The Haunted Dollhouse (Nancy Drew Graphic Novel Series #3) by Stefan Petrucha, Sho Murase

Overview

To celebrate the 75th Anniversary of Nancy Drew, this graphic novel features many subtle tributes to classic Nancy Drew adventures. River Heights is celebrating 'Nostalgia Week' and everyone in town is dressing up and acting like it was 1930 - including Nancy, Bess, and George! Wait till you see Nancy in her roadster! But when scenes of crimes displayed in Emma Blavatsky's antique dollhouse start coming true, Nancy has a full-blown mystery on her hands! Nancy's shocked when she stakes out the dollhouse, and witnesses a doll version of herself murdered! Will that scene become reality too?! Plus a preview of the next Nancy Drew graphic novel, 'The Girl Who Wasn't There.' Ages 8 to 12.

Papercutz is the exciting new graphic novel publisher that's building a huge following among the next generation of comics fans. Even the most reluctant readers are becoming addicted to the Papercutz approach of giving classic characters a modern makeover! Each Papercutz graphic novel features comics stories drawn in the style of the popular Japanese comics known as manga, and beautifully rendered with state of the art color. While educators rave about the high quality of the Papercutz writing and artwork, readers 8 and up are simply enjoying the great adventures found in each fun-filled volume. Be sure to check out other Papercutz titles such as The Hardy Boys, Zorro and Totally Spies

My thoughts:

I liked how the text and locations were related to books in the original hardcover series.  Something is hidden in a hollow oak, a hidden staircase is reveal, a diary with a clue is referred to, they go to Larkspur Lane and Bess talks about having been to Lilac Inn plus a whole lot more.  The references reminded me of a lot of the old books.  Not that I recall the mysteries any longer, but I've seen the titles often enough.

In the spirit of the 1930's all of the townspeople dress in clothing from the time, drive cars from the time and forgo using technology that was not available then like computers and cell phones.  A supposedly haunted doll house shows up and each time the dolls move they show the next crime.  Nancy is determined to solve this mystery without using technology and using her own reasoning skills.

I think these books are good for easing new readers into the series by whetting their appetites for more about Nancy, Bess and George while also appealing to those who enjoy comics and graphic novels.  It was very quick to read making it easy to finish it in one sitting.

Details

•Pub. Date: November 2005

•Publisher: Papercutz

•Format: Paperback , 96pp
•Age Range: 8 to 12

•Series: Nancy Drew Graphic Novels: Girl Detective Series #3

•ISBN-13: 9781597070089

•ISBN: 1597070084

Nancy Drew Girl Detective #4: The Girl Who Wasn't There Graphic Novel by Stefan Petrucha Illustrated by Sho Murase

Synopsis

Nancy gets a call for help late one night from a girl she befriended over the phone when getting technical support to help fix her computer. When the line goes dead, Nancy is determined to get to the bottom of things. Soon,

Nancy, her Dad, and friends George and Bess are on their way to India to find Kalpana, the girl who wasn¹t there! It's only a matter of time before Nancy is captured by Sahadev the crime lord and is being sacrificed to Kali! Ages 8 to 12.

Papercutz is the exciting new graphic novel publisher that's building a huge following among the next generation of comics fans. Even the most reluctant readers are becoming addicted to the Papercutz approach of giving classic characters a modern makeover! Each Papercutz graphic novel features comics stories drawn in the style of the popular Japanese comics known as manga, and beautifully rendered with state of the art color. While educators rave about the high quality of the Papercutz writing and artwork, readers 8 and up are simply enjoying the great adventures found in each fun-filled volume. Be sure to check out other Papercutz titles such as The Hardy Boys, Zorro and Totally Spies.

My thoughts:
I was browsing at a comic book store last weekend and came across this book on the used manga shelf.  I grew up reading a lot of mysteries.  Nancy Drew and Trixie Beldon were two of my favorites.  I wanted to be a detective and look for clues!  I had not heard about this line of books and was excited to give this one a try.

Nancy, Bess and George accompany Nancy's dad to India because a friend of Nancy's called her for help and then went missing.  They look for clues at the company the girl worked for and at the girls home.  Nancy ends up kidnapped, George is great with technology and Bess can fix mechanical things.  I recall that Bess was good with mechanical jobs but not what George was supposed to be good at.  The drawings depict them similar to how I remember, just updated.  Bess is blond and rounder, George has short dark hair and Nancy has longer reddish blond hair.

Since this book is intended for young readers a lot of explanation was included about how call centers for computer companies are in India, how in India they speak two languages and the a lot more.  It almost felt like the author was trying to sneak learning into the book, but I think more likely he just wanted to make sure that children understood what was going on.

I started to get worried that the mystery wasn't going to be resolved before the end of the book, but as in all the ones I recall for childhood, Nancy and her pals save the day and solve the mystery and the bad guy is apprehended.  That part reminded me a bit of Scooby Doo which is not an association I ever made before, but the kids like to solve mysteries in both.

I liked the use of technology and the way the story was brought into current times.  I haven't read a Nancy Drew book for years.  I am not even sure if they are still being written, but I wonder how they are dealing with all the changes that have happened since the series started.  I recall some of them being a bit dated when I was reading them and that was pretty long ago!  I think this new (or newer) series is a nice introduction for readers who are new to the characters.

Product Details

Pub. Date: January 2006
Publisher: Papercutz
Format: Paperback , 96pp
Age Range: 8 to 12
Series: Nancy Drew Graphic Novels: Girl Detective Series , #4
ISBN-13: 9781597070126
ISBN: 1597070122

X/1999 Prelude Vol. 1 Story and Art by Clamp

Synopsis

As part of the X/1999 series, this volume features breathless action and stunning art. When Kamui returns to Tokyo, he learns that his childhood girlfriend Kotori and psychic Princess Hitoni are having strange dreams about his role in a coming apocalypse! Is he the angel of salvation, or the devil of destruction?

My thoughts:
I wanted to explore other books in this genre.  I think this would count as a manga book, but if I am wrong I am quite open to correction.  The manga books I've read so far were all of novels that I have already read, so the characters were familiar and the story was one I already knew but was looking at in a different way.  This book was all new to me.  The first time I started it I wasn't even sure if I would finish it or not.  Things kept throwing me.  Male characters with names ending with "a" while female characters ended in "i".  I had to start it again after putting it down for a few days.

The action was interesting and the storyline is intriguing.  I can see why it is rated T for teen, not for anything romantic in nature but for the the very violent fighting.  It is going to take a few more books for me to see if this is what books set in Tokyo are all like.  I am still on the fence too as to whether I want to continue reading these.  I want to make sure to broaden my reading.  I tend to get stuck on a certain type of book and then keep reading in one genre so to be a more well rounded reader I am branching out.  Luckily my library has a very large collection of these, so if I do decide to keep going I won't be stuck spending a lot of money!  I am going to look for volume 2 next week to see where the story goes.

Product Details

Pub. Date: April 2003
Publisher: VIZ Media LLC
Format: Paperback , 200pp
Series: X/1999 Series , #1
ISBN-13: 9781569319499
ISBN: 1569319499

The Dark Hunters Volume 4 by Sherrilyn Kenyon Art by Claudia Campos

Synopsis


In the war against vampires, mankind has only one hope: The Dark-Hunters. Ancient warriors who died of brutal betrayal, the Dark-Hunters have sworn themselves into the service of the goddess Artemis to protect us.

It's a pact with pretty good perks. Immortality, power, psychic abilities, wealth and a cool wardrobe. But it comes with a few drawbacks: fatal sun poisoning and a new, irreparable dental problem. But aside from the fangs and nocturnal lifestyle, it's not so bad.

In this volume, the adventure continues with Talon and Sunshine as they face off against the Greek and Celtic gods bent on making a major comeback.

My thoughts:
Talon and Sunshine are two of my favorite characters from this series.  I think I like the beginning characters more than some of the later one because the series was still fresh then.  While I still enjoy reading each installment, there are now so many characters to keep track of that I feel like I start to forget who is who.  I need one of the cheater family tree diagrams like Christine Feehan uses in her Carpathian series!

Sunshine is such a pure and good character.  With her love of art and the way she looks for the best in people.  It is easy to see why Talon feels so strongly for her.  I loved seeing her grandmother and finding out the twists of fate that are woven into the fabric of their lives.  This was also the first book that gave a glimpse into Archeron's true character and his past.  I had forgotten how selfish and spiteful Styxx was in the beginning.

Seeing this story played out in manga fashion was fun.  The four volumes of the Dark Hunter series are the only  manga books I've read, but I really can see the appeal.  Because the pages do not have page numbers on them I have a hard time finding a good place to stop.  I always seem to think I'll just read one more page and before I know it I've stayed up too late and finished the book!  Since this one just came out this month I suppose it will be a bit before another volume is released.  I am a bit sorry I gave away the first volume because these are ones I now think I will be keeping on my shelves.

Product Details

Pub. Date: March 2011
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Format: Paperback , 208pp
Series: Dark-Hunter Manga Series
ISBN-13: 9780312554019
ISBN: 031255401X
Edition Description: First Edition

Check out my reviews on the first three volumes as well:
Dark Hunters Volume 1
Dark Hunters Volume 2
Dark Hunters Volume 3

Dark Hunters Volume 3 Story by Sherrilyn Kenyon Art by Claudia Campos

Synopsis
In the war against vampires, mankind has only one hope: The Dark-Hunters. Ancient warriors who died of brutal betrayal, the Dark-Hunters have sworn themselves into the service of the goddess Artemis to protect us.

It's a pact with pretty good perks. Immortality, power, psychic abilities, wealth and a cool wardrobe. But it comes with a few drawbacks: fatal sun poisoning and a new, irreparable dental problem. But aside from the fangs and nocturnal lifestyle, it's not so bad.

Talon, an ancient Celtic warrior, has been cursed by the god Camulus for killing his son.  Camulus cursed Talon, decreeing death for everyone he loved.  Now a Dark-Hunter in modern-day New Orleans, Talon meets Sunshine, who is key to ending his curse once and for all.  Not to mention helping him to save New Orleans from an ancient god bent on total destruction...
My thoughts:
I enjoyed reading Talon and Sunshine's story when I started the Dark Hunter series a few years ago and it is nice to go back and revisit them.  Over the course of time some of the details have gotten fuzzy for me, but for the most part I remembered the events that took place.  This book is only part one of their story, just as volumes one and two followed Kyrian and Amanda, volumes three and four are about Talon and Sunshine.  Both Kyrian and Julian make an appearance, along with Acheron and Nick.  Thinking ahead, if the manga series continues, I wonder how many books it will take to tell Acheron's story.  His was the longest of all the books and the most involved.  When I read the series his book is the one I started with so I knew all his secrets already when the characters in the books were still in the dark about him.

Getting back to the book, I enjoyed the illustrations and the telling through visuals.  I don't always care for the way the characters faces look when they are surprised or embarrassed, but I am guessing that that is a characteristic of manga illustrations (since the Dark-Hunter books are the only manga books I've tried out to this point in time).  I don't recall Ash having such long hair either, but it has been awhile.

Sunshine is one of the characters I always liked.  I liked her forgetfulness and the way she lives in her own little world.  In the novel Starla is introduced and then you find out that she is Sunshine's mother, but this book skipped over that.  Perhaps it didn't seem important or it could be that Kenyon and her editors thought that most readers of the manga books would have already read the novels so they would know that already.

In this book Styxx makes an appearance but who he is is not mentioned.  I can't recall if that was the case in the book either since I already knew who he was from having read the books our of order.  I love how quick and easy these reads are and how time flies while I am reading them.  I've started the fourth one, but now I need to look and see when the next one is supposed to come out.

Product Details

Pub. Date: September 2010
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Format: Paperback , 208pp
Series: Dark-Hunter Manga Series
ISBN-13: 9780312376888
ISBN: 031237688X

Biography

Sherrilyn Kenyon is a #1 New York Times bestselling author with more than sixteen million copies of her books in print, in over thirty countries. She is the author of the Dark-Hunter novels, which have an international cult following and always appear at the top of The New York Times, Publishers Weekly, and USA Today lists. Writing both as Sherrilyn Kenyon and Kinley MacGregor, she is also the author of several other series, including: The League, Brotherhood of the Sword, Lords of Avalon, The Dream-Hunters and the forthcoming Nevermore.

Dark Hunters Vol. 2 Story by Sherrilyn Kenyon Art by Claudia Campos

Product Description

In the war against vampires, mankind has only one hope: The Dark-Hunters. Ancient warriors who died of brutal betrayal, the Dark-Hunters have sworn themselves into the service of the goddess Artemis to protect us.

It's a pact with pretty good perks. Immortality, power, psychic abilities, wealth and a cool wardrobe. But it comes with a few drawbacks: fatal sun poisoning and a new, irreparable dental problem. But aside from the fangs and nocturnal lifestyle, it's not so bad.

Kyrian is an immortal Dark-Hunter who just lost his Dark-Hunter powers and along with it, his immortality. Now he is faced with the chance to regain not only his humanity, but his very soul. The problem is, it couldn’t have happened at a worse time. Desiderius is closing in and if Kyrian and Amanda are going to save humanity then Kyrian must take the war to his enemy or it may be too late.

My thoughts:
I decided to treat myself to this book last week and it arrived in the mail today.  Part of me is a little sorry that I decided to trade the first one on Paperbackswap after I read it.  It would have been nice to have still had it around when I started reading this one, but I am trying to work on not keeping too many books on my shelf.  I have so many around to read as it is that once I've read them I try to get them back out of my house to make room for other new to me books.

This book is the second half of Kyrian and Amanda's story.  By the end of the this book their story has concluded and volume three will start with Talon and his story.  From what I remember it starts right where volume one left off.  I have to also say, that contrary to part of my review yesterday, during this book when some of the other dark hunters are listed in conversation Samia is mentioned, so I guess her name has been there all along and I had forgotten about her.  I'm sure she was at the fight in Sanctuary and I just focused more on the characters I had already read about more.

Going back to this book, I enjoyed reading the rest of Kyrian and Amanda's story.  I did read the novel Night Pleasures a few years ago and from what I can recall this follows the story pretty well.  I am finding it interesting to see the story in a different way through illustrations.  I also love how quick the two volumes were to read.  I can see why a lot of readers enjoy them.  While a lot of the inner dialogue is lost in converting it to this form, the pictures are able to convey actions even more succinctly than words at times which allows for a quicker understanding.  It was also interesting to see how Nick was portrayed in the early stories in contrast to how he was in No Mercy.  Seeing him as a cocky and sarcastic but essentially care free and life loving twenty-four year-old is so different than he is now. 

I am now weighing in my mind whether of not I should by volumes 3 and 4.  While I really enjoy them if seems like a lot of money to spend on books that can each be read so quickly.  I also would love to read the Chronicles of Nick stories to see how Nick is shown is high school but so far haven't spent the money on it yet.  I would love to hear other readers thoughts on deciding if a book is worth spending money on! 


Product Details

Paperback: 208 pages
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin; First Edition edition (March 2, 2010)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0312554001
ISBN-13: 978-0312554002

The Dark Hunters Volume 1 Story by Sherrilyn Kenyon Art by Claudia Campos

The Dark-Hunters (Dark-Hunter, Bk 1) Synopsis from Goodreads.com:Author: Sherrilyn Kenyon
In the war against vampires, mankind has only one hope: The Dark-Hunters. Ancient warriors who died of brutal betrayal, the Dark-Hunters have sworn themselves into the service of the goddess Artemis to protect us. — It’s a pact with pretty good perks. Immortality, power, psychic abilities, wealth and a cool wardrobe. But it comes with a few drawbacks: fatal sun poisoning and a new, irreparable dental problem. But aside from the fangs and nocturnal lifestyle, it’s not so bad.

Until Kyrian meets the most frightening thing imaginable. An accountant who’s being hunted by one of the most lethal vampires out there. If Amanda Devereaux goes down, so does he and no offense, he doesn’t want to die (hence the whole immortality thing). And he doesn’t want humanity dead either which is a good thing for us since he and Amanda are all that stands between us and oblivion. Let’s hope they win.

From the wild imagination of Sherrilyn Kenyon comes the humorous and suspenseful manga debut of the #1 internationally bestselling Dark-Hunter series. The world of manga will never be the same again.

My thoughts:
When I decided to try out this book I thought it was a graphic novel but then I saw it listed as manga. Honestly I am not all that sure of the difference. This is the first book of this genre that I have read and I enjoyed it more than I thought I would. I have read a good part of Sherrilyn Kenyon's Dark Hunter series. I don't think I am all the way up to date but I've read most of them. I thought that this book would be the whole story of Kyrian and Amanda, but it wasn't. This is a little embarrassing to admit but when I first picked it up I knew it read from the opposite side of the book but I was still reading the pages from left to right. After a few pages of thinking it didn't sound right I realized that I need to read all the pages right to left just like the book. At the very end of the book, at what would be the first page in a regular book, there was even a diagram on how to read the pages. It is a mistake I will not make again but it feels weird to read in the opposite direction!

It seems that this book was more efficient in telling the story than the novel, but I know large parts of what the characters were thinking must have been omitted. Kind of like cliff notes for the novel with illustrations perhaps? That said, I did enjoy it and I loved how quickly it read. It seemed to take almost no time at all to read it. I already added the next book to my wish list so I can read it. I was also thrown by the lack of page numbers, I have a thing with wanting to know what page I am on and how much I've read and I wasn't able to do that with this book. So along with reading backwards I had not knowing how much I was reading, I guess I was really out of my comfort zone!

I liked how the illustrations added to the story to make up for the missing text and I can see the draw to read books of this type. A part of me had considered manga something for kids not adults, but just as YA books can also appeal to adults I guess so too do manga. I think even for someone unfamiliar to the Dark Hunter series there would be no problem with following the story and understanding all the elements.