Review: The Adventures of John Blake by Philip Pullman

I could not resist buying this one when I saw it was going to be published. I adore Philip Pullman so much. I have only read His Dark Materials by him so far, though. But hoping to read lots more of him soon. I enjoyed this graphic novel a lot, but I also didn't love it, which makes me a bit sad. Aw.

But I do have a lot of reasons for why I didn't fully love this one. First going to talk about what I liked about it. It's short, so it's easy and fast to read. I loved all the illustrations; so gorgeous and full color too. They all looked so good. The writing by Philip was amazing. I loved all of that. So much.

But there wasn't much happening in this book at all. Which is why I didn't care all that much about it. I was expecting a big adventure. There isn't one. At all. And most of the book isn't even about John, but characters around him. This book felt like a short prequel, to a much larger series. But I don't think that is the case, which is more depressing. Hmph. Felt like there could have been so so much more included in this one. I didn't get to know the characters nearly enough, and so little happened, and yeah. I wish there had been more. But I did grow to like them all, even so. But yes. So short. So little happening. And such a fast ending, I wanted more about that. The ending was good, I suppose, but not really what I wanted. Hmph.

I am not going to write too much about this book, because as I said, it is pretty short and not that much happens. But still going to share some, and it still was a pretty exciting one. I did like reading it. And I am really happy that I gave it a try; as I love Philip so much. And I do wish there will be more books about John Blake, though I doubt it, with that ending. Hmph. But yeah, I do want more. I just did not love this book, aw. But I did like it a lot. And I enjoyed reading a little bit about John and Serena. They were cute.

This graphic novel is about a ghost ship. A ship that can travel through time, and has been spotted by some people in many different times and places. John Blake is a teenager on this small ship, and it was interesting to get to know him and why he was there, and why the ship could travel through time. Wish there had been more, but liked reading about it. There is also some bad guys, and the book focus a bit on that, and two other characters that are trying to save the ghost ship from the bad guys. Sort of interesting.

There is also the girl, Serena. She is fourteen years old, and John rescued her after she fell out of her family's sailing boat. I wish I could have loved her so much, but I got to know so little about her. Hmph. But I did adore her, I just wanted more. Aw. Not going to share anything about the story, just that it was interesting, and fast paced. I do think you should all give this one a try, because it was pretty gorgeous. I just wanted a bit more from it, as it was way too short, and had too little details. Still, I'm glad that I read it.

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