Meet Katie Clay, a 29 years old woman owner of her own restaurant called "Seconds" but that doesn't mean that she doesn't aspire for more, she always keeps looking into the future where maybe she can get anything she wants, a new restaurant, her ex-boyfriend and the attention from every person she desires and she might be able to get it. There are strange events happening in Seconds, events so mysterious that could connect both Katie and one of her employees called Hazel to an unknown spirit who could make the lives of everyone better or worse.
First things first I need to warn you, if you're looking for a "sequel" to Scott Pilgrim you're looking at the wrong place.
Second, that might not necessarily be a bad thing.
I will try to make this opening as short as possible since it's just me talking about how much of a fan I am of Bryan Lee O'Malley's work. I have to mention that indie titles are not exactly my thing as you probably have guessed by this point but there was something about O'Malley's last series Scott Pilgrim that automatically grabbed my attention. Yes, as you would expect it was mostly due to the constant pop culture and geeky references like movies, videogames, superheroes among other stuff but there was something else about it, the complex and likable characters, crazy and engaging plot, hilarious humour and beautiful artwork, all of it inside of a story about becoming an adult and accepting what comes with the territory (Not to mention that it's one of the few love stories that actually made me appreciate love stories).
This is exactly what immediately made me look for more works written by this author and which eventually made me read O'Malley's first work, Lost at Sea, and later be excited for the release of the title in question.
Seconds is its own beast, it doesn't follow neither a similar premise nor tone as Scott Pilgrim's but it's definitely the kind of book that you would expect from this writer. I would say that it has much more similarities with Lost at Sea in terms of style but it's not as melodramatic as that title which shows how much O'Malley's work has progressed since then.
The author creates a story about adulthood, a story where a grown woman looks back to her life and all the mistakes that he commited over the course of it and she's decided that if she could fix all of them she would. Sure, this is not the first time we encounter this kind of premise since we have seen it several times in many genres, but O'Malley injects a great amount of heart to it that makes it stand out over many of them.
The protagonist is a pretty relatable person, you can at least find one of the aspects of your own personality in her, she's flawed and had several missteps which are reflected into her social, romantic and professional but she's also so understandable that you can't help but like her.
The supporting cast works well, but some of them better than others. Characters like Hazel, Andrew, Raymond and Lis are developed competently but the rest not so much, it's not like they lack a personality or anything since they do have one, is just that they're not particularly well-explored. Even Katie's ex-boyfriend is mostly just another objective she wants to achieve and doesn't have any other kind of presence beyond that, a far-cry from Ramona Flowers. Still, the cast is definitely likable so that makes this kind of flaw passable.
Of course, this wouldn't be an O'Malley book without his classic and crazy supernatural events. If you're wondering if there are any fourth-wall breaking scenes, there are not (aside from some fun narration methods), but there's still a great sense of wonder and mystery here which are principally represented by the unusual appearance of a spirit who takes the form of a little girl named Lis and a strange set of mushrooms that can make things go the way Katie wants, but for a price obviously.
The story escalates pretty quickly and it becomes more and more suspenseful with every decision that Katie takes or regrets. The writer's approach for this is fantastic since the pacing is excellent, there's no dull moment here, no scene it's wasted, every segment is utilized to give Katie's character different layers or explore more of the incredible situation she's living and all works perfectly from beginning to end which makes the conclusion much more emotional.
It's also necessary to mention that despite of how profound this book can get, it's also one that doesn't take itself very seriously. Don't get me wrong, it's a quite compelling story that will take you back to read it a few more times to actually get all the details but that doesn't mean that it can't make fun of itself.
It's pretty obvious that I also need to talk about the art and this one of the points where Seconds succeeds the most. Bryan Lee O'Malley follows a similar style than in his last books from the Scott Pilgrim series which are much more polished than the earlier ones but still he's able to create a much more experimental form of storytelling by exploiting the kind of premise he's using and taking advantage of the panels from every page to construct a much improved narration. I also have to give my congrats to the colorist Nathan Fairbairn for making O'Malley's pencils much more vibrant, powerful and appealing.
Overall, does Seconds succeeds at its promise?
Yes, definitely. This was one of my most anticipated books of the year and I'm happy to say that it was able to live up to the hype, it creates a quite emotional rollercoaster and it's so satisfying at it. As I mentioned, it's not Scott Pilgrim, is much more complex than that and it actually takes Bryan Lee O'Malley to another level of writing. One of the best reads from 2014, don't you dare to miss it.
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