Customer Reviews

Kung Fu High School

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is a very graphic novel, in both language and violence. Martin Luther King High School is not for the faint of heart, or, as the students call it King Joony or King Joo. "Asian, Latin European, African, Indian and every other American thing in between" contribute to the mix of students. But all of them are the color of poor, any logos that make you a target taped over or torn out. Everybody has an angle, even Principal Dermoody, who makes kickbacks to Ridley, a fifth year senior and drug lord planning a school takeover. When Jimmy Chang comes to MLK High School, he changes all that in a plot that becomes increasingly confrontational.

There is a survival list for students: get kicked in (unavoidable), don't complain, join a family, stay loyal and learn how to sew (to add Kevlar and other types of body armor worn to school for protection). This Brave New World scenario is a cross between superhero comics and a video game, saturated with brutality and vivid descriptions of injuries sustained. Jimmy Chang, known for his martial arts skills, at first refuses to engage, but is drawn into battle to protect his cousin. Jimmy thought he had seen the last of fighting, but he steps up to protect his cousin and the family.

Although the excessive violence and everyday battle for survival becomes a parody of guerilla warfare, the message is clear, a society defined by tribes that rule by force. These kids endure their high school years, one day at a time. The protagonist, Jimmy Chang's fifteen-year old cousin, has been hardened to this life of constant menace, armor-lined clothing, martial arts training, the conditions at MLK fast reaching a boiling point. Finally, there is a massive and bloody showdown, bodies flying, broken and bleeding. Only Jimmy, with his superior fighting skills can save the day, an exercise that results in a virtual Armageddon.

This is civilization at its most primitive, where everyone is diminished by the violence, which is so over the top that it becomes a caricature, a Tarentino-esque drama of flying arms and legs, a teen Kill Bill. Young adult readers will either be horrified or excited by the non-stop action, as mesmerizing as a video game that takes out the players one by one. Gattis never romances the truth, each page like a fist in the face, drawing blood. The problem is desensitization. Does this violence dull the senses, rationalizing a way of life, or does overkill prove the stupidity and hopelessness of such a world. Filled with graphic violence, death and despair, the author never romances the truth, but the martial arts scenes do read "cool", maybe too cool. Parental oversight is needed to determine whether this book is appropriate reading for their young adult. Luan Gaines.2005.

This ultraviolent parody of a high-school novel takes place at an urban school riddled with gangs and ninjas.

Half martial arts thriller and half The Wire, Kung Fu High School tries to tell a serious story with a very silly premise. It fails when it tries to up the emotional stakes, but succeeds in describing the slightly-melodramatic, action-packed 'everyday' life at the school.

Although not as affecting as it wants to be, this is still a fun book with a wild premise and a punchy, cinematic ending.

First time author Gattis has taken every parent and teenager's worst fears about high school to their dystopian extreme in this explosion of exploitation ultraviolence. The combination of Columbine massacre, and films like Battle Royale, Boyz in the Hood, Bloodsport, and every Hong Kong chop-socky flick ever, would make for hilariously campy fun were it not for the relentlessly grim tone and absolutely brutal violence. Unlike most teen violence films, where the carnage is distanced through the use of guns, knives, and other tools, here the violence is almost entirely fists and feet, and the ultrarealistic effect of every single blow is detailed in almost fetishistic detail.

The dehumanized teenagers of Martin Luther King High School have no dream other than surviving from one day to the next. The kids are a complete ethnic stew, whose only common feature is that they are too poor to escape being sent to MLK. Each belongs to one of six families (gangs), no one goes anywhere without a family member watching their back, and everyone is constantly trying to improve their martial arts skills. Going to school is an exercise in vigilance, as these kids literally dress for battle and everyone wears plain, all black clothing in order to disguise their affiliation from outsiders. Their school is run by Ridley, an eighth-year senior drug lord who controls four of the six families and has the school administration and teachers in his pockets.

The story is narrated by Jen, a sophomore whose brother is the leader of the "Waves", and whose cousin Jimmy is a world-renown grandmaster who has just returned from living in Kong Kong. His arrival coincides with Ridley's move to absorb the other two families and assume ultimate control, enabling him to expand his operation. Jimmy is a kind of classic martial arts character, the heroic good guy who has pledged never to fight again -- but of course, is forced to by the Darwinian world around him. Most of the book is a kind of slow burn of escalating violence leading to an inevitable massive bloodbath at the end. There are some other little glimpses into Jen's seeded throughout, her heartache for her dead mother, her attempts to deal with her invalid father, her forbidden yearning for Jimmy, and friendship with the cool free clinic doctor who patches up the family after their various fights. But these are all rather thinly done, and are mere background to the showdown with Ridley.

There's a lot of nice detail sprinkled throughout, such as the specifics of how to sew unobtrusive body armor into your everyday clothing, how to make four-edged knives, and so on. Much of this is illustrated through nifty rough diagrams and drawings inserted amidst the text. The most striking stylistic element of the book, however, is Gattis' ability to describe martial arts combat. You don't need to be a practitioner to follow the various moves as the bodies fly, skin is shredded, and bones break. It's all vividly done to well past the point of excess. It could easily be argued that all this graphic detail serves a raw, cautionary function, or one could just as easily argue that it desensitizes the reader. Either way, it'd be hard to argue that the scenes involving Jimmy aren't pretty cool, as he balletically devastates his teen opponents one after the other in the climax. Ultimately, the book doesn't leave the reader with much -- it's more of a concept with a thin thin story than a really engrossing tale. It the kind of material could make an excellent film in the right hands, but it could also make a really horrible film in the wrong ones.

Most teenagers would tell you that high school is about survival. But at Kung Fu High School, that imperative becomes literal. Drug kingpin and evil genius Ridley has created a community of ultra-violence, where everyone from cops to teachers are corrupt. Survival for students means learning to fight and joining one of the six "families," like mob gangs, who can watch your back. Strange heroes Jen and Jimmy are cousins who have no choice but to fight, and fight superlatively. The battle is for revenge, for fun, for survival, for family, and for life. Gattis captures the wild spirit of kung fu fighting, which is at once painful, awful, beautiful, and exhilarating. Choreographed as cleanly and elegantly as John Woo or Quentin Tarantino ever produced, the violence is graphic and vivid. His characters have depth and are surprisingly unpredictable. Like the blood that is so abundant throughout the novel, it is a dark exploration of what it feels like to fight for survival, but with unexpected warmth and sweetness. Kung fu movies are a genre unto themselves; Gattis has created a new genre of kung fu novels. And it is a great beginning.

I first found out about this book by way of hearing that the movie options on it were recently bought, and it seemed like an interesting concept for a stylish, ultra-violent action thriller type of book. It wasn't all that bad (I'd actually give it maybe 3.5), but the writing is amateurish and the character development is quite weak, which often left me wondering what motivated characters to do what they do. There are a number of places in the book that issues you'd think would be somewhat important (like say, why the main characters even stick around in their hellhole of a school) are given short shrift. By the same token, the aftermath is unsatisfactorily explained and sends a rather contrived version of the message "Violence always turns out badly, kids."

Ryan Gattis' debut novel "Kung Fu High School," exploring the story of a high school split into gangs and controlled by a psychotic drug dealer, is as ambitious and fierce as any Jet Li film and even more of a ride. It's a work of fiction that feels almost real, with long paragraphs of tight details putting every drop of blood on the page.

Kung Fu High's relative piece is shattered when Jimmy Chang - cousin of two Wave gang members and a world champion fighter - comes to town after taking an oath never to fight again. This proves to be a mistake, as a brewing gang war leaves one of his relatives in the mud and opens up a power struggle on the scale of "Fight Club," complete with seven rules vital to staying alive.

What makes "Kung Fu" such a fascinating read is that shadow of reality that hangs over the book, as Gattis has sketched out a dark atmosphere that could actually exist in an inner city. A lot of points are clearly exaggeration for (successful) effect, such as the vice principal hauling bundled corpses through the halls during lunch and drug dealers paying extra so their little brother can have a new theater to stage Shakespeare.

However, the concept of a school where freshmen have ribs and jaws kicked in the first day and chess strategies are needed for safe seats in class feels too strange to not have a grain of truth. Gattis adds to this realism by providing diagrams that look like they were scrawled in the back of textbooks, outlining how to stitching layers of beer cans into sweatshirts for body armor and weld knives together for maximum lethality.

And this lethality is everywhere in "Kung Fu." From the first fight where Jimmy won't defend against spiked gauntlets to a literal firefight in the chemistry lab, bones are broken and arteries opened almost every chapter. Gattis walks through every step of the combat with a sensei's eye, picking up on every popped necks and misplaced fist that ends a fight.

Unfortunately, this emphasis on combat and strategies gives "Kung Fu High School" the same problem of countless action films: a lack of character development. Beyond one-word sentences and threats the book is relatively empty of dialogue, giving characters the feel of nameless henchmen and video game bosses. The narrator Jen never really feels right - such as when she cares more about blood on her civics essay than almost dying in a fight - and Jimmy is nothing more than a maelstrom of fists and legs.

"Kung Fu High School" is an interesting and compelling piece of work, a book that reads like the novelization of a martial arts film but comes closer to realism than most movies ever could. It's an impressive start for Gattis, with plenty of personality in the description to make up for what the characters lack and enough blood to fill a high school auditorium.

Kung Fu High School is not a book for everyone. Personally, I enjoyed reading it, but I felt like I really didn't take anything valuable from reading. Its entertainment value is high, but its intellectual level has more to be desired.

The story is narrated by Jen B. a student at Martin Luther King High, which has been given the nickname Kung Fu High since it has been taken over by a drug-running 23-year old senior named Ridley, and the social scene has devolved into about 6 different gangs. Each gang has its own leader, purpose, and style of fighting. Everything changes for Jen when her cousin, the legendary, undefeated fighter Jimmy Chang comes to live with them from out in the country. Jimmy comes to live with them after promising his mother to "never fight again." A promise which is tested in his first day at Kung Fu High. Soon, Jimmy's arrival at Kung Fu has tragic consequences for Jen and her family, and Kung Fu High turns into an all out martial arts battleground for control of the school.

The violence is very stylistic and very graphic. This book is definitely not for the weak of heart. Gattis goes a long way to make sure he describes the effects of each lethal hit inflected on a victim. However, throughout most of the book, I felt as if the main purpose of the book was just to be a vehicle for the author to write the most violent scenes possible. The backstories about Jen's family are not really followed all that well. And the sad part is that the story of her family could have been a great way to give the book some emotional quality, which it is completely lacking.

The book really feels like a 278-page comic book, but with very few pictures (yes, there are some pictures). The conversations just feel like flimsy bridges that the reader is crossing to get to the next fight scene. Is the book written well? Basically, yes. Gattis definitely does a good job of writing the book in the way that Jen would tell the story to someone. It is fairly impressive for a first novel, but hopefully Gattis will focus more on story in his next book. Because if the writer has a great story to back up the violence or bad things that happen plot-wise, it just makes the book that much better.

It wasn't bad, although many people will be turned off by the extreme violence in the book. Rather, it just wasn't that good.

First problem: The characters were not developed well enough to really be taken seriously. I felt no more sympathy for most of them than I would for Blanka or Ivy or Mitsurugi or any other character from a fighting game. As a result, their beatings were more exercise than they were tragedy. When this is juxtaposed against the realization that most of these people are 16-18 years old, it makes it hard to take it seriously as a literary work.

Second: The work has a pseudo-literary feel to it. You keep feeling like there is something more to it, but then when you try to dig, you find out that there really isn't anything underneath. Then, you feel really disappointed.

SPOILER WARNING:

Third: The death of Cue was handled badly. It should have been a more tragic moment. Instead, it almost felt farcical to me. Although you could argue that its arbitrary nature was intended to reflect the seeming randomness of violence and the sheer chance of life, or whatever, the fact remains that it felt empty. And, thus, we lost an interesting and fun character for nothing.

END SPOILER WARNING

These things combined to make the book feel a little vague and empty. The climax resolution also felt a little campy. Perhaps it doesn't even deserve three stars. To a large degree, it felt like a bad combination of one too many kung fu movies and American History X. The combined result felt like macho fantasy, rather than a real story.

So, read it if you are curious, or bored. It wasn't bad per se, it just wasn't good enough to earn a 4 from me. Worth reading once, probably, but don't buy it unless you hate your library or can't convince a friend to buy it for your reading circle.
Harkius

This book is hilariously funny -- punk violence taken to an insane and wonderful degree. It's a Japanese manga brought to life -- but we have a very dark Ranma Saotome here. And Akane, who narrates the story, is as cold blooded as they come. Imagine if Furikan High were real and the consequences of all that violence were real too. Or, as someone else noted, a live action John Woo film.

I cringed throughout the book -- I even skipped a few of the more brutal paragraphs -- but I loved every page.

And throughout there are wonderful little illustrations that merely drive home the senseless but beautiful cruelty. Excellent, excellent book. Highly recommended for anyone with a bit of a cruel streak.

This was an amazing book but it's not written for everyone. If your only experience with violence has been through the television- you may not get this book. But if you have a personal history with violence the details used to explain everything from the taste of blood, the sound of broken bone to the inability to comprehend/deal with death at a moment's notice, this book will make so much sense to you you'll want to weep.
I don't cry at books but this one almost got me. I was amazed to find out the author was a white male since the narrative is done through a half Chicana girl's perspective- and he nails it. I really loved how the character was built- violence and pain she understands, loyalty but love and basic human emotions that don't relate to pain- are a mystery she really doesn't have time for.
The showdown at the end, like any good story, has to happen- someone has to try to bring down the most corrupt and evil or how can we establish who is the hero? But what made me love this book was that it didn't make the evil stop at the drug king pin- it went all the way up from principal, to police to the media to the communtiy that pretended Kung Fu didn't exist.
The fight sequences are amazing- it's unsettling how true to life they are sometimes. I recommend this book to anyone with a pulse- I don't guarantee you'll like or understand it. But I loved it.