![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
impyGot my copy of the new SVT graphic novel, Sneaking Out and I have thoughts. Not good thoughts, but I'm not sure it would be fair to dump this on GR since most of them are on me and not the book itself, so let's sort through the chaos of my mind first and then we'll see what we've got.
1) Forever and always, 80's blond bully Bruce Patman will NEVER be my Bruce Patman. Seriously, he's so fucking wrong that even though I know he's got to be the guy all the Unicorns are swooning over when he sorta asks Jessica out, my brain is still like, "who the fuck is that guy?"
2) I spent the whole, and I do mean the WHOLE time bitching to myself that we had the original artist back and thought when I looked at the preview cover for the next book that she was also doing that one, which would've meant we changed artists just for Nora. This is untrue,venivididolli pointed out that we get Nora's artist for the next book too. Why are we giving them all the new rando girl at school stories? Also, if I don't get cute!Nora done in the next book original artist does for the series, I will riot.
But yes, I really did spend the whole damn book bitching to myself about something that wasn't even true/accurate. D'oh. That's why we vent here and not on GR.
3) It's a damn good thing we did get the original artist back (self, why are you so lazy, just look it up!) because that's the only good damn thing about this one. I have no real connection with the original book beyond digging the cover, so I'm not here to say it is not an accurate adaptation. It could be 100% faithful in everything but the artistic character choices and it still would not make me like this any better. Jessica spends 99% of the book being the ABSOLUTE WORST. There are only so many times you can see her blowing Liz off when Liz is asking for fucking fashion advice of all things before you just want to throttle Jessica. I cannot begin to count how many times she does this, btw. It happened pretty much every time Liz was in a scene, I can tell you that much.
It will never not be weird to me to have Jessica afraid of dogs since in SVH, Prince is HER dog. Hell, is she afraid of Sally in the original book or is it just she doesn't want to do the work? In any case, her over the top theatrics to get out of doing anything at all for HER dog sitting? Vexing to say the least.
Basically, I hated the story but at least the art was good and I do love Sally's sweet design. So cute.
4) Yeah, actually, no, I think the choice to make Alice look like... *gestures* is weird. She looks considerably older than Ned and always looks far too harried. I'm all for her not looking picture perfect, gliding through life with tweens and a teenage boy like it's no big deal, particularly while trying to get/keep her design business going, but Jesus, I can't.
Someone needs to point out that it's totally okay to have the visual cast of characters change according to who is in the book. There's no need for their ballet teacher to be shown when she's not IN the book. I get not wanting to put in the effort for one-off characters, but maybe throwing Bruce in instead would've been an idea? Think of this as less of a complaint and more a suggestion, since I'm still just happy we do have that cast of characters finally.
I did like that the Wakefield parents didn't just take Jessica's suggestion to tag along with Steven and his date, realizing he'd probably want to actually spend time with said date.
But any book where Janet isn't the absolute worst character is not gonna be my fave.
Cautiously optimistic for the next one, though I do hope the artist has improved or my expectations are properly set since I don't feel the same way about Brooke that I do about Nora.
1) Forever and always, 80's blond bully Bruce Patman will NEVER be my Bruce Patman. Seriously, he's so fucking wrong that even though I know he's got to be the guy all the Unicorns are swooning over when he sorta asks Jessica out, my brain is still like, "who the fuck is that guy?"
2) I spent the whole, and I do mean the WHOLE time bitching to myself that we had the original artist back and thought when I looked at the preview cover for the next book that she was also doing that one, which would've meant we changed artists just for Nora. This is untrue,
venivididolli pointed out that we get Nora's artist for the next book too. Why are we giving them all the new rando girl at school stories? Also, if I don't get cute!Nora done in the next book original artist does for the series, I will riot. But yes, I really did spend the whole damn book bitching to myself about something that wasn't even true/accurate. D'oh. That's why we vent here and not on GR.
3) It's a damn good thing we did get the original artist back (self, why are you so lazy, just look it up!) because that's the only good damn thing about this one. I have no real connection with the original book beyond digging the cover, so I'm not here to say it is not an accurate adaptation. It could be 100% faithful in everything but the artistic character choices and it still would not make me like this any better. Jessica spends 99% of the book being the ABSOLUTE WORST. There are only so many times you can see her blowing Liz off when Liz is asking for fucking fashion advice of all things before you just want to throttle Jessica. I cannot begin to count how many times she does this, btw. It happened pretty much every time Liz was in a scene, I can tell you that much.
It will never not be weird to me to have Jessica afraid of dogs since in SVH, Prince is HER dog. Hell, is she afraid of Sally in the original book or is it just she doesn't want to do the work? In any case, her over the top theatrics to get out of doing anything at all for HER dog sitting? Vexing to say the least.
Basically, I hated the story but at least the art was good and I do love Sally's sweet design. So cute.
4) Yeah, actually, no, I think the choice to make Alice look like... *gestures* is weird. She looks considerably older than Ned and always looks far too harried. I'm all for her not looking picture perfect, gliding through life with tweens and a teenage boy like it's no big deal, particularly while trying to get/keep her design business going, but Jesus, I can't.
Someone needs to point out that it's totally okay to have the visual cast of characters change according to who is in the book. There's no need for their ballet teacher to be shown when she's not IN the book. I get not wanting to put in the effort for one-off characters, but maybe throwing Bruce in instead would've been an idea? Think of this as less of a complaint and more a suggestion, since I'm still just happy we do have that cast of characters finally.
I did like that the Wakefield parents didn't just take Jessica's suggestion to tag along with Steven and his date, realizing he'd probably want to actually spend time with said date.
But any book where Janet isn't the absolute worst character is not gonna be my fave.
Cautiously optimistic for the next one, though I do hope the artist has improved or my expectations are properly set since I don't feel the same way about Brooke that I do about Nora.
(no subject)
Date: 2025-02-11 04:45 am (UTC)I, too, don't really care about Brooke. Until her later appearances where I think I liked her better, but don't hold me to that. I am rather looking forward to the trick played on her though.
I do the same with Bruce. Who the fuck is that blond? Oh, he's bragging. Right. Bruce.
(no subject)
Date: 2025-02-11 08:00 am (UTC)I'm glad I'm not the only one. I need Bruce to just play by soap opera rules and show up looking like himself the next time we get an artist change. Just like, oh no, Bruce has always looked like this, what're you talking about?
(no subject)
Date: 2025-02-18 12:13 am (UTC)I will forever not be able to deal with BBP. Just - no, ugh!
I must have recently re-read the Brooke book because I remember lots about it, including the "triplet" Jennifer that everybody just rolled with because of their mutual disdain for Brooke, who was a complete bitch tbf. I will always associate the color of the original cover with her character, too, for whatever that's worth, LOL.