Tin Man - Justin Madson

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Author: Justin Madson

Genre: Graphic Novel, Young Adult, Coming of Age.
Rating: 4.25 stars.

In a Nutshell: An interesting YA graphic novel about an unusual friendship between a Tin Man and a young pair of school-going siblings.

Story:
Fenn, a young teenager, finds a tin man named Campbell while he is searching for metal scraps in the dump yard to build his rocket ship. This was a project he had started with his elder sister Solar but after the death of their grandmother, Solar is struggling to come to terms with her emotions and has hanged her entire lifestyle.
Campbell had sought to find a mechanical heart in order to feel more emotions, but when he finally got one, it didn’t work out exactly as he had expected.
How the lives of these three characters will intertwine henceforth forms the crux of the story. Will Campbell accept his heart once again? Will Solar be able to overcome her grief and get her life back on track? Will Fenn finally get to complete his beloved spaceship?


The Goodreads blurb calls this “equal parts The Iron Giant, The Wizard of Oz, Edward Scissorhands, and Freaks and Geeks” I had assumed this to be an exaggeration but no! For a change, the blurb gets the book comparisons perfectly. The greatest inspiration is very clearly ‘The Wizard of Oz’, with multiple Easter eggs paying ode to the L. Frank Baum classic.

Tin Man is a story about with multiple themes – family, friendship, grief, hope, and determination. It does justice to most of these. It beautifully covers the idea of losing your mojo after grief and finding it back, sometimes with the help of friends, sometimes with family.

The story begins quite slowly and I was wondering where the author was going with the random scenes changes in every chapter. But soon the story comes together and builds up to a lovely finale. There are certain things that stay unexplained and some elements that are quite clichéd. If these had been detailed out better, this would have been a 5 star read for me.

The illustrations in my ARC were B&W but there was a sample page with colour illustrations. Based on that page, I think the final product will look wonderful. The artwork is simple and complements the story without dragging attention away from it.

Overall, a serious and insightful graphic novel with lots of points to ponder upon.

My thanks to Amulet Books and Edelweiss+ for the DRC of “Tin Man”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.

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