Book Review: Scott Pilgrim: Precious Little Life

Scott Pilgrim: Precious Little Life(Volume 1)
This is a graphic novel by Bryan Lee O'Malley
Acquired from the public library

The cover of the book suggests this comic for ages 13+ and I could not agree more.

I placed this on hold when I came across some review online(which I cannot remember where) and felt like this might be something for me to enjoy. I will be honest when I read the review I did not know it was a comic/graphic novel. However, I was not disappointed. I loved the artwork in the comic. It just felt right for the storyline. I know that seems like common sense, but I have tried to read some graphic novels that I was just not able to get into because I felt like the illustrations just did not flow with the story.

Here is a quick review
From Publishers Weekly
Scott Pilgrim is 23 years old, lives in a cold, unnamed Canadian town, plays bass in a band called Sex Bob-Omb and has a very cute 17-year-old Chinese-Canadian girlfriend, Knives Chau. His "precious little life" is amiably unstructured, and he drifts, happily unemployed, between band practice and time spent with Knives. His relationship with Knives is chaste—walks, chats and hugs—although Knives is getting bigger ideas. "We haven't even held hands," Scott explains. "It's just nice, you know." But then he starts having dreams about Ramona Flowers, a mysterious, equally cute and perfectly legal hipster chick on Rollerblades who delivers books for Amazon.com. Ramona is anything but simple, and O'Malley's tale of adorable slackers in love is transformed into a wildly magically manga–kung fu fantasy adventure. We meet the first of Ramona's seven evil ex-boyfriends, Matthew Patel, who challenges Scott and his band to a supernatural martial arts duel right out of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. O'Malley has crafted a delightfully hybrid comics love story. It's an alt-lit, rock 'n' roll graphic novel with wonderful manga-influenced drawing and a comically mystical plot that manages to capture both the genuine intimacies and serial dishonesties of young love. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

This was a fun read. I found myself laughing out loud a few times and just felt compelled to read it in one sitting. I read this book in under a hour and am ready to dive into the other volumes. I am so glad I put on hold all the volumes so I don't have to wait. This is a quick moving story with humor, very cool characters who I enjoyed reading about, and a fun plot line that really held my interest. I cannot wait to meet the rest of the evil ex boyfriends. I would steer clear if you are of the younger generation for the language, some crude jokes, mild sex references, etc. Nothing too bad, but there is a reason for the 13+ age suggestion. Just want to make that clear to protect myself.

I have to admit that my favorite part of the novel despite having nothing to do with the plot line is during a fight scene when they used the old comic fighting words like POW! KAPOW!. The one that tops it all is when the O'Malley added SMURF and CHOP SOCKY! I am so going to use those phrases from now on.

On another level, this comic is being made into a movie(well, it is already made and just in post production). Michael Cera will be playing Scott Pilgrim. Check out the trailer and read the comic before the release date. I will keep you updated on other volumes as I read them.