book review: The Amateurs by Conor Stechschulte

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The basics: The Amateurs, the debut graphic novella from Conor Stechschulte, is the story of two butchers who arrive at work to find an empty shop and have no memory of how to do their jobs.

 My thoughts: I'm still not quite sure what to make of The Amateurs in its entirety. As a reading experience, I quite enjoyed it. It's dark and funny, a winning combination for me, and I was enchanted with the hilarious attempts the butchers made to try to fill meet orders when there was no meat, only one cow and one pig. Along with their memory, these two also lost their common sense.

Over all, The Amateurs is bizarre. There appears to be much more going on, and while I enjoyed and appreciated the horror and humor, I wanted more of a resolution, even an ambiguous one. The ending came abruptly in my opinion, and I felt myself saying, "that's it?"

 The verdict: While I enjoyed the experience of reading The Amateurs, I wished for more of a finale than it had. Still, Stechsculte is a talent to watch, and I'll be quite curious to see what he writes and draws next.

 Rating: 4 out of 5
Length: 72 pages
Publication date: June 8, 2014 
Source: library

 Convinced? Treat yourself! Buy The Amateurs from Amazon (no Kindle edition.)

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