Review: 'Seconds' a fun, colorful read

Four and a Half out of Five Stars

By Abby Cowels
Staff Writer

“Seconds” by Bryan Lee O’Malley (author of “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World”) is a graphic novel about a woman who finds herself stricken with regret from some prideful life decisions.

Katie is the head chef and co-owner at a restaurant called Seconds. Following a work accident that put a co-worker in the emergency room, she feels partial responsibility and wishes she could have prevented the accident.

Living in an apartment above Seconds, she heads home after the long day to be surprised to find a small mushroom in her dresser drawer. That was not the strangest of that night’s events.

Katie discovers a house spirit, Lis, living within her dresser. The spirit makes promises that Katie can choose to fix her past mistakes, but only if she follows four rules.

She is to write down her mistake in the notebook that Lis gives her, eat a magic mushroom, go to sleep and wake to find her newly changed life.

When she attempts to fix all of her regrets in the past, life begins to look like a fairytale. But when she pushes it further and further, reality itself begins to fall apart.

“Seconds” is a beautifully colorful novel, thanks to colorist Nathan Fairbairn. Those who have read “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World” will be pleased to see an O’Malley novel in such spellbinding color.

Find “Seconds,” along with other novels by Bryan Lee O’Malley, on Amazon or at a local Barnes & Noble. For an e-book, click here.