Wow, I didn't expect Volume 2 to be worse than Volume 1, but it managed! The images were sometimes impossible to follow. The framing devices are still unexplained, obvious, and distracting (also one is legit repeated in its entirety at the beginning of one issue after it was just portrayed in the previous issue). Whatever rules of reaping the reader can gather from the incoherent plot are broken and inconsistent with the previous volume (If reapers always travel in pairs, why didn't they in Volume 1? If it's always, shouldn't Ginny and Alice have known that going in to fight War? Why does it conveniently take Alice many moments to dissolve into butterflies to make that "revelation" when she dissolved instantly twice in Volume 1? Why won't Sissy put her back together when she obviously did between the two volumes? Why aren't the consequences for Ginny no longer having a companion discussed at all?).

Those are just some of the questions and holes in the story. The ideas are intriguing: reapers, reapers in pairs, the relationships between them, ordinary folk ascending into reaperhood, etc, but the execution here is so poor. Overall, extremely frustrating, jarring, underdeveloped series. ( )

A little more cohesive than the first, but still irritating with its narrative. I want to fight this book. Every story doesn’t have to be linear, but it needs to make sense at some point. The reader should be able to have an “ah-hah” moment. This volume has a bit of a spotlight on Sarah, which I liked. Her family is beautiful. I’m not really sure why she loves him/they’re in love. He brought a lot of trouble to her doorstep and almost got her precious baby boys killed last volume and her brutally beaten. I guess they bonded over Sissy? Whatever.

so, Johnny is a reaper and he can turn into a coyote. Okay, that makes sense considering his last name. But he has a sister molly? And they constantly switch their roles of good and bad luck !?! sigh

2.5 ( )

Another beautiful volume in the Pretty Deadly saga, which uses real-world American western, and World War I settings to explore a new mythology of reapers, once-human spirits tasked with overseeing certain tasks concerning archetypes, including fear, war, and death in the mortal world. I did find the cast a little big to keep perfectly straight who was who exactly to each other in the course of the story, and so a re-read of both volumes may be helpful to make sense of some particular story-threads. However, the overall scope and ambition of the book is impressive, and the artwork both beautiful and unique. If I could give it four-and-a-half stars I would, though I'm not quite at five stars for it. ( )

This is a cool book but remains so weird, story wise. Idk. ( )

Note: May Contain Spoilers

We open shortly after the first volume. Sissy, having taken over the mantle of death, sends Alice and Ginny to capture errant Reapers, who have long run wild without the careful attention of Death.
One reaper, in particular, The Reaper of War, who rides the Reaper of Fear, has started the War to End All Wars. And young Cyrus, the son of Sarah Fields, is trapped in a trench; face the brutal world created by the Reaper of War.
In particular, what I enjoyed about this story was the idea of Reaper. Each Reaper has a particular type or kind of Reaping. Ginny is the Reaper of Vengeance, Alice the Reaper of Cruelty. But another, he is the Reaper of Grace. The idea that each reaper is give task to reap a certain type of person and to reap in a certain way – it’s so brilliant it hurts!
Told with stark reds and blacks, stylized lines, and creative use of the panels, this story is dark, bloody, full of terror – and hope. There is a beauty to the death, to the madness, a sense of right and order, even in the midst to the pain. To read it, is like reading poetry about death.
Excellent, worth reading.
This is suitable for high school age children and up. There is limited language and sexual content, but extensive violence and blood. This is not a happy book. ( )