Comic Review: From Hell

Well, this was a horrible story. I honestly don't know what I thought it would be. I guess I had hoped it would have a happier ending than it did, but it's a story about Jack the Ripper, so I made the wrong assumption. The story woven by Alan Moore was a brilliant one that I would believe. A little Wikipedia research showed that there were many Ripper suspects, but me being partial to Free Mason conspiracy theories sees truth in this one if nothing else.
That being said this book was not an enjoyable read and not just because of the subject matter either. Anytime Sir William Gull was on the page the text was going to be mind numbing. He was insane and he had insane out of body experiences that lasted 10 pages at least. The last victim he killed in her home and having the time and privacy to do more to her he would have flashes of teaching in a surgical theater or of strange men calling him a different name. His ramblings were very existential and so so boring. I tried so hard to appreciate what Moore was telling through this character, but it was a little too much to hold my interest. That certainly doesn't make it bad writing it just doesn't make it entertaining writing.
I was surprised though that I found a character that I liked. Inspector Abberline was a very human character to juxtapose with William Gull's transcendent ambitions. He hated Whitechaple, felt out of place with his middle-class wife and wanted to catch this killer. His psuedo-romance with one of the victims was sad and touching at the same time. The parts of the story that focus around him were the parts that actually entertained me because they happened in real time, unlike Gull's out of body experiences.
Though Abberline wasn't the hero of the story-because no one was- you understood and accepted the decisions he made and sympathized with him all the same.
I'm happy to be able to check this book off my list it's made me feel accomplished if nothing else.

What I'm currently reading

I was browsing back through old posts and I remembered that I used to do that thing where I read a million things at once. Then I got distracted by all these TV shows that I had to watch to feel accepted like The Walking Dead, Dexter and Breaking Bad then I went down to reading one book at a time how it's 'properly' done. I'm bored of all these really intense television shows (I feel like my brain can have only so many WTF moments) so I'm back to reading several things at once to fill the time.

I picked up From Hell through a Comixology sale the first week of October thinking I would do a "spooky literature" theme for Halloween that's also why I made a point to get The Walking Dead review up even though I wanted to do that one some where in the middle of the month and not at the end. Well, the best laid plans... right? I'm only 200 odd pages into this tome of a graphic novel and I AM going to finish it because this is the first Alan Moore graphic novel I've read and in my mind if I read this one then I can put off Watchmen for another year or so...
I'm not sure if I got the lesser of two evils here though. The art is driving me crazy and the 50 page long architectural history lessen drove me to fantasize about beating my head into a wall. I mean my word this thing is a hard pill to swallow...only 300 plus pages to go. Maybe I can finish it by Christmas.

My dad loaned me The City & The City a couple of weeks ago and for some reason I've been itching to read it, but it's been a slow start. I would start it in bed and then decide I was too tired and have to start the first couple of pages again. I've finally broken through that (mainly because my smart phone is broken and I need something to read on my breaks at work) and am only a couple of chapters in but the writing is really captivating. I've never really paid attention to China Mieville until now, and I have a feeling I will be reading more of him (Have you seen him? He's hella buff. I'm used to skinny pale looking writers)

To be honest I was only mildly interested in Doctor Sleep when I heard about it coming out. I read The Shining last year around this time I think and I enjoyed it, but it was a little bit of a let down as far as a horror novel goes. That's a funny statement coming from me considering I've never read a horror novel, but the book overall wasn't scary. Neither was the movie really. I enjoyed the writing but it did ramble on a bit. I found Doctor Sleep when I was browsing audio books to listen to and decided to give it a go. I'm a little over a fourth of the was in and am ...enjoying it sort of. Dan Torrence is a pathetic asshole, but he's already growing as a character so I have hope for him. Stephen King's ability to describe things in the most miserable light possible is strong in this book so sometimes it feels a bit like a slog just because everything is so bleak.

I've also picked up a Margaret Atwood book, but I haven't even thought about it yet so I can't count it as currently reading since I'm more like currently looking at the cover of it.