Title: The Stereotypical Freaks
Author: Howard Shapiro
Artist: Joe Pekar
Genre: Friendship / School / Drama / Illness / Music
Year Published: 2012
Year Read: 11/6/2016
Publisher: Animal Media Group
Series: Forever Friends Trilogy #1
Source: eARC (NetGalley)
Content Rating: Ages 13+ (Some Language)
I would like to thank NetGalley and Animal Media Group for providing me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Introduction:
Now, Howard Shapiro’s graphic novel “The
Stereotypical Freaks” has been around the comic book scene for years now,
but I never had the chance to get around to reading it because of two reasons:
1. I was too busy reading other books at the
time.
2. I was not interested in the book when it
first came out.
However, when NetGalley
recommended me this graphic novel, I decided to give this graphic novel a try
and I was seriously surprised by the different genre that this graphic novel
explored compared to most other graphic novels that I had read that were either
adventure, action or fantasy genres and I was pleasantly surprised by the
results of this unique graphic novel!
What is this story
about?
Tom Leonard was your average high school senior who was
pretty unpopular at his high school, his best friend Dan Roberts was considered
a geek and he has a crush on a girl named Jaelithe, who does not even know he
exists. Fortunately, Tom is an extremely
smart boy and he is a talented rocker in his basement band. One day however, the school decides to hold a
battle of the bands competition and even though Tom was reluctant at first to
enter the contest, he eventually decides to enter the competition, along with
Dan. But, there is one problem: Tom and Dan are the only members of their
band and they need two more people to make their band complete. So they ended up recruiting Mark Bennett
(formerly known as Marcel), who was Tom’s childhood friend until Mark’s
football career caused him to break off his friendship with Tom and a shy quiet
boy named Jacoby Nukik, who is a foreign exchange student from Canada who seems
to be hiding a big secret from the band.
Luckily, forming the band together caused the four boys to become fast
friends and they decided to call their band “The Stereotypical Freaks!” Later on however, when one of the boys
reveals a big secret that could tear the band apart, the four friends now make
it their ultimate goal to win the competition to fulfill one of their friends’
wishes.
What I loved about
this story:
Howard Shapiro’s writing:
Wow!
Howard Shapiro’s writing was
simply beautiful and emotional! I never
would have thought that I would read a graphic novel that was not focused on
fantasy or action, but more focused on the developing friendships between the
main characters and about how one school event brought them all together. I loved the way that Howard Shapiro wrote each character, as they did not act according
to their stereotypes (Tom the Genius, Dan the Geek, Mark the Jock and Jacoby
the Quiet Guy) and their growing friendship to each other felt so natural as they
had to go through some hurtles in their relationships to become close. My two favorite characters were probably Tom
and Jacoby as both characters tried to keep the group together despite the
obstacles all of them had to face together.
I loved the fact that Tom gave Mark and Jacoby a chance to prove
themselves to be a part of the group since it shows that he bears no ill will
towards anyone, no matter what their ranking in school is. I especially loved Jacoby as he is the quiet
kid that I can relate to the most with since I was the quiet kid in high
school; but once we learn about his tragic backstory, I really started to feel
for his character and hope that he gets his wish fulfilled. I also loved the fact that Howard Shapiro was able to write a
graphic novel that was about the normal everyday life of a high school student,
instead of writing about superheroes or fantasy characters as it gives this
graphic novel a unique tone and it was nice reading a graphic novel that was
mostly an ordinary high school series.
Joe Pekar’s artwork: Joe
Pekar’s artwork is gorgeous to look at as all the characters are drawn
realistically and the black and white colorings of the artwork contribute
greatly to the graphic novel’s mundane tone of the story. I also like the way that Joe Pekar does the characters’ facial expressions as they greatly
convey the different emotions that the characters go through such as happiness,
anger and sadness.
What made me feel
uncomfortable about this story:
The reason why I took off half a point from the rating was
because I felt that the pacing of the story was a bit slow at some points and
there were times where I was struggling with finishing the graphic novel because
there was too much exposition on the dialogues that tend to slow down the
story.
Final Thoughts:
Overall, “The Stereotypical Freaks” is a great story for
anyone who wants to read about the true power of friendship and who wants to
read a good old fashioned graphic novel about the trials of high school.
* 2013 Bookworm Best Award Nominee
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