Roger Ebert once wrote of the human centipede: "is it good? is it bad? does it matter? It is what it is and it occupies a world where stars don't shine." The same could be said of this book. At one point, the villain tells the hero, "I'm going to slide my **** in your throat and make you thank me for it." That doesn't happen in a literal sense, but it does in a metaphorical one, and that sort of captures how reading this book feels.Way to go, Robert Kirkman. You shocked me. You got me again with your shocker twist-deaths. But the thing is, with 90% of your complex characters dead and most of the remaining ones flat and uninteresting, how long is this series going to last before it, too, becomes the walking dead? You need characters the audience can relate to, and you're running out, fast. Please don't kill one of the three characters left that have any complexity, and get to work building up the ones who don't!So...the villain's dialogue is excellently written (reminds me of a high school jock bully gone way too bad), the conversations between characters are handled well, the plot is fast-paced, but not for the faint of heart. At all. The question is--how far is too far? I'd previously read the first half of this in trade paperback form last year. It is just as powerful, senseless, and gripping now as it was to me then. The latter half of the volume continues the Negan storyline; it lays the groundwork for things I hope get resolved next volume.In the year since I last read The Walking Dead, I think my tastes and horizons have expanded a bit. The story is not quite as gripping as I remember it being. I think that is more on me than them, as the characters (of course) haven't aged a day since I last journeyed with them. The constant oppression of the world they live in is less enjoyable and more plain depressing to me right now. I do have the TPB of volume 19 out from the library, so I'll shortly see if the furtherance of the plot piques my interest again or not. It's not that I don't want to continue reading, just that it is a more difficult journey than I had remembered it being.
Do You like book The Walking Dead, Book Nine (2013)?
Good to know Carl can be just as annoying in the comics as he is in the tv show...
—Lola
This took me hours to breeze though... I want more now.
—momoftwo9406
Man Carl is starting to be a little annoying.
—tessibear1984
