Seconds: A Graphic Novel

10 years ago

What would you change if you were given a mushroom, a notebook and a past full of mistakes?

In Bryan Lee O’Malley’s ‘Seconds’, Katie plays as our protagonist who finds herself in mountains of pickles caused by her crusade to fix the past. Katie is a self spoken, rising chef on the verge on starting her second restaurant. The story picks up at a time when pieces around her are starting to fall apart at a rather quick pace. As she becomes stressed out with delayed renovations, the reappearance of her ‘boyfriend’ and mixed feelings for a guy at work, a box is presented to her via a mysterious house spirit.

With the introduction of this life changing box, the pickle that Katie wishes only to escape from becomes the beginning of understanding yourself, change, mistakes and decisions. Katie becomes consumed with trying to make life so perfect for herself that she evidently loses track that a perfect life is unreachable when you have no control on how everyone around you responds. No matter how many times you change the past, you can only change your initial decision. What happens after will always be unknown to you. O’Malley writes beautifully to demonstrate his point with the addition of magic.

‘Seconds’ really goes to show how important relationships are and how delicate some can be. I think as readers, we imagine how amazing it would be to have the chance Katie was presented with; the possibility of going back in time to make things right. One of the most important aspects of life are the times when we make mistakes. If we never made a mistake, we would never have learned the important lessons that mistakes teach us. What not to dos, how to be better, sacrificing my desires for someone else, etc., are some of the general ideas that we come to realize after we do something wrong. Mistakes simply help us become better people.

This is definitely a graphic novel that everyone should check out. If you are unsure about the premise of it all, the wonderfully drawn art by O’Malley is at least worth the time. And of course, if you are a fan of O’Malley’s prior work, especially ‘Scott Pilgrim’, there a few cameos tucked away in its pages.

Overall, I really loved the book. I have a feeling that right away, I am going to jump back into Katie’s world again for a second read. The inclination that I missed out on a few things is tugging on my pant leg. I just gotta find out more. If you are expecting this book to be as wild and crazy as ‘Scott Pilgrim’, I will warn you right now that it is not. It does have O’Malley’s signature trademark style, but in terms of random crazy action, well, this is definitely more subtle, for the most part.

Look for this book at your local bookstore or online retailer. I suggest ordering online as from my shopping around, the price is $12.50 CDN compared to the suggested value of $25.00 CDN in stores.

A second chance can change your life forever. But be forewarned, with great power comes great responsibility.