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Seconds: A Graphic Novel by [Bryan Lee O'Malley]

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Bryan Lee O'Malley

Seconds: A Graphic Novel Kindle Edition

by Bryan Lee O'Malley (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

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#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY USA TODAY AND THE DAILY PLANET

The highly anticipated new standalone graphic novel from Bryan Lee O’Malley, author and artist of the hugely bestselling Scott Pilgrim graphic novel series

Katie’s got it pretty good. She’s a talented young chef, she runs a successful restaurant, and she has big plans to open an even better one. Then, all at once, progress on the new location bogs down, her charming ex-boyfriend pops up, her fling with another chef goes sour, and her best waitress gets badly hurt. And just like that, Katie’s life goes from pretty good to not so much. What she needs is a second chance. Everybody deserves one, after all—but they don’t come easy. Luckily for Katie, a mysterious girl appears in the middle of the night with simple instructions for a do-it-yourself do-over:

1. Write your mistake
2. Ingest one mushroom
3. Go to sleep
4. Wake anew

And just like that, all the bad stuff never happened, and Katie is given another chance to get things right. She’s also got a dresser drawer full of magical mushrooms—and an irresistible urge to make her life not just good, but perfect. Too bad it’s against the rules. But Katie doesn’t care about the rules—and she’s about to discover the unintended consequences of the best intentions.

From the mind and pen behind the acclaimed Scott Pilgrim series comes a madcap new tale of existential angst, everyday obstacles, young love, and ancient spirits that’s sharp-witted and tenderhearted, whimsical and wise.

Praise for Seconds

“The cartoonist, best known for the Scott Pilgrim series, delivers one of the most enjoyable reads I’ve had all year with this magical graphic novel. I dare you to not read it all in one sitting.”—Whitney Matheson, USA Today

“Seconds arrives with high expectations, and it meets them all, delivering the style and humor of [Bryan Lee] O’Malley’s past works with greater emphasis on mood, detail, and complex character relationships.”—The A.V. Club

“Richly imagined and vibrantly drawn, Seconds is a funny, surprising, and enchanting read.”—Publishers Weekly

“In Seconds, Bryan Lee O’Malley plays the angst of youth against the fabric of a larger epic. In doing so, he enriches both. A great ride!”—Guillermo del Toro

“Bryan Lee O’Malley’s Seconds is adorable, haunting, funny, and beautiful. A perfect recipe for a great graphic novel.”—Scott McCloud, author of Understanding Comics

Print length

336 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Ballantine Books
Publication date

July 15, 2014
File size

117722 KB
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Editorial Reviews

Review

“The cartoonist, best known for the Scott Pilgrim series, delivers one of the most enjoyable reads I’ve had all year with this magical graphic novel. I dare you to not read it all in one sitting.”—Whitney Matheson, USA Today

“Seconds arrives with high expectations, and it meets them all, delivering the style and humor of [Bryan Lee] O’Malley’s past works with greater emphasis on mood, detail, and complex character relationships.”—The A.V. Club

“Richly imagined and vibrantly drawn, Seconds is a funny, surprising, and enchanting read.”—Publishers Weekly

“In Seconds, Bryan Lee O’Malley plays the angst of youth against the fabric of a larger epic. In doing so, he enriches both. A great ride!”—Guillermo del Toro

“Bryan Lee O’Malley’s Seconds is adorable, haunting, funny, and beautiful. A perfect recipe for a great graphic novel.”—Scott McCloud, author of Understanding Comics

About the Author

Bryan Lee O’Malley is the creator of the bestselling Scott Pilgrim graphic novel series, which was adapted into a major motion picture, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, in 2010. He lives in Los Angeles, where he continues to make comics. --This text refers to the hardcover edition.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00JXKY8X8
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Ballantine Books (July 15, 2014)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ July 15, 2014
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 117722 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Not enabled
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Print length ‏ : ‎ 336 pages
Lending ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled

Best Sellers Rank: #520,862 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #65 in Humorous Graphic Novels (Kindle Store)
- #432 in Humorous Graphic Novels (Books)
- #663 in Cooking Humor

Customer Reviews:
1,045 ratings

Customer reviews

5 star		81%
4 star		14%
3 star		3%
2 star		1%
1 star		1%

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Top reviews from the United States

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Zoë

Do yourself a favor and buy it !

Reviewed in the United States on July 2, 2018

Verified Purchase

One of my favorite books. Beautifully illustrated, great story line, dark underlying theme and good humor- this book has it all!!! I actually lent this book to (my now ex) boyfriend to read, but we broke up before he finished the book and I never got it back. So I went looking for a new copy, and behold, I find the exact same copy I had before! I’ve read this book so many time, but I couldn’t help myself from getting another copy. It’s just such a good book, and a great one to have lying around. It’s a quick read, dispite how thick the book looks, and I’ve found that once you start reading it you can’t really put it down. It’s great for all ages, I actually got this book in middle school, and I still love it, but be warned it has some mature themes. I also have dyslexia and I’ve found grapic novels to be the best to read... for the longest time I hated reading because it was so difficult, made my head hurt and everyone else seemed so much better than me with it. This was the book that made me want to start reading again. 10/10.

7 people found this helpful

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KarToon12

The ultimate lesson in being careful what you wish for

Reviewed in the United States on July 17, 2020

Verified Purchase

While I've never read the "Scott Pilgrim" comic series, I'm familiar with seeing Brian Lee O'Malley's anime-ish art style, and before committing myself to a long series, I thought I would give one of his singular books a try first. And after seeing this book in many comic shops, I finally bit the bullet and gave it a try, and was treated to a mind-bending adventure that now makes me want to check out more of this guy's work.

Katie is a young and talented chef, whose brilliant cooking has made her restaurant, "Seconds", one of the most popular places in town to eat, and she has big dreams of opening a second location. But at the moment, nothing in her life seems to be going right. Her and her boyfriend had a bad break up; the new staff that's set to take over 'Seconds' isn't living up to her high standards; the second location needs massive repairs and is costing more money than she has, and one of her staff is badly injured in a kitchen accident that she's partially responsible for. However, she seems to find the answer to all her problems when, one night, she stumbles upon a mysterious box containing a notepad, a mushroom, and a card that instructs her to write her mistakes down, eat the mushroom, then go to sleep. Curious, she gives it a try....and come the next morning, the mistake she wrote down has been corrected---erased from history as if it never happened. And once Katie discovers a whole plethora of mushrooms underneath the restaurant, she soon finds herself using them night after night to give every conceived problem of hers a redo. But the house spirit that gifted her the initial mushroom is NOT happy with her and her blatantly irresponsible altering of history, and as the very fabric of reality begins to break down, Katie will learn the hard way just how precious a single moment can be.

Arguably, this book's most unique aspect is it's usage of a not-as-talked-about fantasy/supernatural entity called a domovoi, or 'house spirit'. Though I've heard them mentioned here and there, this is the first proper story where I've read about one, and the idea of a house basically having its own soul and taking on a life of its own is really intriguing. Though Lis (as she comes to be known as) appears human, she speaks with a broken speech pattern---a constant reminder of what she really is and that she isn't of this world. And the more Katie begins to abuse the gift she was given, the more we find out just how bad things can get when you anger a house spirit....or have two spirits warring for the same spot.

Katie comes off a bit unlikeable at first, with her self-centered nature and the flippant way she treats her staff, to the point of not even caring to remember their names. And the way she slowly begins to figure out the mystery of what's happening to her can be a tiny bit frustrating, as by a certain point, it's fairly obvious what's going on, and yet, it takes her to almost the end of the book to finally realize, "Hmm, maybe I should STOP trying to change reality." Then again, that's probably the whole point, as by the end, she's become a much better person. Her adventure through alternate realities forces her to have to make friends and actually get to know the people around her, and see them as people and not just tools or obstacles in her way. Though the lesson comes at a high price, she's shown how impossible it is to pursue perfection, and that we have to live with the choices we've made. And sometimes, even though things may be bad in the moment, the lessons we learn from our mistakes can wind up leading to something better.

This is all the more emphasized with the rest of the staff at the restaurant; in particular Hazel---a quirky and super shy, sweet girl who, at first, seems like she's just another side character to get the ball rolling. But she turns out to be more important than anyone realizes, as she not only has a cursory knowledge about house spirits, but seems to be the one constant that Katie can ground herself to when her world literally starts crumbling around her. Really, all the side characters turn out to be important, showing that even people we hardly talk to or think about can have an impact on us. "Seconds" refers not to just the name of the restaurant, but to the concept of second chances, and how sometimes all it takes is a second to make a decision that can have long lasting consequences.

My one and only hang up is that there's this running narration throughout the story that can get a little distracting at times. In most cases, it's fine, even necessary, but there's a few points where the narrator is describing what's happening when the art is clearly communicating it already. I also don't quite understand why the author felt the need to have fourth wall breaks where Katie gives snarky replies to the narrator. It's sometimes funny, but doesn't really add anything either.

Still, this is a fantastic graphic novel that would make for a great animated movie. The semi chibi/anime style of art is simple and cute, but still manages to pull off disturbing imagery when things start to get really scary and outright terrifying when people start being erased from history. Though be warned, this is NOT for kids. I'd rate this 15+ for general mature themes, implied sex, and swearing.

One person found this helpful

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Sivant

so-so

Reviewed in the United States on October 31, 2017

Verified Purchase

I get it, I just don't like it. Story was largely predictable, lacked punch, and, for the most part, the characters were shallow and unrelatable. The setting and plot are fine, but there is nothing to especially recommend this. Except, perhaps the art, I really liked the art in this one. It was consistently good to great, and is really what carried my interest to the end. Unfortunately, everything else was mediocre. This is one worth flipping through in the book store or library, I wouldn't bother taking it home.

11 people found this helpful

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Shannon Quinn

I loved this book

Reviewed in the United States on June 25, 2015

Verified Purchase

I loved this book, and I gave it to a few of my friends to read as well.
One of my friends (Who is 17) commented, "I liked it, but I didn't like it as much as Scott Pilgrim, because it wasn't as funny."
I said, "Well...Have you read Lost at Sea? Because that REALLY wasn't meant to be funny."

Since then, I have described Seconds as in-between the seriousness of Lost at Sea, and the clever, funny writing O'Malley has in Scott Pilgrim.
There were just enough scenes where I laughed out loud all alone to make the comedy spot-on, and just enough super deep questions about life to make me have all the feels.

I think this story will also resonate more for anyone who is in their mid-20's to 30's. It's almost like each of the stories I just mentioned go over a period of ages in life- Lost at Sea is 17-19, Scott Pilgrim is 20-24, Seconds is 25-30. I think you can love the story at any age, but just like Catcher in the Rye meant more to me at 17 than it did at 24, I think Seconds will mean more to you if you're in the age range I just mentioned.

10 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

Mark

A funny and oddly ‘local’ feeling story. Highly recommended!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 17, 2018

Verified Purchase

If you’ve read any Bryan Lee O’Malley before, you’ll know what you’re getting into. This is a fun little story of a chef struggling to make the dream of her own restaurant come true, sent on a spiralling adventure as she suddenly gains access to the ability to change past decisions; but at what cost?

Highly recommended to graphic novel readers new and old!

2 people found this helpful

scoob

Great gift; no dust jacket.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 28, 2020

Verified Purchase

Bought as a gift for someone who's starting to read the Scott Pilgrim series, just getting into Bryan Lee O'Malley's work. The book is, unquestionably, absolutely great. I'd really recommend it - it's very 'coming-of-age-after-being-of-age', as most of O'Malley's works are. The book came in good condition, just TINY bit battered, like I'd already had it on my shelf, and (disappointingly) no dust jacket, however it retails for 19.99 and I got it for £7 so im not really complaining. Good value for the price.

Paul Teevan

A worthy successor, yet something distinct

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 20, 2015

Verified Purchase

Unlike Lost At Sea, which felt like it only sold on the author's name, Seconds is truly a good book that stands on its own as a solid story, that is more than worth reading if you enjoyed Scott Pilgrim.

It is not a retread of Scott Pilgrim, the plot is actually fairly original, the characters are likable and the ending is satisfying, yet there's still some of the same kind of humour you'd expect.

I can't really think of any flaws at all, this story was solid in every area, was well paced and surprisingly deep. Would recomend to any Scott Pilgrim fan

Lucky

I've been told better than the Scott Pilgrim series ...

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 10, 2017

Verified Purchase

This was a present for a 15 yo lover of graphic novels - and they love it.
They had read the Scott Pilgrim series and liked it so I knew this would be a good choice. According to them this is even better...

Billy-Joe

Best graphic novel about a restaurant you'll ever read.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 25, 2018

Verified Purchase

This was a really high quality book. I loved the story and all of its building story elements, twists and turns and how it all concluded. The artistry that O'Malley puts into his works as an artist as well as a writer is nothing to be understated either. The book also came in very high quality and had no marks or scratches.