Ashleyrose Sullivan

Short sharp paragraphs, cleanly separated and pleasingly rectangular, offer an enticing comic-book feel to Ashleyrose Sullivan’s Awesome Jones. Enjoyable visual metaphors and nicely detached narration add to the illusion, while occasional images slip to the fore unobtrusively. But this is no graphic novel lookalike. Awesome Jones is something awesomely more.

The story’s fun with its hints of mystery behind two quietly determined characters. Both of them alone in the world, Awesome and Lona find themselves drawn to each other, even as they keep happily watchful eyes on the activities of superheroes around them. Heroes protect and serve the common populace, while men in suits clean up the messes left behind. But is this really the best way to run a universe?

Soon more mysteries pile up. Who is Awesome? What can he do? And why is the Guild so intrusive? As clues are found, more images punctuate the pages, giving readers a pleasing sense of trying to solve the mystery alongside the characters. It’s an “awesome” combination, exciting, intriguing, truly well-written, and fun.

Disclosure: I was given a free copy during the author’s blog tour, ages ago!… (lisätietoja)