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Sara Ryan

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Bad Houses Kindle & comiXology

by Sara Ryan (Author), Various (Illustrator), Sierra Hahn (Editor) Format: Kindle Edition

4.2 19 ratings

Part of: Bad Houses

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Lives intersect in the most unexpected ways when teenagers Anne and Lewis cross paths at an estate sale in sleepy Failin, Oregon. Failin was once a thriving logging community. Now the town's businesses are crumbling, its citizens bitter and disaffected. Anne and Lewis refuse to succumb to the fate of the older generation as they discover—together—the secrets of their hometown and their own families.

* From award-winning creators Sara Ryan Carla Speed McNeil (Finder)! "[Bad Houses] is the best graphic novel I've read all year. Superbly observed, exquisitely drawn, with a sharp bite and a real human pulse. Magnificent." — Warren Ellis, author of Gun Machine and Transmetropolitan

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Failin, Oregon, is a town of left-behinds, a mecca for antique-shop junkies, and a wasteland of urban decay. Once someone manages to find a way out, they never look back. Twentysomethings Ann and Lewis aren’t so lucky; they’re each stuck with a mother unable to let go of the past. Lewis’ mother, who raised him alone under stringent house rules, has roped him into the family business of running estate sales. Ann’s mother, Danica, is a compulsive hoarder and routinely needs Ann to help take care of her until Danica starts dating a “feckless asshole” who is far angrier and more hurtful than he appears. But Ann and Lewis’ young love prevails, and they set out for a life on their own terms. McNeil’s black-and-white illustrations lovingly capture the rainy, kitsch-filled town of Failin and the expressive faces of the characters. Though the climax is a bit tidy—multiple momentous events seem to happen all at once—Ryan (Empress of the World, 2001) and McNeil’s engrossing story wonderfully illustrates Ann and Lewis’ triumphant step into the future. --Sarah Hunter

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00EZYG4JI
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Dark Horse Books (November 12, 2013)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ November 12, 2013
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 378000 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Not enabled
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Print length ‏ : ‎ 160 pages

Best Sellers Rank: #2,633,437 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #106 in Everyday Life Graphic Novels
- #568 in Zombie Graphic Novels (Kindle Store)
- #624 in Graphic Novel Biographies & Memoirs

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4.2 19 ratings

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4.2 out of 5

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J K Carrier

An intensely emotional and brilliantly told coming-of-age story

Reviewed in the United States on February 12, 2014

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This is a powerful graphic novel, an intensely emotional and brilliantly told story. Bad Houses takes place in and around the world of estate sales, and that grim necessity of liquidating a dead person's belongings becomes a metaphor for the various characters' struggles to cope with their own baggage and get on with their lives. The book has some dark and harrowing moments, but at its core, it's a sweet and ultimately hopeful love story. Teenagers Anne and Lewis are growing up in a small town that has seen better days. Both of them have difficult relationships with their parents: Lewis' mother is a control freak who's keeping secrets from him, while Anne's mom has a severe hoarding problem. It seems everyone is being held back by old traumas and regrets. Anne and Lewis meet, and are immediately attracted to each other, but they have to sort through all this old junk (literal and otherwise) before they can get together. You'll be rooting for them all the way. And for all the other characters, too; even the ones who seem like shallow jerks at first are shown to have a vulnerable, damaged side that drives their behavior. Sara Ryan's script is a multi-layered masterpiece, full of moments that will stick with you long after you put the book down. And I can't say enough good things about Carla Speed McNeil's artwork, which is quiet and subtle when it needs to be, and over-the-top intense when the big moments call for it. The nuanced expressions and body language she gives to the characters are some of the best "acting" you'll see on a comic page. It's a bravura performance from both creators, and an experience you shouldn't miss.

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SKinnell

It's why the graphic novel is earning a place in the world of literature

Reviewed in the United States on January 7, 2016

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I'm a great fan of the graphic-novel medium, and Bad Houses is one of the best I've read. Sara Ryan deftly interweaves the stories of her four main characters with a momentum that will compel you to keep turning the pages. She obviously feels compassion for all of her characters, even the unpleasant ones among them. The writing is simple, poignant, and emotionally charged. The story explores the many ways lives are complicated by the relationships people have not only to each other, but to their material accumulations.

The pen-and-ink art work by Carla Speed McNeil is beautiful and reminiscent of the best works of Alison Bechdel and Jaime Hernandez. Even the most minor background characters are imbued with enormous personality in their subtle renderings. Her drawings do more than simply illustrate the story--they are married to the storytelling itself.

If you are not impressed by the idea of a novel that has as its plot the story of people who buy, collect, hoard, or steal possessions, then you are grossly underestimating a thoroughly good read. This book is a new addition to my personal (and very short) list of books I find unputdownable.

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Lazarus

Not My Cup Of Tea

Reviewed in the United States on March 9, 2015

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I have to admit, I only bought the book because I'm a big fan of Carla Speed McNeil's artwork. I had a very hard time trying to finish this book because I felt it was too slow and going nowhere, if finally picked up near the end. I felt a lot of the subplots were left opened and unanswered. Not sure if this was the writer's intention.

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Johanna DC

Graphic novel on isolation, possessions, and economics

Reviewed in the United States on April 2, 2015

It’s when one comes across a work as subtle and detailed and well-crafted as Bad Houses that one realizes how rare it is to see a true novel in graphic novel form.

In the small town of Failin, Oregon, Cat runs an estate sales business, responsible for disposing of the detritus of other people’s lives and homes, often after their death. Her son Lewis works with her, pricing objects for the dealers and collectors that snap up any leftover, eventually. Cat gains fastidious pleasure out of bringing order to other people’s chaos.

Anne is a photographer fascinated by artifacts, due in part to her mother’s unusual relationship with acquisition. Danica works at an old folks’ home and isn’t able to let go of anything. Anne and Lewis meet when she falls apart over an old photo album of someone else’s life.

Bad Houses is a meditation on possession, on why we acquire and what it does for and to us mentally, but also on recent economic struggles and what they’ve done to communities. The story raises thoughts about permanence and escape, about whether all our objects are valuable sources of memory or psychic anchors, weighing us down.

Sara Ryan‘s writing is deeply insightful, while words fail me when it comes to Carla Speed McNeil’s art. Her characters are so real, so beautifully portrayed in terms of the small gesture or expression. As needed for a story about where people live and work, there’s a strong sense of place and location, grounding the events.

I’m left thinking about identity and comfort and how our possessions determine who we are. It’s an astounding work of great depth with many unusual threads that tie together in surprising but perfect ways. I don’t want to spoil the surprises, so I won’t talk about the details of how the history of growing up in a small town inserts itself or the role of a small-town crook trying to scam his way out of having to work. It’s complex in creation, making the book all the more powerful and memorable. (Review originally posted at ComicsWorthReading.com.)

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