Malice by Chris Wooding

I picked up this book to read because of the really cool cover. It has a 3-D look with the character actually coming out of the cover. The story too is a pretty neat concept of combining a novel with a comic book.

Malice tells the story of three kids that find themselves trapped in a comic called Malice. The kids hear rumors about this story and the urban legends surrounding the summoning of "Tall Jake" to take them away. The kids discover that the urban legend is real and Tall Jake really does take them away -- into the world of the comic, Malice. Once there, the kids must use their wits in order to survive the strange creatures and dangers around every corner.

Malice is mainly told via prose, but with some graphic pages interspersed throughout the story. The graphic pages do add to the story -- they aren't just there for pretty scenery. Unfortunately, even with the neat concept, I found the story itself rather bland. It really didn't grab my interest as much as I would have expected. I found much about the Malice world confusing and it seemed like the back stories of the main characters were a hodge-podge mess -- not fully developed. Maybe this is the intention of the author, to slowly clue the reader as to what is really going on, but I would have wished for a bit more clarity. That said, I think many comic and horror fans will grab this book, enticed by the fabulous cover, and most will probably be satisfied with the story.

My grade = C.