The Last Book You'll Ever Read #2

The Last Book You’ll Ever Read #2

Vault Comics 2021

Written by Cullen Bunn

Illustrated by Leila Leiz

Coloured by Giada Marchisio & Vlad Popov

Lettered by Jim Campbell

Olivia Kade's cross-country book tour kicks off and is immediately met with resistance. The public lashes out against her treatise on the collapse of society, and it is Connor Wilson's job to keep her safe. As events surrounding the tour grow more violent, more surreal, and more horrific, Connor can't help but wonder -- is Olivia's book bringing about strange changes in the world?

Oh my stars and garters there are so many moments in this that really stick out for me and it makes this and even better read than I had come to expect. With the first issue and knowing about this book and meeting Olivia I had higher than usual expectations coming into issue two and that they were surpassed like an Olympic high jumper breaking all records. I love the mystery that surrounds Olivia and how she got the idea of inspiration for this book and how it does what it does to those who’ve read it. We see snippets of the effects that it has and how there seems to be a common thread but the suspense behind the book is palpably delicious.

I am absolutely thrilled by the way that this is being told. The story & plot development we see through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information is exceptionally well rendered. The character development that we see through the dialogue, the character interaction and how they act and react to the situations and circumstances which they encounter is magnificently portrayed. I am enjoying how we continue to see their personalities continuing to emerge managing to flesh them out further. The pacing is excellent and as it takes us through the pages revealing more of the story and about the characters we’re taken places we’d never expected to go.

How we see this being structured and how the layers within the story continue to emerge, grow, evolve and strengthen is presented exceptionally well. How the layers within the story open up these avenues that we see, some of which are being explored and some will not, add this crazy good depth, dimension and complexity to the story. How we see everything working together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as how it moves the story forward is impeccably achieved.

The interiors here are really rather nice. The linework is clean, crisp and strong, the varying weights and techniques we see being utilised to create the detail work that we see throughout the book is beautifully rendered. I love the more traditional comic book style of the work and how it kind of mixes the old Romance comics with those older comics and creates this fresh, new and exciting look. Backgrounds are utilised really well throughout the book as they expand and enhance the moments beautifully. They also work within the composition of the panels to bring out the depth perception, sense of scale and the overall sense of size and scope to the story. The creativity and imagination that we see is incredibly well rendered and the changes that overcome folks really enhances the creepy factor. Though I will say I was slightly mystified why that dude in the bookstore’s shirt looked different during the act compared to after I mean we should’ve seen his equipment. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a remarkably talented eye for storytelling. The various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work show a great understanding of how colour works.

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The opening, the two book signings and the bar scene are where we see some of those moments that made me even more excited about this story. What we see, learn and experience is sensationally presented. The writing is stupendous and the characterisation is fluid and expanding while the interiors bring this to life in some truly marvellous ways all of which work together to make this one hell of a great read.