Reviews
One of the best comic series, with such a terrific writing that all adaptations made — tv series and videogames — were able to benefit from it.
I'm reading these books alongside watching the TV series, so I'm a little bit bias in that respect. So in my head, Andrew Lincoln is Rick Grimes, along side the other actors from the fantastic programme. I think the issue I have is the tension that is missing from the books. The illustrations are good, the characters interesting, even if there are a few too many for me to keep track of. The story is genuinely interesting, and I love that the writers focus on the emotions of the characters and how they react to everything happening as well as zombie attacks. But the ridiculousness of events make me roll my eyes. Everyone appears to be shacked up with the most unlikely people, Rick is willing to let four prisoners just move in without any concern over the safety of his family and last but not least there's a lesbian kiss. I find that everything just happens too quickly and there's no time to process it. If it was a novel, maybe it would be better. I also find that characters are less sympathetic. Hershel, who I like in the series, I don't like at all in the book. So overall, this is a three. I will continue reading in hope that the series gets better but I think I will enjoy the TV series more.
This Volume they reach the prison and there's so much to unpack with this volume. This is a bit bloodier than the first two Volumes and it felt like utter chaos reading this. There are so many characters and so many things happening. They think they can make the prison a home and somewhere to keep safe from the zombies. There is a bunch of killing and it's not the zombies doing it if you catch my drift. One thing in this novel is that it shows it doesn't matter if you are bitten or not, if you die you becoming a zombie. The nerd in me wanted him to go into way more detail on this than what observations the reader makes.
Spoilers in Review! Beware! MATURE CONTENT! Including swear words, murder, and violence! Oh my god, Oh my god!! I found myself on the edge of my seat at many points in this Volume. So the group have found a prison, luckily with no casualties on their hunt this time. It's infested with zombies, but could possibly be the safe haven they've been looking for. They find four convicted criminals locked in the cafeteria, not exactly trusting of them. Just because they have four walls safely around them along with three fences, doesn't exactly mean they're safe. A suicide pact has been made, and actually planned for some time it seems, declaring it was the only way for them to be together forever. Two innocent young girls have been butchered, and fingers are being pointed at the prisoners. Being outside, killing those zombies left and right, going days with little food, and never having a safe haven has driven them to the brink of darkness. They find out that you don't have to be bitten to come back as a flesh eating zombie. When you die, you're waking up as the walking dead. spoilers start - Then you have the adults emotionally unstable. Allen is still contemplating death, then telling his young kids that everyone's going to die anyway, so they should get used to it. Tyrese is blinded by rage and grief as he goes on a zombie killing rampage. Hershel is hitting his son, exclaiming he's going to hell for blaming him for the death of his two daughters for bringing them to the prison in the first place. Rick even went all the way back to their camp, pulled Shane from his damn grave, and shot him. I haven't figured out if it's because he wants him to be in peace, or being he's an ass hole and wanting to shoot him himself? Then Thomas, the sketchy prisoner, goes after Andrea, wanting to chop her head off while calling her obscenities. I think because she's a female and he has something against females, from the way he spoke to them while tried to chop their heads off... he was creepy as fuck! Then they're trying to find a punishment for him, after Rick almost kills him and breaks his own hand. The vote is to hang him, but instead he attacks Patricia (I think it was her) because she was stupid enough to try and save a guy who killed two little girls and tried to kill Andrea. So Maggie shoots him before he successfully kills anyone else and feed him to the zombies outside the gates. Hershel, poor guy, watches as he's being eaten, the whole time.. You also have one of the other criminals wanting to perve on the girls cause he walked in on them in the shower, naked!! In the very end, two of the criminals (I can't remember their names) comes out with guns and threatens to blow ricks brains out all over Carl if he didn't drop the gun. (He actually said something completely immature and cruel, therefore, Rick is probably going to kill him in the next Volume!) - spoilers end Rick finally told his overly hormonal wife to, and I quote: Shut the fuck up, Lori. I get that she's pregnant and has loads of hormones, but she was really getting annoying at times.
The prison arc is probably one of my favourite, after the Governor, so I really enjoyed this volume. More losses, more deaths, but no one I cared about yet. So this is good so far. Just building the story without breaking my heart. Thanks, I guess.
So I am reading the first compendium again so I can read the second and the third. This time, I will rate them by the volume that they are. WrensReads Review: The third volume is my favorite so far. Rick and the gang are cleaning out the prison to make it into a home. Rick swallow his pride and tells Hershel and his family to come live in the prison with them because it is safer there. Or is it? You see, there are prisoners there that don't know what has been going on in the outside world. They have been using the freezer to poop in, eating all they can eat out of the canned foods, and probably just swapping murder stories and giving each other pointers for when they get out. But you can't judge a book for what they got committed for, right? Well, wrong and right. See now someone is actually killing people in the prison. Is it Dexter, the big brood who already claimed the fact he killed his wife and her boyfriend? Or the drug addict Andrew who says he is the cause of the apocalypse? Probably not the tax fraud guy Thomas, though he does look a little creepy. wait! What about the peeper Axel who walks in on some of the girls showering so he can "hurry up and go back to his room before the image goes away"? All this while trying to get "zombies" out of the prison they are trying to make a home. Which brings me to my only disappointment: they have been using "zombie" instead of their made up ones like "roamers" "walkers" "lurkers". It makes me sad. Also, this is where RICKTATORSHIP starts to take off. His word or die. I feel like "thought a lot about _____ and he knows that ______ is the only way" is his signature line. Just fill in the blanks.
Blog | Twitter | Instagram My rating of the third volume, Safety Behind Bars is a bit lower than I anticipated. I loved it on my first read and still enjoyed it this time around but much less than before. A lot of the plots in this were fantastic--action packed, dramatic, heart-wrenching and downright spooky. Yet there was a bit of something missing in the tone when compared to its previous, and later, installments. I do not want you to misinterpret this as me saying it wasn't a good read because it was. But! I thought there were parts that dragged on a little too much and relied on something else entirely at the end of the day. Can't really explain it beyond that--from two young characters gruesome deaths, the former inmates from the prison the gang now resides in, to the suicide pact of two other characters and the attempted murder of another, there's a hell of a lot to be seen. Just as disturbingly compelling as you expect, it definitely left me both on the edge of my seat and lost elsewhere in my emotions. I loved the recurring themes of survival--would it really be a The Walking Dead story without it?--and the fact that Rick's emotional struggles are posed front and center. I loved seeing all the familiar faces come back into play as well; despite the fact that it turns heartbreaking after some time. There was a lot of frights to be had with the zombies and the reanimation of several recently departed. We've got a new antagonist in what appears to be an unlikely force. It's all very nerve-wracking and frankly a blast to read. And that cliffhanger at the end? Magnificent. I don't know why, but the way Safety Behind Bars ends just gets me pumped every-damn-time I read it. Overall, this volume is thoroughly entertaining and enjoyable reminding me why the series works so well. Great characters, life and death plots, and a good old fashioned zombie apocalypse worthy of some of the great horror classics of yesterday.
