb, and some of them hard to swallow, and some of them just plain sad because I like these fictional people, none of them seem stupidly out of place or out of character. They all make sense, given the characters and the world that O'Malley has crafted. We're not treated to inner monologues, and we don't know all the motivations, but the choices each character makes are consistent with who they are. And even when it makes me cringe because I know it's not right, I understand the decision. And I like that -- and I like that there's enough depth in each of the major characters that I can grasp their motivations and disagree with them, but still like the characters anyway.

This volume, by the way, is just as funny as some of the others. And it's paced very well. And I don't know what will happen, or if the ultimate ending for Scott will be a traditionally happy ending; the ending of this volume is a huge cliffhanger, which isn't fair because the last volume isn't out until... later. I don't know when. Waaah!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Your Scott Pilgrim reviews keep making me want to ontinue on with the series!!

Mandy
http://eoseventeen.blogspot.com/

Unknown said...

Heh. Nefarious plan #324 accomplished... ;)