I had to return this book to it's rightful owner.I'l borrow it one of this days to finish it.
I wasn't finding it very interesting (and I'll hear how good it it is from all my friends, along with some offers to borrow it to me, just to prove me how good it is :D) ( )

I think this is the first graphic novel I've ever read. I've never been interested but my local library is holding a 21 book challenge and "read a graphic novel" is one of the challenges so I picked this one up as it was available and I have seen and enjoyed the film several years ago.
I struggled with it though - I couldn't work out what was going on a lot of the time.
I'd rather read a book tbh! ( )

I didn't care for it. It was confusing and way over my head with the dialogue throughout the book.

For the rest of my review, visit my Vlog at:

https://youtube.com/shorts/41jrb7KZR7g

Enjoy! ( )

This is the book that proves Alan Moore is correct when he says you cannot make a great film out of any of his works.

V For Vendetta is a Black and White comic masterpiece, a tale of revolution in a 1984 like Britain. Oceania is now Britain after the latter was destroyed by nuclear war. V is a revolutionary scholar, well educated and versed in classics and warfare, who donns the mask of his British revolution hero Guy Fawkes. As a anti-hero he saves the heroine from a rape and trains her up guerilla style by kidnapping her in his museum/library abode, testing both her common sense, loyalty, and literary prowess as he slowly but surely gets plans together to destroy the fascist world Oceania has become, and by any means necessary.

This is a long read but well worth it. The film didn't remotely do the graphic novel justice. This book will quench your Alan Moore thirst and give you everything the film lacked and then some.

Just read it. ( )

_V for Vendetta_ proves that a classic graphic novel does not equal classic literature. I think the comics - literary divide has closed in recent years as the form of the graphic novel has matured, but Moore does not stray too far from the super hero / dystopian future genres, so this book lacks thematic originality. Regardless, for a comic book, this certainly took the world by storm in the 1980s - although it hasn't aged well. What's funny is that Moore disowned the Natalie Portman film adaptation, which I think was pretty true to the spirit of this thing, but certainly perpetuates the flaws of the original. ( )

First time I've thought a movie was better than the book/graphic novel. ( )

A mysterious man in a Guy Fawkes mask spreads anarchy and vengeance throughout a dystopian London while the corrupt members of government try their best to catch him. Along the way he rescues a desperate young woman and indoctrinates her into his belief system. He's arguably riding the nut wagon, but is his worldview any crazier than the moral and political practices of those in charge?

In this seminal comic of the 1980's Moore's talent shines as he paints a dark and grim dystopia, makes us love to hate The Man while also being fascinated, horrified, and a little in love with the man in the mask as well. I adored it and can't believe it took me so long to read it. And I love a Guy Fawkes mask. ( )

It's even better on rereading. Especially in today's climate. We're in dire need of a V today. ( )

Modern day Guy Fawkes meets English Orwellian archetype Batman. This, I believe, is an apt description of V who pursues an anarchist vendetta against the infrastructures of political tyranny and totalitarianism.

Entrancing, masked, Vaudevillian and possessing a trademark sense of humor V never reveals his true self either mentally or physically rendering him more enigma than militant. Who is V? We experience him through the eyes of Evey Hammond, a timid government employee forced to confront her own delusions as she realizes the neo-fascist panorama under which she serves. We never really discover who V is even when he falls in battle. The unknown soldier. The silent warrior letting his valor speak after him through centuries beyond.

From a more tangible grounding, V is a symbolic place holder; a personification of anarchy and revolution in the face of tyranny. He is Camusian in the sense that rebellion, the very act of resistance, defines his being. He is revolutionary. Getting down and dirty; warring on the front lines while buttressing newfound recruits with the creed of chaos for it is out of total chaos that total order emerges and when that order atrophies chaos rears its head again.

The concepts presented in this singular graphic powerhouse are of epic proportions. There is a reason why V For Vendetta is the anarchist's newfound bible in a picturesque sense. Its relevancy is deeply rooted in the fact that materialism and pleasure have become the opiate of the masses today. Rarely are governments subject to soul searching or uprooting by conscientious individuals. The conscientious ones are lost in a haze of hedonism. V is the antithesis of this. Put profoundly, he is everything which we are not. ( )

“People shouldn't be afraid of their government. Governments should be afraid of their people.” ~Alan Moore, V for Vendetta

I loved every minute of this graphic novel. I would love to find and read more graphic novels like this. ( )

Fantastic story and characters... the artwork has not aged well. Too dark and difficult to distinguish characters and the storyboarding was often hard to follow. ( )

I always expect to be blown away when something has the sort of following this has but the second half seemed convoluted and uninteresting. I can see how this would have resonated in Thatcher’s Britain though. ( )

I'd seen the movie and I've been curious about the book for a long time. This Fourth of July (how appropriate and ironic), I finally got Kate to trust me with her copy.

This is actually one case in which I'm glad I watched the movie first, because it allowed me to be swept up in a dark, complex world that I did not expect to find. The good characters--other than V himself--had very dark corners and complex motivations, and the bad characters weren't as powerful as they seemed (not that they were sympathetic, but they weren't simple). The story didn't end with the downfall of the tyrant, and the people weren't immediately free and happy. Perhaps it's just a result of having seen revolutions sweep the MENA region a few years ago, but I far preferred seeing the realistic riots break out and having V distinguish "chaos" from "anarchy" before the people began to settle down and figure out which way to go.

Best of all, Evey really grew, and we got to see her come into her own at the end of the story. She didn't have the passive role she did in the movie (Really, they cast Natalie Portman and then stripped down the character's growth? What's the point?) and I didn't get as much of a Phantom of the Opera tragic love story vibe, thank goodness. I also appreciated how young Evey was, and I wish that had stayed in the movie too. I think it's something often overlooked, that politics affects everyone, not just the pitiful little children or beaten-down old-for-their-age adults that "freer" countries so love to photograph. Here is someone who remembers the past, who lived through the change, who is growing and learning about this world, and who is going to share the responsibility of shaping the future.

The only thing that I did prefer in the movie (though I haven't seen it in years) was Stephen Fry's character. I kept waiting for the one person hiding in plain sight, the one person to represent those who'd been disappeared, the one person who tried to stand up with their own face, and I was disappointed. But thinking about that now, it fits. The lack breaks from conventional storytelling and hints at how far the government has infiltrated society (no one "different" managed to hide). And the fact that the little girl who graffitied did so without fear, without a mask, without a message, and without idolizing the single male figure who was going to "save" her and her whole world meant so much more in its directness. I'd love that page on my wall.

I'm afraid this review will have to be short, since it's now been almost a week since I finished and I haven't been able to read it twice, as I usually do with graphic novels. Thank you, Kate, for letting me read this! I've been wanting to for a long time, and it definitely didn't disappoint. ( )

I've read George Orwell's 1984 a few times. I always loved it as an important piece of fiction at the very least, but I have never enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed this graphic novel. They share many things, including the basic premise of a totalitarian regime.

What makes V for Vendetta so enthralling (rather that terrifying, as is Orwell's classic) is the amount of involvement to be found by the reader within the images, dialogue and overall substance of the novel. The book is littered with ciphers and references to both the letter "V" and its roman numerical counterpart, "5". David Lloyd's illustrations are crammed with both clues and red herrings, involving the reader in what becomes a game of whit and ingenuity.

The book becomes an experience in itself; a joy to read, as unsettling as its story may be. ( )

The storyline was pretty awesome...if only the artwork wasn't so murky. It was incredibly difficult to tell what was going on in some frames and to identify some of the characters--it really ended up detracting from the story. If I hadn't already seen the movie, I might have been totally lost. The illustrations David Lloyd provided to accompany Alan Moore's "Behind the Painted Smile" essay were of a far better caliber. I wish the same effort had been applied to the comic in full. ( )

Wished that my review was more positive. It seems that I'm likely just not the right audience because it's obviously a work of art. The character arcs were too hard to follow, complicated by the fact that each individual seemed to change dramatically between frames. Evey is beautiful then a harridan. Maybe this is intentional. It didn't feel aimed as much as happenstance. It brought confusion more than intrigue.
( )

I usually write my reviews not long after I finish a book or listening to an audio-book. I like to write them as soon as I can while the information is still fresh in the mind. However with V for Vendetta I waited a couple of days for me to digest what I had read.

Tales of dystopian worlds ruled by authoritarian governments getting toppled over are stories I find enjoyable. There's something about terrible despotic rulers getting their asses handed to them by an anti-hero seeking revenge that I find satisfying. You will find this in V For Vendetta.

While I enjoyed the story I felt there was something off. After I turned the last page the first thought that appeared in my head was "Oh, that's it?" I was expecting more out of it but I don't know what it is. Maybe I found the ending unsatisfactory. Or the main plot was missing something. Maybe a future reread will help.

Overall it was a good read. ( )

A brilliant, well-executed dystopia with great characters and great writing. My only complaint is that unlike some of Alan Moore's other comics, I don't think David Lloyd's art has aged well at all. There are little moments where he shines, but there's nothing here that ascends to the level of Gibbons's work on Watchmen or Williams's work on Promethea. Not that this should stop you from reading it. ( )

To note - I am writing this review a quarter century after having read this. Please bear with me!

I had a boyfriend once who was into his comics. At first, I was thinking Batman? Well, that was true, but I didn't realize there was more to comics than The Fantastic Four and Thor.

He loaned me his copies of V for Vendetta to read. Wow. I was blown away. I had never read an adult comic (or perhaps I should say graphic novel?) The pictures, the dialog, the story. It was an amazing experience. I wanted more! It ended, I was sad. My boyfriend loaned me Sandman from #1 to whatever number we were up to in 1991. Also, all of his copies of Hellblazer.

I was hooked. I couldn't get enough.

I've read some of the reviews about this graphic novel. I've not re-read it since 1991. I do not know what I would say about it now, having read many other comics. What would I think about the anarchy? About the politics? I don't know. What I do know is it opened up a whole world to me and it is one of the graphic novels that I can still visualize in my head and remember scenes from so it was pretty powerful to me. (Still remembering the queen christening the waste treatment plant - as my then boyfriend let me know - Alan Moore is not a royalist!)

I liked the movie, but I liked the graphic novel more. ( )

Although it's a graphic novel, I'm going to call it a book. Because that's what I feel it is. It's a whole complex story, with many references and layers and excellent development of plot lines and characters. And the story progresses such that it sucks you right in and doesn't let go of you even at the end.

"Everybody is special. Everybody. Everybody is a hero, a lover, a fool, a villain. Everybody. Everybody has their story to tell."

Ratings:- ( )

"V for Vendetta" is one of the few movies that, in these days of crowded shelves and almost infinite digital storage, I chose to own a physical copy of. It is beautifully shot, perfectly cast and boldly told. It is that rare thing, a movie that dares to be true to its intent, even at the risk of being unpopular. The result is a cult classic.

Take a look at the trailer below to get a feel for what I mean.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCzfxcVrxfE&w=560&h=315]

I first saw it in the cinema in 2006 and found it startling and inspiring. At the time I was more transfixed by how well a comic (graphic novel for all you who just groaned) could be brought to the screen rather than by the political message. I saw the anti-fascist stance as obvious and necessary but the idea of fascism gripping the UK so firmly seemed like an exaggeration to make a point.

This year, for Bonfire Night, I decided to do something new. I read the "novelisation" of the movie or, rather, I listened to the audiobook, expertly narrated by Simon Vance.

I've always avoided novelisations. The word itself is ugly and the literary snob in me, which is quite happy to watch movies adapted from books, was instinctively scornful of reading novels adapted from movies.

As usual, my literary snob was an idiot. If I had come to this novel without seeing the movie, I would have been praising the quality of the writing and the structure of the story. It's well-written, faithful to the movie but enhancing it in ways that are appropriate to the novel form. I recommend it to you.

Listening to the audiobook in 2018, twelve years after seeing the movie, Britain as a fascist state no longer felt like an exaggeration to make a point. It felt like a possibility that we are only a few missteps away from. The mechanics of the manipulation of the media, the creation of enemies of the people, the appeal to national pride in a mostly-mythical glorious past, the exploitation of the fear and hatred of the foreign and the different all felt too contemporary to be dismissed.

V, the hero of this story, is not a nice man. Not a man you'd want to make friends with or even spend time with. When I first saw the movie I was horrified by his treatment of Evie, who he shapes into a weapon of sorts.

Now, I begin to understand that there may be times when we all need someone like V to remind us that our governments should be more afraid of us than we are of them. ( )

This was definitely one of the best graphic novels I have read. A good example of what can be done with the graphic novel format to tell a story. Also a good example of the dystopian genre. I wish I would have had it available when I was teaching high school as an alternative or addition to reading Orwell's 1984. I think the students would have appreciated it, and it probably could have sparked some more discussions.

Leaving that aside, I can definitely see how this story is still very relevant. It should be a warning sign. It's not just the tyrants; it's the idiots and neglectful people who put them in power. In a way, it's those ignorant and clueless people who would rather sacrifice freedom for an illusion of peace or order who are really dangerous. Freedom does have a price, and it is vigilance. However, it is not as simple as politicians and hawks make it sound. Anyways, I highly recommend this one. This particular edition includes two additional short stories that did not make it to the original run of the series and an essay by Moore discussing the development of the work. Both elements add to the story, but you can certainly enjoy it if you just read the series. ( )

I remember teen-me liking this a lot more than middle-age me does. I couldn't appreciate the art style at all this time round and - in agreement with David Lloyd's Introduction - thought the early chapters were not so good - if you can call nearly the whole first half "the early chapters." It got interesting when Evey got "imprisoned." The psychology of Evey and V's relationship then became fascinating and was really what pulled me through the remainder. I couldn't care less about anybody else.

The politics seem naive - it's all very well to say you have to destroy the despotic and fascist rulers and their power structures in order to create something better but examine history to see what happens after you succeed in that: take the Paris Commune as an example. There's no guarantee that the replacement will be any different or any better. Prevention is better than cure in these matters.

I also didn't seem to notice back then how V seems able to magically do anything he wants without ever receiving any explanation as to how, beyond his access to Fate -which in turn is never explained or justified.

Disappointing. ( )

Good things about V for Vendetta:
-Much more overtly political than the movie
-Established (or further proved) that graphic novels can be well adapted to film
-Some interesting storytelling decisions

Things I didn't like:
-Alan Moore, for all he's done for this genre, just doesn't do it for me these days. Since realizing I grew out of Watchmen and no longer connect with it the way I used to, I just can't get into Moore
-The messaging didn't feel very clever or organic, it was a bit on the nose
-Visually it ranges from impressive to unimportant, but the art never quite compliments the narrative as well as it did in Watchmen
-Parts were a little creepy in my opinion
-Sometimes it was uh, kind of elitist.

Like a 3/10, tbh ( )

थोड़ी सी अराजकता लाइए।
पूर्व स्थापित प्रणाली को नष्ट कर दीजिये, जल्द ही सब अस्त व्यस्त हो जाता है;
और आपको अस्तव्यस्तता की विशेषता पता है?

वह निष्पक्ष है! ( )