Seconds: A Graphic Novel Hardcover – July 15, 2014

For those who miss the wit and style of Scott Pilgrim, this is a new story told in a similar way. Bryan shows the sides of a hero that’s real - someone deeply flawed and living life. And … not their best life. Because, none of us do live our best lives without perspective and hardship. I thoroughly enjoyed this, and basically read it end to end without stopping. Thanks for sharing this story, Bryan. :)

If you know Scott Pilgrim, then you know then you’ve already been introduced to Bryan Lee O’Malley, however, when someone recommended Seconds to me, I was curious. In many ways, this standalone comic is a stunning, complex, and contemporary graphic novel that is woven with great storytelling and a graphic style that appeals to a wide range of readers.Katie Clay, the main character is a chef who runs a hip and popular restaurant. Her vision is to open another restaurant with a new vision, a new idea, and a new start. She feels like she is in limbo as she looks forward but feels trapped in her current life. When she sulks in her bedroom, one night, she finds a strange and foreboding box in her dresser. She opens the box and finds a kit for undoing her bad decisions. Step one: write down your error in the little notebook. Step two: eat a mysterious red mushroom. Step Three: go to sleep and when you wake up, your life is changed. Sounds simple. Katie is a successful professional, but not the most mature, friendly, kind person. While most of the time, her missteps and regrets are minor, she begins to think that the box in her dresser can change all that. Before things get too far out of hand, she meets the “house spirit” who warns her that she should not be meddling her past as it will certainly have grave impacts. This graphic novel even breaks the fourth wall, in a playful, innovative vision of storytelling. The art work, retains O’Malley’s Scott Pilgrim style, but it is enhanced in some unique and focused storytelling areas. Described as a manga-style, it is the artistic vision of this comic that makes it different, compelling, and better than some of the other time altering stories. It is about an empowered woman who wants to change parts of her life and win her vision of her life, but with it comes the sacrifice of those specific changes.The good news, this is not Ground Hog Day, in fact, O’Malley is much more innovative and fresh with the idea of possessing god-like powers to undo mistakes. Katie is well crafted artistically and narratively in that she would appeal to a teenager or an adult equally. While the character is illustrated in an O’Malley style that makes her seem young, she has the life and sass of an adult. Pushing the character to cover that much space allows more people to identify with the protagonist. Katie sometimes feels like a bossy seventeen year-old, but she also has the responsibility and the vision of her adult self. This is a graphic novel that will draw you in. You will want to finish it in one sitting, even though you know you should slow down and savor it a bit. There are a lot of different elements to like here, colorful and dynamic art work, compelling storytelling, and a time shifting story that is innovative and fun to read.

While I've never read the "Scott Pilgrim" comic series, I'm familiar with seeing Brian Lee O'Malley's anime-ish art style, and before committing myself to a long series, I thought I would give one of his singular books a try first. And after seeing this book in many comic shops, I finally bit the bullet and gave it a try, and was treated to a mind-bending adventure that now makes me want to check out more of this guy's work.Katie is a young and talented chef, whose brilliant cooking has made her restaurant, "Seconds", one of the most popular places in town to eat, and she has big dreams of opening a second location. But at the moment, nothing in her life seems to be going right. Her and her boyfriend had a bad break up; the new staff that's set to take over 'Seconds' isn't living up to her high standards; the second location needs massive repairs and is costing more money than she has, and one of her staff is badly injured in a kitchen accident that she's partially responsible for. However, she seems to find the answer to all her problems when, one night, she stumbles upon a mysterious box containing a notepad, a mushroom, and a card that instructs her to write her mistakes down, eat the mushroom, then go to sleep. Curious, she gives it a try....and come the next morning, the mistake she wrote down has been corrected---erased from history as if it never happened. And once Katie discovers a whole plethora of mushrooms underneath the restaurant, she soon finds herself using them night after night to give every conceived problem of hers a redo. But the house spirit that gifted her the initial mushroom is NOT happy with her and her blatantly irresponsible altering of history, and as the very fabric of reality begins to break down, Katie will learn the hard way just how precious a single moment can be.Arguably, this book's most unique aspect is it's usage of a not-as-talked-about fantasy/supernatural entity called a domovoi, or 'house spirit'. Though I've heard them mentioned here and there, this is the first proper story where I've read about one, and the idea of a house basically having its own soul and taking on a life of its own is really intriguing. Though Lis (as she comes to be known as) appears human, she speaks with a broken speech pattern---a constant reminder of what she really is and that she isn't of this world. And the more Katie begins to abuse the gift she was given, the more we find out just how bad things can get when you anger a house spirit....or have two spirits warring for the same spot.Katie comes off a bit unlikeable at first, with her self-centered nature and the flippant way she treats her staff, to the point of not even caring to remember their names. And the way she slowly begins to figure out the mystery of what's happening to her can be a tiny bit frustrating, as by a certain point, it's fairly obvious what's going on, and yet, it takes her to almost the end of the book to finally realize, "Hmm, maybe I should STOP trying to change reality." Then again, that's probably the whole point, as by the end, she's become a much better person. Her adventure through alternate realities forces her to have to make friends and actually get to know the people around her, and see them as people and not just tools or obstacles in her way. Though the lesson comes at a high price, she's shown how impossible it is to pursue perfection, and that we have to live with the choices we've made. And sometimes, even though things may be bad in the moment, the lessons we learn from our mistakes can wind up leading to something better.This is all the more emphasized with the rest of the staff at the restaurant; in particular Hazel---a quirky and super shy, sweet girl who, at first, seems like she's just another side character to get the ball rolling. But she turns out to be more important than anyone realizes, as she not only has a cursory knowledge about house spirits, but seems to be the one constant that Katie can ground herself to when her world literally starts crumbling around her. Really, all the side characters turn out to be important, showing that even people we hardly talk to or think about can have an impact on us. "Seconds" refers not to just the name of the restaurant, but to the concept of second chances, and how sometimes all it takes is a second to make a decision that can have long lasting consequences.My one and only hang up is that there's this running narration throughout the story that can get a little distracting at times. In most cases, it's fine, even necessary, but there's a few points where the narrator is describing what's happening when the art is clearly communicating it already. I also don't quite understand why the author felt the need to have fourth wall breaks where Katie gives snarky replies to the narrator. It's sometimes funny, but doesn't really add anything either.Still, this is a fantastic graphic novel that would make for a great animated movie. The semi chibi/anime style of art is simple and cute, but still manages to pull off disturbing imagery when things start to get really scary and outright terrifying when people start being erased from history. Though be warned, this is NOT for kids. I'd rate this 15+ for general mature themes, implied sex, and swearing.

One of my favorite books. Beautifully illustrated, great story line, dark underlying theme and good humor- this book has it all!!! I actually lent this book to (my now ex) boyfriend to read, but we broke up before he finished the book and I never got it back. So I went looking for a new copy, and behold, I find the exact same copy I had before! I’ve read this book so many time, but I couldn’t help myself from getting another copy. It’s just such a good book, and a great one to have lying around. It’s a quick read, dispite how thick the book looks, and I’ve found that once you start reading it you can’t really put it down. It’s great for all ages, I actually got this book in middle school, and I still love it, but be warned it has some mature themes. I also have dyslexia and I’ve found grapic novels to be the best to read... for the longest time I hated reading because it was so difficult, made my head hurt and everyone else seemed so much better than me with it. This was the book that made me want to start reading again. 10/10.

Das Produkt war in hervorragendem Zustand.Bryan Lee O‘Malley hat deine Künste perfektioniert. Man merkt dass O Malley es mag junge Frauen zu zeichnen und der Main character handelt zum Ende des Buches etwas anders als er uns vorgestellt wurde.Insgesamt 7/10Es lohnt sich allein wegen der Ideen und des Art styles.

La esperé con muchas ganas y no quedé decepcionada, algo que me gustó en cuanto a la presentación externa es el grosor de las tapas, el contenido de la novela gráfica es visualmente muy llamativo, las ilustraciones son a color y están muy bellas, además de acompañadas de una adorable narración, se lo presté a una amiga que no suele tener interés en este tipo de comics y aún sin mucha fe le dio una oportunidad y terminó encantándole <3

Un bijou d'édition et d'histoire

I love the art style, storyline and plot amazing work Bryan Lee O'Malley.

Me encanta el autor Brian Lee O'Malley (los 6 tomos de Scott Pilgrim ya son parte de mi lectura anual básica y siempre me sorprende por su autenticidad y genialidad de aunar temas tan propios de la juventud de una manera tan casual). Seconds es otra división: sigue siendo el mismo autor pero trata temas más adultos pero con el mismo planteamiento de autodescubrimiento y de que las cosas de la vida son tan relevantes como las queramos hacer y no hay marcha atrás en las decisiones ni deberíamos culparnos por lo que hicimos ni querer volver atrás. El futuro lo construimos día a día y no siempre todo va a ser perfecto. Tenemos derecho a equivocarnos y que nos comprendan por ello. Perfecta en una segunda lectura porque en la primera te quedas un poco pillado por todo el torbellino de situaciones que le ocurren a la protagonista.