Paul is Dead, by Paolo Baron and Ernesto Carbonetti, uses speculative fiction to explore the popular urban legend that Paul McCartney was killed in an accident and replaced by a look-alike. The book is written in a very artistic style, both lyrically and graphically. Many portions of the book will be familiar to readers who are familiar with the nuances of the Beatles’ music, lyrics, and history.
The story is a quick read, and it is clear that the authors love the subject and are true Beatles fans. The characters are recognizable, though stylistically drawn. The subject matter of the conspiracy theory may be new to many readers. The fact that the story is like a new and fresh take on the lives of iconic historical figures may particularly appeal to the teen audience (the likely target audience of this graphic novel) since it will be completely novel to most of them.
The book is artistically pleasing in its illustrations, but the dialogue seems lacking. The dialogue that is used fills the need of telling the basics of the story, and it feels almost musical in its style and wording, but it does not seem as rich or engrossing as it could be. It feels like the reader is left to infer too much based on the pictures, and some more dialogue to move the story and plot along would have been welcome. Overall, this is a stylishly written book with an interesting premise, but it does not stand out as particularly good among speculative fiction works.
Review of a Digital Review Copy
This book was sent to Compass Book Ratings for review by Image
Content Analysis:
Profanity/Language: 2 religious exclamations; 3 mild obscenities; 1 religious profanity; 4 derogatory names; 4 scatological words; 2 f-word derivatives.
Violence/Gore: A report of a car crash; a fight with minor injury. Illustrations show: a car crash without much detail; minor property damage; a character injuring himself minorly in anger.
Sex/Nudity: None
Mature Subject Matter:
Suicide is mentioned a few times.
Alcohol / Drug Use:
Mention of LSD; an adult takes hallucinogenic drugs; adults smoke cigarettes.
