Critique

I had only heard of Emily The Strange in passing, and didn’t really know much about the books, comics, or product line. However, I’m already in love with the character and the way the stories are told. It reminds me of a very intelligent version of Greg Heffley from the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series, except that instead of it being almost entirely graphic novel, it’s part novel, part graphics, and part a whole bunch of other interesting stuff. In a way, it’s similar to the process through which the Objectivist poets like William Carlos Williams in Paterson and Louis Zukofsky in “A” would compose a book-length poem that was comprised of a motley mixture of various elements, like some of their own work with newspaper clippings, letters, posters, ads, and all sorts of other treasures.  

Aside from the composition of the novel, the story itself is also engaging. Unlike the normal progression of most stories, which starts at the beginning and moves through to the end, you get the sense that you’ve picked up somewhere in the middle. This is especially evidenced by the fact that you start on diary page 13. Thus, you are on the amnesiac ride along with Emily the entire time. What makes this particularly clever and interesting as a twist to the story is that, in reality, the whole point of the story is shifted. You think it’s about Emily’s quest to get her memory back, when it’s actually about something else entirely, which you can only discover as she uncovers it.

This has quickly become one of my new favorite books, and I’ve recommended it to several people already. It’s a great read for anyone with an afternoon free, but its target age will be 9-13 year olds.