Archive for the ‘Ursula Vernon’ Category
A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking by T. Kingfisher is one of the cutest, most fun books I’ve read in a long time! Apparently it’s been a while since I read some Ursula Vernon/T. Kingfisher.
Ok, so the book isn’t all cutesy – people die, assassins go after teenagers, kids are homeless, adults act like idiots, there is some shit to be said about why we need heroes in the first place. . . ok, crap, this book is actually pretty dark, now that I’m thinking about it.
(the book doesn’t have any swear words, because Mona is a good girl. but #sorrynotsorry, this review has a lot of swear words.)
But I felt cute while I was reading it? I laughed a lot while I was reading it. I loved all the characters, i loved loved LOVED Mona’s internal voice, i kept snarking “not my gumdrop buttons!” outloud, and reading this book really made me want to bake and hold my loved ones close. Reading it made me feel hopeful.
So, after Mona’s parents died, she went to live with her aunt and uncle and work in their bakery. Well, she works there, but she lives in her own little room down the street. At fourteen years old, she leaves her apartment at 4am, goes to the bakery, and starts the ovens. What were you doing at 14? Mona is also an amateur wizard – she can make bread dough do cute things. The bakery customers (ok, some of them) love it when she makes the gingerbread men get up and dance (some of the customers think she’s a creepy witch). There’s also this semi-sentient bucket of sourdough starter in the basement named Bob. Bob eats the rats. #teamBob.
One sleepy morning, Mona arrives at work, to find a strange girl in the bakery. The girl is also dead. Aunts are woken up, police are called. And not too many days after that, when Mona gets to work in the wee hours of the morning, the assassin is waiting for her too.
Fourteen year olds shouldn’t have to escape from assassins at four oclock in the morning.
And I haven’t even had a chance yet to tell you about Knackering Molly and her dead horse Nag! I wonder what Bob and Nag would think of each other? Molly freakin’ rocks, by the way.
The assassin is obviously another wizard. Why the heck would a wizard be hunting other wizards, especially someone like Mona, a teenager who has limited magical abilities?
Things happen, and then dear reader, you will read the funniest scene you have ever read in your life. It involves Mona and her new friend Spindle climbing up a, um, sort of drain pipe? The, um, drain pipe that leads directly to the Duchess’s, um, garderobe. Ain’t the Duchess in for a shock when she walks into her bathroom to find two shit covered teenagers. My friends, I was laughing so hard I fell out of my chair!
Digger, by Ursula Vernon
Posted on: October 16, 2014
Digger, Vol 1, by Ursula Vernon
published: this volume was published in 2012, but the webcomic has been going since 2005.
where I got it: purchased new
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When I peruse the graphic novel section of my local comic shop, I’m not interested in 99% of what I see. I walk by, and very little of it catches my eye. No offense superheroes and dark noir, but you’re just not my thing. Could be that local comic book owner guy is really into superhero stuff, and not so much into other stuff. Different strokes for different folks.
Lucky for me, I ran into a copy of Ursula Vernon’s Digger Vol 1 at a Half Price Books store. Having no idea what the story was about, and not quite sure what the critter on the front cover was (She’s a wombat, by the way), I bought the graphic novel because Ursula Vernon’s name was on it.
A few quick items of business before I getting into the nitty gritty: It won the Hugo (and multiple other awards) for a reason, and I really gotta introduce local comic shop owner guy to this series. Graphic novels that don’t look that interesting got you down? Digger is the cure.
it’s Digger!
First off, Digger isn’t a what, Digger is a she. She’s a wombat, and she does what wombats naturally do: She digs and burrows and explores. She’s also intensely pragmatic and practical. When a pocket of bad air causes her to tunnel through someone’s floor and into a space that is decidedly not home, she decided to explore. Because how else is she going to find her way home? Perhaps whoever she meets can help her find her way home. She quickly meets a Statue of Ganesh who can talk, a Hyena like creature whose name has been eaten, a shadowchild who doesn’t know what he/she is, a helpful librarian, the Ganesh statue’s overly enthusiastic guard, and a prophetic snail. The story almost has an Alice in Wonderland feeling, except this Alice is a practical, no-nonsense engineer Wombat.
Actual Wombat
the Little Red Reviewer 
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