Title: Hockey Karma
Author: Howard Shapiro
Artist: Andres J. Mossa
Genre: Friendship / School / Drama / Drugs / Sports
Year Published: 2016
Year Read: 7/11/2017
Publisher: Animal Media Group
Series: Forever Friends Trilogy #3
Source: eARC (NetGalley)
Content Rating: Ages 16+ (Drug Abuse and Mature Themes)
Buy on: Amazon // Book Depository
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:
YAY! NetGalley has sent me the final volume to Howard Shapiro’s hit series “Forever Friends Trilogy” called “Hockey Karma” and I must admit that
after I read this graphic novel, it was a worthy conclusion to this series!
What is this story
about?
In this volume, Jeremiah “Jake” Jacobson is now thirty-two
years old and is known as being the best hockey player in the world. Unfortunately, because Jake is getting older
now and he is starting to lose his edge, especially to new and upcoming star
teammate Barclay Pedersen,
his family life and career is starting to rapidly come apart. Meanwhile, Tom Leonard has got his own issues
to deal with as he is trying to get a project that would help improve their
city off the ground. But Jake refuses to
help out with the project due to dealing with his addiction to some medical
pills to keep him in the game and Tom is wondering if he would ever get the
project off the ground. Also, Tom’s old
high school crush, Jaelithe
returns to town and Tom rekindles his relationship with Jaelithe and the two are
thinking about staying together. But
unfortunately, Tom will soon discover that he may have to sacrifice his current
lifestyle just to maintain a long-lasting relationship with Jaelithe.
Will Jake be able to get
his life back together and will Tom soon discover what he really wants for his
future?
Read this graphic novel to
find out!
What I loved about
this story:
Howard Shapiro’s writing:
Howard
Shapiro’s writing continues to amaze me in this volume as all the
characters are written extremely well and I just enjoyed the character
development that each character goes through in this story. I loved the way that Howard Shapiro portrayed Jake’s condition as he is still recovering
from his alcoholism from the last volume, only this time, he is dependent on
pain medication and it realistically shows that even though Jake is trying to
get help for his dependence on drugs, he is still struggling with trying to
overcome his drug addiction. I also
enjoyed the relationship shared between Tom and Jake as Tom is still trying to
help Jake become a better person by helping him deal with his drug abuse and
trying to help him mend his relationship with his family. I liked the way that Howard Shapiro also gave some focus to Tom in this volume as we
finally get to see Tom have some of his story arcs resolved in this volume (him
reuniting with his high school band “The
Stereotypical Freaks” and him trying to rekindle his relationship with his
high school crush Jaelithe) and I enjoyed seeing how much growth Tom goes
through when he reunites with his old high school friends.
Andres J. Mossa’s artwork: Andres
J. Mossa’s artwork is extremely gorgeous in this volume as all the
characters are drawn realistically and seem to glow off the pages. I also loved the fact that Andres J. Mossa’s artwork is much more
detailed in this volume than in the previous volumes as it greatly reflects the
growing maturity in the stories and as the stories become more mature, the
artwork becomes more detailed and realistic in tone.
What made me feel uncomfortable
about this story:
The reason why I gave this book a four-and-a-half-star
rating was because I felt that pacing was a bit too slow in some places and
there was a lot of dialogue going on in this book that sort of slowed down the
story a bit. I often had to speed
through the dialogue just to get to the meat of the story and I kind of wished
that some of the heavy dialogue was trimmed a bit so I could get to the more
essential parts of the story.
Final Thoughts:
Overall, “Hockey
Karma” is a great conclusion to Howard
Shapiro’s “Forever Friends Trilogy” that really cemented the importance of true
friendship and I hope to see more works from Howard Shapiro soon!
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I always enjoy sports movies but hardly ever read the books. I'm starting to wonder what I've missed!
ReplyDeleteSome of them are pretty good!
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