The word "pretentious" comes to mind, but I feel like even that's giving this empty story too much thought. "Bad Island" feels like Stanley Donwood was having a bad day where he hated the world, looked at a Banksy painting, thought, "I could do that but better!" and then made this book. Except it wasn't better and yet somehow it still got published. There is nothing to enjoy about this book:

-the story is bleak and dark, sure, but not the good kind of bleak and dark- it's just totally uninspired bleak and dark. The author follows the thought process of life > dinosaurs > volcano kills dinosaurs > life begins again > civilization develops > humans build factories > humans kill earth > the end. It leaves the reader finishing that book and thinking, "...AND?" Donwood has added nothing to the conversation.
-the artwork is supremely dull. I'm kinda impressed with just HOW dull it is? Maybe on a technical level it's good; like, it has strong lines and a stark use of just black and white and emphasizes what an uninspired story this is, but nothing about it stands out. I'm trying to be objective about this, but I really mean that there is zilch that makes me think this is good artwork.
-I saw someone use the word "gimmicky" in their review and that's the exact word I wanted to use. Super gimmicky and not worth the little bit of time it takes to read. ( )

My review of this book can be found on my Youtube Vlog at:

https://youtu.be/wj0xs8W7hHs

Enjoy! ( )

With every other page being blank, it only takes about five minutes to "read" this wordless graphic novel that's illustrated in a woodblock style that reminded me of Peter Kuper. And even at five minutes, it's pretty much a waste of time. It's not even an original idea, as the artist simply shows the rapid passage of time on a particular geographic location.

I like to take notes when I read a book for tagging purposes. Here's the complete set: islands, dinosaurs, volcanoes, forest fires, wildfires, unicorns, industrialism, war, nuclear warfare. (Yep, that was "unicorns" in the middle there.) I'm pretty sure there's some rule somewhere that any improv or fiction that ends with nuclear armageddon is just making use of a really bad cop-out.

Oh, and congratulations on the worst cover blurb of the year go to Robert MacFarlane, best-selling author of Underland: "Stark in its lines and dark in its vision, Bad Island reads you more than you read it." ( )