Spill Zone: The Broken Vow by Scott Westerfeld and Alex Puvillard (Blog Tour: Review)

Welcome to my stop on the Spill Zone: The Broken Vow Blog Tour hosted by First Second Books! I am so very happy and honoured to be a part of this blog tour. I read the first graphic novel in the series last year, and I absolutely loved it. Needless to say, I was very excited to get my hands on the second (and last) book in the series, and I am so grateful to First Second Books for sending me a copy! Keep reading to see what I thought of it!

– Tour Stops –

Don’t forget to check out all of the other blog tour stops!

7/8 – Novel Novice
7/8 – Undeniably Book Nerdy
7/9 – Bookcrushin
7/9 – Hit or Miss Books
7/9 – Bookling Critics
7/10 – Seeing Double in Neverland
7/10 – WhoRuBlog
7/11 – Here’s to Happy Endings
7/11 – The Book Rat
7/12 – Miss Print
7/12 – Bookstore Finds
7/13 – Teen Lit Rocks
7/13 – Adventures of a Book Junkie
7/14 – Novel Reality
7/14 – Flavia the Bibliophile
7/15 – Haku & Books
7/15 – Emily Reads Everything
7/16 – YA Book Nerd
7/17 – Take Me Away to a Great Read
7/18 – Bumbles and Fairy-Tales
7/18 – Pink Polka Dot Books
7/19 – Folded Pages Distillery
7/20 – Book Nut
7/21 – The Life of a Booknerd Addict

– Spill Zone Paperback Cover –

Before I get started about the second book in this series, I just wanted to take a moment to admire the paperback cover for Spill Zone, the first book in this series! Also, the paperback of book one was released on the same day as Spill Zone: The Broken Vow!

– About the Book –

Title: Spill Zone: The Broken Vow
Creators: Scott Westerfeld and Alex Puvillard
Type: Fiction, Graphic Novel
Genre: Young Adult, Science Fiction
Publisher: First Second Books (Macmillan Publishers)
Published: July 10, 2018

A physical copy of this book was kindly provided by the publisher, in exchange for an honest review.

Note: This book is a sequel, so beware of spoilers for the first book in the series if you haven’t read that one yet.

Three years ago an event destroyed the small city of Poughkeepsie, forever changing reality within its borders. Strange manifestations and lethal dangers now await anyone who enters the Spill Zone. Addison got close enough to the Spill Zone to touch it, literally. She survived the encounter, but came back changed.

It turns out she’s not alone. North Korea has its own Spill Zone, and a young man named Don Jae is the only one who made it out alive. Alive, but changed. Now Addison, Don Jae, and, curiously, a rag doll named Vespertine, share an unholy bond and uncanny powers.

From Scott Westerfeld, the inspired imagination behind the New York Times bestsellers Uglies and Leviathan, comes The Broken Vow, the second volume of our highly anticipated new graphic novel series.

– My Review –

I will be entirely honest, I didn’t know where this story was going to go! Regarding the art and style in this graphic novel, you can read my review for the first book here (because the same opinions apply to Spill Zone: The Broken Vow). And, as I mention in said review, I found that the art really made some of the scary parts scarier, but I found the second book to be decidedly less scary. I don’t know if this is because I was desensitized by book one, or because it was simply less scary. Another thing that I mentioned in my review for the first book was that by the end of Spill Zone some of my questions were answered, but that it then simultaneously left me with other questions!

Thankfully, Spill Zone: The Broken Vow answers those later questions as well! Things pick up right where they left off at the end of book one (which I really appreciated), and I like how the story progressed. And now that I have read the second book in the series, there’s really no other way that I could have imagined the story going! The characters also developed along with the story, and all of these developments were not predictable for me at all. I really enjoyed being kept in the dark until each piece of information was revealed! As with the first book in the series, I recommend this sequel (and the series as a whole) to those who enjoy a good science fiction horror mystery!

– About the Creators –

Scott Westerfeld is best known as the author of the Uglies series, a number-one New York Times bestseller, and the Leviathan and Zeroes trilogies, both NY Times bestsellers. His standalone novels include Evolution’s Darling, So Yesterday, and Afterworlds. His other works include the Midnighters trilogy, the Peeps and Risen Empire duologies, and the eponymous first book of the Horizon multiplatform series. His novels have won the Philip K Dick Special Citation, the Aurealis Award (twice), the Victorian Premier’s Award, and have been named NY Times Notable Books and BBYA Top Ten Children’s Books of the Year. He co-wrote the Shay’s Story Uglies-based graphic novels with Devin Grayson. Spill Zone is his first solo-written comic. Scott was born in Texas and lives in Sydney and New York. He is married to fellow YA author Justine Larbalestier.

New York Times best-selling artist Alex Puvilland was born in France and grew up reading his father’s collection of comic books. After having gone to study art and animation at the Gobelins School of Animation in Paris, he moved to California to work for Dreamworks Feature Animation. Alex has worked on a number of their feature films, such as “Shrek 2”, “Mr. Peabody and Sherman”, and the upcoming “Boss Baby”, to name a few. Somewhere between the multiple “Madagascar” sequels, Alex finally realized that he wanted to make comics for a living, and began doing them on his free time. In 2006, he and his wife LeUyen Pham illustrated “Prince of Persia, The Graphic Novel”, written by A.B. Sina. In the following years Alex teamed again with his wife to produce two amazing sons as well as ‘Templar’, written by Jordan Mechner. Alex is now to be found living happily in Los Angeles with his family, as he continues to work for Dreamworks Animation and create comics on the side. “Spill Zone” is his first book as a solo illustrator.