Graphic Novel Review – Shutter Vol 2: Way of the World by Joe Keatinge, Leila del Duca, Owen Gieni (3/5 stars)

Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Graphic Novel/Science Fiction
Length: 144 pages
Publisher: Image Comics
Release Date: July 21, 2015
ISBN-13: 978-1632154330
Stand Alone or Series: 2nd volume in the Shutter series
Source: Gift for Xmas
Rating: 3/5 stars

“Kate Kristopher, once the most famous explorer of an Earth far more fantastic than the one we know, is forced to return to the adventurous life she left behind when a family secret threatens to destroy everything she spent her life protecting. In Volume 2, Kate crosses the Earth to unlock a family mystery taking her far beyond her own reality.

Collects Shutter #7-12.”

I really enjoyed the first TP in the Shutter graphic novel series. However, this book kind of lost me. Kate is taken prisoner by her supposed sister, who demands Kate’s help in journeying to find Kate’s mother. Kate is forced to operate a strange magical gate of sorts and battle a family member that has turned into a giant purple crystal monster. Then when Kate finally meets her mother she finds out that her mother is the head of some sort of secret society that has vast power over the universe.

Does it sounds confusing? It was. I am not even sure if the synopsis I provided above is really correct. It’s very hard to follow. The illustration and action scenes were difficult to follow as well.

While I continued to enjoy the creativity here and the variety of different creatures we meet, I ended up not enjoying this very much. It’s just way too hard to follow what’s going on. I had to keep paging back and re-reading stuff to try and figure out what was happening. Things are getting a bit too far out there…even for me and I tend to enjoy strange and off the wall things.

Overall this was okay but I wasn’t impressed. There are some very creative and interesting aspects to the story which I enjoyed. However, the story is getting very convoluted and hard to follow. This was made worse by the fact that the illustration is confusing. The frames are especially difficult to follow during action scenes. I wouldn’t recommend and won’t be continuing the series.

This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
– Mount TBR Reading Challenge
– You Read How Many Books? Reading Challenge
– Graphic Novel Reading Challenge
– Flights of Fantasy Reading Challenge