Malice by Chris Wooding

I have to admit, I was a bit skeptical when I picked this one up at the book fair. If it wasn't for my friend Steven, I would have left it on the shelf. I'm not much of a graphic novel reader- I just can't seem to get the whole story out of just the pictures. Having said that, once I got pulled into Malice, I couldn't wait to find out how it ended. I like the fact that there was both a story told through words and through pictures. To be honest, I didn't really think the pictures were that great- I found it really hard to follow, the pictures seem to lack the detail of other graphic novels I've seen. But, I would love to hear what graphic novel readers think of the pictures in this book.

At the start of the book, we are introduced to Luke who seems to be a normal boy trying to find some excitement. When he goes missing, his friends are convinced the comic book he was obsessed with had something to do with his disappearance. His friends, Seth and Kady start looking into this comic book called Malice. It is hard to find and the story is very hard to follow (perhaps that is the tie in to the less than perfect drawings) but the comic has a large following of teens that seem to be based solely on rumours.

Then one night Kady gets an email from Seth saying he is going to try to get into Malice- yes, the comic book- by performing a ritual and calling on Tall Jake (the villain from Malice). The next day, Kady can't find Seth anywhere.

The story then takes a huge shift from reality to the inside of a story- a comic book no less. Seth is in Malice and he discovers what a strange place it is. Filled with sad, lonely, depressed children and scary robotic animal like creatures. Seth is desperate to escape because he fears that Kady will soon follow him in.

I found that once Seth was in Malice the pace of the story really picked up. As a reader, I really needed to use my imagination to visualize what was going on in the story. I found the story very dark. I didn't really like how creepy it was, however, I found myself rushing back to finish it.

As a last note...and this is a disclaimer for anyone who doesn't like spoilers...don't read the next few lines.....

I am really starting to get annoyed at books that don't end at the end of book one. I love sequels, but between Hunger Games and Catching Fire and The Maze Runner, I have enough books that I have to read to find out what will happen next. Now, here is another one with Malice.