Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Howard Lovecraft and The Fozen Kingdom by Bruce Brown


In order to properly review this book and understand the graphic novel I would like to give a brief overlook of Howard Lovecraft.
Bruce Brown -with a twist- has written the childhood story of one of the first great horror writers of the modern age, Howard Lovecraft, aka H.P. Lovecraft. The series focuses on a fictional tale of Howard as a child, growing up in England in 1894.
This particular book opens up on Christmas Eve as Howard goes with his mother to visit his father, who is locked up in a mental ward. When left alone with his father Howard is to told to destroy a book and shortly finds himself holding the book. This book holds the secrets to another world. Howard doesn’t understand the book at first but quickly learns that the book his father had written for him maybe should be destroyed. Will Howard get rid of the book before the book gets rid of him? Through a journey to another world Howard will face danger, and could very well get lost in the great expanse of the universe.
I felt the novel was well laid out with an easy to follow plot; though it was slightly on the simple it did have a couple of twists. I feel the book would be perfect for a diverse age of readers, anyone ages 10 and up. One thing I didn’t really care for was the vocabulary, the use of basic terms like ‘gobble’ multiple times within a couple of pages got a bit boring, but that is a rather minor detail.

With quick easy to read text and mysterious pictures the graphic novel was very well laid out. The chapter breaks were good distances apart and I feel the 73 pages of the book were a proper size for a quick read before bed.
Though it has some simpler qualities, plot and vocabulary, for younger readers The Howard Lovecraft series is good book for a comic fan.
B