Review: Seconds by Bryan Lee O'Malley

Title: Seconds

Author: Bryan Lee O'Malley
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Publication date: July 15, 2014 

Genre(s): Sequential Art (Graphic Novels)

Source: Publisher

Format: Finished Copy 

Pages: 336

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Katie’s got it pretty good. She’s a talented young chef, she runs a successful restaurant, and she has big plans to open an even better one. Then, all at once, progress on the new location bogs down, her charming ex-boyfriend pops up, her fling with another chef goes sour, and her best waitress gets badly hurt. And just like that, Katie’s life goes from pretty good to not so much. What she needs is a second chance. Everybody deserves one, after all—but they don’t come easy. Luckily for Katie, a mysterious girl appears in the middle of the night with simple instructions for a do-it-yourself do-over:

1. Write your mistake
2. Ingest one mushroom
3. Go to sleep
4. Wake anew

And just like that, all the bad stuff never happened, and Katie is given another chance to get things right. She’s also got a dresser drawer full of magical mushrooms—and an irresistible urge to make her life not just good, but perfect. Too bad it’s against the rules. But Katie doesn’t care about the rules—and she’s about to discover the unintended consequences of the best intentions.

Lots of people read comic books, but I'm a manga person. I have never read a comic book in my life, and although there might not be much difference between a comic book and japanese manga apart from the drawing style, I was just never a fan of superheroes and whatnot. When I first saw Seconds, the cover was what did it for me. It is one of the cutest covers I have ever seen, and better yet, the inside of the jacket is GORGEOUS. Everything about the book looked so pretty, even the paper felt so nice. Therefore, even if I didn't necessarily enjoyed the book, I would have still just liked to have that book up on my shelf.

Good thing is, I absolutely loved the book. I devoured it, and it was such a nice break from all of the university work and stress. The main protagonist, Katie, is a talented 29 year old chef who runs a very successful restaurant. Not only does she already run one, but Katie is also working towards opening up another one! Suddenly, things with the new restaurant goes wrong, her ex-boyfriend pops up out of nowhere, she starts noticing weird things, and everything just goes down the drain. One day, a mysterious girl appears in Katie's room, and comes with simple instructions that Katie can follow in order to get a second chance. I don't really want to spoil much about this book, although all of that can be found in the synopsis, I think it would be more fun to go into this book knowing little to nothing.

As the story progressed, it was very interesting to see what would happen. I also absolutely loved the characters. Katie was hilarious, and I just honestly fell in love with her personality. The whole book was just very well written (and with beautiful illustrations), and everything about it was just simply, perfect. I will definitely be checking Bryan's other comics, because I sure enjoyed Seconds very much.