Lady killer

While I wasn't too sure about this title when I first heard about it, I'll admit that I was pretty gosh darn excited a month or two later when I realized my library had just bought it. The premise, I felt, could go either way - but the reviews I was seeing were oh so promising...

While I am really not the sort of person who is all that interested in serial killers, I really couldn't help but feel myself being sucked into this perfect depiction of 1950's femininity. Peeling back the layers on a character that at first seems like just another perfect housewife but turns out to be an independent and deadly assassin.

While the actual plot and pacing of the comic are both excellently executed, that would probably only have amounted to maybe 4 stars tops. The story was positively riveting, and I could hardly put it down. I finished it in almost just the one sitting!

But the real reason I've decided to top it out at five stars was the subtle ways in which Jones builds up Josie as a character. Not just making her some generally empowered female character, but directly taking on many of the nuanced issues that women faced in the time and even today. Work/Life balance, the idea that women can't be good mothers and killers, the idea that sexy women are ditzy or incapable. All of these things have been tackled before I suppose, but I felt the time period really took it to another level, plus it's not like Jones is preaching to you. All of this comes through as a natural extension of the plot.

On top of that Josie is anything but a Mary Sue. Some characters like her, she is charming and attractive, but others don't, and neither all woman or all men fall into either category. And while she does manage to keep a number of balls in the air at once and get a lot done, it never feels like she's perfect. Josie chokes once or twice and it really serves to build the tension.

Plus it's funny. I would highly recommend this book to almost anyone.