9781596433007

Adam Rapp is a novelist, playwright, screenwriter, and filmmaker. He is currently the playwright-in-residence at Edge Theater Company. Rapp is the author of several young adult novels, including Missing the Piano, The Buffalo Tree, and 33 Snowfish. His first adult novel, The Year of Endless Sorrows, was released in December 2006. Rapp directed his first film, Winter Passing, with Zooey Deschanel and Will Ferrell in 2005. He has written over ten plays.

George O'Connor is the author of several picture books, including the New York Times bestseller Kapow!, Kersplash, and Sally and the Some-thing. His debut graphic novel, Journey into Mohawk Country, was published by First Second. O'Connor's next project is The Olympians, a series of graphic novels for young readers about Greek Mythology.

"Not for gentle readers, Rapp’s fatalistic urban future is never scarier than when its child and adult players’ motivations and emotions are the most realistic." -- Booklist

"Eerie . . . Rapp reflects on the ways we cling to art and passion in the face of destruction and the horror we feel as those things slip away." -- Publisher's Weekly

Full Review From Booklist

Playwright Rapp writes movies and gritty YA novels (e.g., Little Chicago, 1998), too, and his first graphic novel attests his flair for dramatic staging and well-developed characters and plotting. Set in a hovel in which a young man dying of an AIDS-like infection lives, loving his guitar and hating his “job” of disposing of the bodies of murdered children. He doesn’t realize that the love of his life, a beautiful actress, has taken sanctuary in another part of the building. Moral turpitude in these characters’ world has been stood virtually on end, and the story probes such issues as what ingrained in us makes us human, lovable, frightening, and evil. Eminently suited to Rapp’s grim and demanding vision, O’Connor’s full-color art meshes with the spare text and conveys portions of the tale all by itself; it embraces just the right cartooniness to keep the flow of grim events emotionally bearable. Not for gentle readers, Rapp’s fatalistic urban future is never scarier than when its child and adult players’ motivations and emotions are the most realistic. —Francisca Goldsmith

Review in 8/10 Publishers Weekly

In an eerie postapocalyptic urban world, humanity is turning on itself. This graphic novel revolves around a trio who were likely downtown hipsters before the crisis began. Welton, a musician, and Aaron, an author, still have the energy to discuss the purpose of art, but find themselves committing unpardonable acts to save themselves. Exley, an actress, unexpectedly ends up caring for Horlick, a young boy who is teetering between playing childish pranks and becoming a menacing criminal like his older brother. All three adults reminisce about previous loves, and one tries to seek out a passionate one-night stand from the past. Rapp, best known as a novelist and playwright, reflects on the ways we cling to art and passion in the face of destruction and the horror we feel as those things slip away.

Review in 11/09 SLJ

Gr 10 Up–Rapp and O’Connor tell the story of four people trying to survive in a society suffering from environmental, biological, and political disease. Aaron, an idealistic novelist trying to capture in words the reason for his society’s collapse, holes up in a basement with Welton, who is slowly dying of a strange plague. Meanwhile Exley, a young woman who once had a brief encounter with Welton, befriends a boy named Horlick. All four characters are ensnared by the government to work in a gruesome program involving the eponymous hammer, while Exley and Welton desperately search for one another, never realizing that they are on different floors of the same building. The authors have clearly come to the graphic form with an understanding of its strengths and weaknesses. Rather than trying to tell a novel’s worth of story with excess narration and dialogue, they allow large passages to unfold entirely in images. The unresolved ending is Rapp’s hallmark, and this book reads as a statement about the uncertain future, allowing the novel to hit home with the taut force of a good short story.–Mark Flowers, John F. Kennedy Library, Vallejo, CA

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Ball Peen Hammer

1596433000

Summary

Author Biography

Table of Contents

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