Graphic Novel Review – Waverider (Amulet, Book 9) by Kazu Kibuishi (5/5 stars)
Reading Level: Middle Grade
Genre: Science Fiction/Fantasy
Length: 256 pages
Publisher: Graphix
Release Date: February 6, 2024
ISBN-13: 978-0545828659
Stand Alone or Series: 9th book in the Amulet series
Source: Bought Paperback Book
Rating: 5/5 stars
“After her confrontation with Ikol, Emily finally understands the stone’s power and what she must do to defend Alledia from the shadows. As she travels to Typhon to help her mom and Navin, Prince Trellis returns to the Kingdom of the Elves to save his countrymen — and confront the fraud who has seized power in the absence of a king. The threat of darkness follows all Stonekeepers closely, and it will take the strength of both new friends and old foes to conquer it… and survive.”
Series Info/Source: This is the 9th (and final) book in the Amulet series. I bought this book in paperback to read.
Thoughts: I really enjoyed this conclusion to the Amulet series, I thought it was very well done. It does feel a bit rushed and it does leave some things feeling a bit unfinished. However, I thought it was a realistic ending and all the things that needed to be concluded were. The way it ended does make me wonder if we will be seeing a spin-off series from this one.
Looking back I can’t believe that the first book in this series was released in 2008, holy cow that was 16 years ago. My son was 1 year old when I started reading this series and he grew up reading these books. Sadly he has no interest in finishing the series at this point, but wow this series was a long time in the making and well worth the wait!
I am not going to try to summarize the plot for this one. At this point in the series there are a lot of characters and story lines going on. However, I never had trouble following what was happening and really enjoyed reflecting on how our characters have grown throughout the series. I did go back and re-read all the previous books in this series. Personally, I would recommend doing that because the story is pretty complex and these graphic novels are short reads. It took me 20-30 min to read each one…so it was about a 4 hour committment to read the whole series again before reading the finale.
The illustration throughout takes my breath away, it is so beautiful. Kibuishi has so much talent both as a visual artist and a storyteller. I am really looking forward to his next project.
My Summary (5/5): Overall I really enjoyed this and am so happy to see this series get a well done conclusion. This does feel a bit rushed at parts and the ending is a bit more open-ended than I expected. However, I enjoyed it and thought it was realistic and well done. The illustration continues to be absolutely outstanding and I really enjoyed watching our characters grow and change throughout the series. If you are looking for an amazing fantasy graphic novel series, I would highly recommend this one!
