Non-Fiction Book Review - 'Madonna: A Rebel Life' by Mary Gabriel

I admit to mostly skimming this gargantuan book (880 pages! and that's its edited and revised version!) about Madonna. It chronicles her whole life and career up until 2023. But it contains the most amazing anecdotes and passages, and facts about Madge I didn't know before. They made me appreciate and respect her even more than I ever had before. They made me love and idolise her even more.

'Madonna: A Rebel Life' made me proud to be a Madonna fan. She's always been a fearless, feminist rebel and social activist on the scene, and an enemy of the patriarchy, sexism, misogyny, and fascism. Doing whatever she wanted, never taking shit from no one, and never playing "safe" and apolitical in order to appear "likeable" and "uncontroversial". She's a human who makes mistakes and is mega-flawed, but that makes her more admirable and relatable, and she keeps trying to improve and upscale - on her own terms, in her own unique, big, extreme, postmodern, reflective, truth-telling style - and help others along the way.

She's in fact always been what society - what the world - needs.

This powerful, influential woman - a rich white woman who actually cares about people and human life, and doing the right thing - is an inspiration. An icon.

Mary Gabriel has a wicked and no-nonsense sense of wit and humour, as well as pathos, in her writing. She clearly loves Madonna and what she has continuously represented since the beginning of her career - her life. It is fan her/hero-worshipping at its most critical and laudable, and fully detailed. The passion, dedication, knowledge and research put into this magnum opus, this work of art, is awestriking and commendable.

It is a triumph.

'Madonna: A Rebel Life' - the biggest, and perhaps the best Madonna biography to date. I will keep coming back to it, and read pages and pages at long intervals, with no fatigue, and my esteem raised ever higher.

'A Rebel Life' isn't just about a pop star whose career spans over forty years, who is the "Queen of Pop" - it is about life, and our recent history, in pop culture and other human "civilised" areas, subjects and issues, such as politics.

Keep rebelling, Madonna Louise Ciccone. Madge.

Rebel. Respect.

Fight fascism and the patriarchy with your art, your music, your songs, your dances, your faith, and your words. Your expression.

(Little sidenote: I have of late been coming back to and watching Madonna's films, such as 'Desperately Seeking Susan' and 'Who's That Girl', and I like them a lot, with 'Evita' and 'A League of Their Own' remaining my absolute faves.)



From the blurb:


'In this exceptional biography, Pulitzer Prize finalist Mary Gabriel chronicles the meteoric rise and enduring influence of the greatest female pop icon of the modern era: Madonna.

With her arrival on the music scene in the early 1980s, Madonna generated nothing short of an explosion - as great as that of Elvis or the Beatles - taking the nation by storm with her liberated politics and breathtaking talent.

But Madonna was more than just a pop star. Everywhere, fans gravitated to her as an emblem of a new age, one in which feminism could shed the buttoned-down demeanour of the 1970s and feel relevant to a new generation. Amid the scourge of AIDS, she brought queer identities into the mainstream, fiercely defending a person's right to love whomever - and be whoever - they wanted. Despite fierce criticism, she never separated her music from her political activism. And as an artist, she never stopped experimenting. Madonna existed to push past boundaries by creating provocative, visionary music, videos, films and live performances that changed culture globally.

Deftly tracing Madonna's story from her Michigan roots to her rise to super-stardom, master biographer Mary Gabriel captures the dramatic life and achievements of one of the greatest artists of our time.'


Read my review of another favourite Madonna biography, 'Madonna' by Michelle Morgan, here.

Final Score: 4/5

Book Review - 'Supergirl (DC Supergirl) (Little Golden Book)' by Courtney Carbone (Writer), Erik Doescher (Illustrator)

A cute Little Golden Book about Supergirl.

It is basically baby's first Supergirl (and baby's first reading experience). It barely covers her origin at the beginning - the doomed planet Krypton, along with her parents and people - before moving swiftly to her kicking butt in action sequences that show off her various superpowers, all the while reassuring the reader that the totally untraumatized Supergirl can do anything!

But the book is fun and colourful, and highlights Supergirl/Kara Zor-El's strengths as an awesome, mighty and confident superhero. This comes at the cost of ignoring and omitting her weaknesses, however, such as kryptonite, and any introspection on her tragic past.

Also included are her cousin Superman, of course, and Batgirl, Hawkgirl, Wonder Woman, Supergirl's beloved Krypto the Superdog (he only shows up on one page, mind you), Cyborg, Catwoman, Cheetah, Poison Ivy, Bizarro, Sinestro, Lex Luthor, and Solomon Grundy.

'Supergirl (DC Supergirl) (Little Golden Book)' - recommended for Supergirl fans of all ages, in 2026, the year of Supergirl!

Superheroines forever!

Superheroines of tomorrow.

Up up and away!

Final Score: 3.5/5

Graphic Novel Review - 'DC Super Hero Girls: High School Reunion' by Shea Fontana (Writer), Yancey Labat (Artist)

A cute, wholesome and colourful super-sequel to the 'DC Super Hero Girls' comics, set ten years later, for, as the title says, a 'High School Reunion'.

It is about the no-longer teenage Wonder Woman, Batgirl, Supergirl, Harley Quinn, Poison Ivy, and Bumblebee (I don't know why Katana is on an alternate cover, she's hardly in the comic) - they are the DC Super Hero Girls - plus Beast Boy. He's very popular in this franchise, and I don't mind a bit. Not having grown up a bit since graduation and "boyhood", he has been promoted to the token guy of this superhero group; an inverse and almost subversion of the Smurfette Principle.

All of these heroes are cool and fun, and full of bad puns!

Although, 'High School Reunion' is mostly about Harley Quinn, and her insecurities as a nonpowered "burden" to her superhero team and friends, whom she'd ghosted since graduating DC superhero high school; it is her development from that. She lives with Poison Ivy, and it is heavily implied they are a couple in this franchise as well. Fantastic!

Got to appreciate that Ivy is not skinny like the other girls, too.

'DC Super Hero Girls: High School Reunion' is simple, kiddie and cartoony - aimed at a younger audience, despite its heroes being adults now - but it is an enjoyable and fresh ride to kill around a half hour of time in reading. Therein lie so many adorably, hilariously bad puns - nearly every line of dialogue contains a pun.

On a surprising note: there is an antidiscrimination and fearmongering theme running in 'High School Reunion', especially in regards to xenophobia. However, it isn't featured much, nor developed on a deeper level beyond what this light, colourful, funny-and-punny children's superhero comic could perhaps handle or get away with. Still, I appreciate its presence. It is a very important topic to bring up and teach to the youth, especially in this hellish, dystopian day and age.

For my review of the first 'DC Superhero Girls' comic, 'DC Super Hero Girls Vol. 1: Finals Crisis' (from ten years ago!), click here

Final Score: 3.5/5

Graphic Novel Review - 'Marvel-Verse: Scarlet Witch' by Various

'Marvel-Verse: Scarlet Witch' is a rather weird, eclectic and random collection of comic issues featuring the Scarlet Witch.

In some, she isn't even a main character, and in a couple she barely appears. One one-page shot is just about Black Widow - why was that included?!

Scarlet Witch isn't really the protagonist of any of the stories collected in 'Marvel-Verse: Scarlet Witch'. It mostly consists of classic Marvel issues (which are very wordy on dialogue, thought balloons, and narration, I tell you), and a few strange, 'Sabrina' and 'Bewitched'-style 'X-Men' stories from the 2000s.

In Marvel comics editorial, I have no idea how the process works when choosing comics for these 'Marvel-Verse' books, and why, when they are meant as a jumping-off point, and to entice new readers with "introductions" to Marvel superheroes; sometimes the comic issues are barely related to the heroes they are supposed to be about. In this case, it's like "Which witch is the Scarlet Witch again?"

Still, this 'Marvel-Verse' is mostly entertaining. As well as Scarlet Witch/Wanda Maximoff, it stars Jean Grey (in those 2000s children's 'X-Men' comics, she is mainly called Marvel Girl, and she is youthful and childlike, but is besties with Wanda, so I'm not mad), Wanda's twin brother Quicksilver/Pietro Maximoff, Professor X, the Mole Man, Black Widow/Natasha Romanoff, Nick Fury, H.Y.D.R.A., the Thing/Ben Grimm, Stingray/Walt Newell, Triton, Agatha Harkness (in her best portrayal as Wanda's witch mistress mentor and mother figure in every comic she appears), Doctor Strange, Wong, Dracula himself (oh yeah, there are vampires in this!), Edwin Jarvis, Hannibal King, Monica Rambeau (called Captain Marvel here, which may confuse readers only familiar with the MCU), Wanda's synthetic robot husband Vision (there is a 'Wanda and Vision' story included, even though there is already a 'Marvel-Verse' book for those), and demons and nightmares from her past.

My favourite story in 'Marvel-Verse: Scarlet Witch' has to be the last one, 'Women of Marvel #1', aka 'Patty Prue in "Real Witches"'. It is about Scarlet Witch connecting with a grieving, lonely, insecure, stubborn, and complex young POC wannabe-witch, Patty Prue. It's the kind of witchy, occult story I like, and it is about female friendships! It's like 'The Craft' and 'Spell on Wheels'.

So while 'Marvel-Verse: Scarlet Witch' isn't that great, or even that accurate to what its title promises, it is good enough for me, as a fan of witches and superheroes in general. It is a guilty, magical, mystical pleasure.

And I now own a 'Scarlet Witch' comic on my shelf. I've never been impressed by any of her solo titles.

It's just that the Scarlet Witch is the kind of character I should adore. I want to adore her. She's a super-powerful brunette-mixed-with-red witch, and a sympathetic, relatable victim of the worst of societal ostracisation and prejudice - she's been through hell and back - what's not to love? But I keep being disappointed by her various appearances and how she is written, well, everywhere (do not get me started on her portrayal in the MCU, that's another matter (and rant) entirely).

And is she a mutant anymore, or not? I hate it when the MCU influences the canon Marvel comics.

But I like some of the tales in 'Marvel-Verse: Scarlet Witch', so, yey, go Wanda!

Scarlet Witch/Wanda Maximoff - the most powerful sorceress, female magician, illusionist, and reality-warper in the Marvel universe, and one of the most powerful women in the Marvel universe...though she's hardly ever written as such, or competently, or not as an "overemotional woman" who is "too powerful for her own good and needs to be subdued and controlled by powerful men who feel entitled to her autonomy". Stupid superhero media sexism.

Now that I think about it, it makes every bit of sense that Wanda and Jean Grey are friends.

Thus concludes my reading of the 'Marvel-Verse' books, about the women of Marvel. They have been mixed at best, but I enjoyed the following:


'Marvel-Verse: Captain Marvel'

'Marvel-Verse: Ms. Marvel'

'Marvel-Verse: She-Hulk'

'Marvel-Verse: Jane Foster, The Mighty Thor'

'Marvel-Verse: America Chavez'


Final Score (for 'Marvel-Verse: Scarlet Witch'): 3.5/5

Graphic Novel Review - 'All-New Wolverine, Vol. 1: The Four Sisters' by Tom Taylor (Writer), David López (Artist), David Navarrot (Artist), Bengal (Cover Artist), Mark Paniccia (Editor), Darren Shan (Editor), Christina Harrington (Editor)

A speedy, simple yet compelling and well written Marvel's 'X-23' comic.

Action-packed and dynamic, 'All-New Wolverine, Vol. 1: The Four Sisters' is about X-23, aka Laura Kinney, aka the, ah, all-new Wolverine (during Logan's, pfft, "death", which has lasted for roughly twenty minutes, give or take).

Laura is a clone of the original Wolverine, a science experiment, a lab rat, an ex-assassin, and a child, whose new nonkilling code keeps being tested again and again, as she finds and then works alongside

her clones, or sisters, named Gabby, Zelda and Bellona.

So many clones in the Marvel universe. How can anyone keep up?

No hunting, and no killing on Laura's end, and a horrifying conspiracy surrounding an obviously evil science, genetics and tech lab industry will be unravelled.

The plot, the beats, and a lot of the action sequences and plot twists of 'All-New Wolverine, Vol. 1: The Four Sisters' kind of remind me of the 'Black Widow' movie. Coincidence?

Cameos include Laura's "father", Logan, as a "ghost" in her head as she temporarily dies too (sure, why not?), Angel (who is Laura's boyfriend...apparently?...but he disappears completely eight pages into the second issue of the trade, and there's a weird, out-of-character moment where she lets him pat her on the head like a puppy after she's just been injured from an action moment...which she'll heal quickly and easily from...and she hasn't been traumatised from seeing one of her dead clones yet...seriously, what was that head-patting?), Taskmaster (wow he's easily defeated by Laura, isn't he?), Doctor Strange, a Cthulhu monster he keeps in his living room cupboard (I reiterate: sure, why not?), the Wasp, aka Janet Van Dyne, and someone who is literally introduced on the final page, but I won't reveal who they are due to spoilers.

Negative criticisms include how 'All-New Wolverine, Vol. 1: The Four Sisters' is not really accessible to new readers, of either X-23/Laura Kinney or Marvel comics at the time of its publication. You are brought into the nonstop action immediately, with barely an explanation on what's going down, on what's going on. The cameo appearances are quick and dispensable. And the only Black and other POC characters are villains; I cannot begin to tell you how psychotic, sociopathic and sadistic the merc and second-in-command-to-the-white-male-mad-scientist Captain Mooney is. He is definitely anti-mutant, to boot. I mean, yikes and holy hel!

However, 'All-New Wolverine, Vol. 1: The Four Sisters' is entertaining enough that I can sort of overlook this, amazingly.

The artwork is nice, fresh, clean, colourful, and, surprisingly, cute yet tasteful - Laura and her sisters actually look like young teen girls. There are humorous moments to go with the bloody violence and grimness of the whole comic. Who knew it was possible that X-23 could have a sense of humour! The sisterhood, and female-support-and-solidarity-through-victimhood-via-abuse-and-entrapment-and-caging-by-powerful-men-who-think-they're-gods-above-the-law theme...it is touching, emotional, heartrending, and tragic. It's an all-too relevant theme.

The patriarchy is oppression and abuse, and rape culture and murder, and inhumane and unnatural, and is plain, pure evil.

Read my review of 'X-23: The Complete Collection Vol. 1' for more (and I apologise if my review here demonstrates a lack of knowledge of X-23, though to be fair, it has been nearly ten years since I read a comic about her (holy shit))


LAURA: I've done bad things. And...bad people have done bad things to me. Are you sure I deserve salvation?

STRANGE: To come from there...to be able to hold all of that back. There's so much rage in you. But you are not your father. You can control it. Channel it. It's...actually a little scary. [...] You are the right person to replace Wolverine.

LAURA: I know there are people who disapprove...guys on the internet mainly. But I'm not replacing him. I don't really know what I'm doing yet. [...] All I know is, while I'm wearing this, he isn't gone. And neither am I. I'm Laura Kinney. I'm X-23. And I'm Wolverine.

STRANGE: Logan would be very proud of you.

LAURA: Yeah. But he had pretty low standards. [...] The sisters deserve the same chance I had.


Final Score: 3.5/5

Graphic Novel Review - 'Anne of Green Gables: A Graphic Novel' by Mariah Marsden (Adaptor, Writer), Brenna Thummler (Artist), Kendra Phipps (Editor), Erika Kuster (Editor), L.M. Montgomery (Original Author)

A cute, colourful and quaint, abridged graphic novel adaptation of the L.M. Montgomery classic, even if the artwork makes its characters look like they came from the Other Mother's world from 'Coraline' (Hecate, they even share similarities to the Other Mother and her minions from the graphic novel adaptation of 'Coraline'!). Gaia, those tiny, dead, beady eyes, and Muppet noses and mouths.

But I got used to it. It is still 'Anne of Green Gables', with its lovely story, characters and setting.

'Anne of Green Gables: A Graphic Novel', by Mariah Marsden and Brenna Thummler, is atmospheric and well developed, created with clearwater, lily-pad love, affection and respect. Green Gables looks beautiful and enchanting.

Anne Shirley is also enchanting. She's a spirited and temperamental redhead, growing and sprouting, like her Avonlea and nature surroundings, and changing the lives of everyone around her. She touches people's hearts so wonderfully.

I'm glad that subplots such as Mr Phillips' affair with the sixteen-year-old student, Prissy Andrews, have been cut in this adaptation. Though that leaves Prissy herself not being in it either, and neither are certain scenes and scene transitions, such as Anne starting school - she is just suddenly there with no explanation.

'Anne of Green Gables: A Graphic Novel' is probably the best adaptation in graphic novel form of the original 'Anne', with 'Anne: An Adaptation of Anne of Green Gables (Sort Of)' coming a close second. It can be read in twenty minutes or less.

Dedication:


'To Lucy Maud Montgomery,
who reminds us that nothing is more powerful
than a girl with an imagination.'


See my review of 'Anne: An Adaptation of Anne of Green Gables (Sort Of)'.

And of course, my review of the one, the only, the original, the classic, 'Anne of Green Gables'.

Final Score (for 'Anne of Green Gables: A Graphic Novel'): 3.5/5

Book Review - 'Witchycakes #1: Sweet Magic' by Kara LaReau (Writer), Ariane Moreira (Illustrator)

From the blurb:

'In a magical bakery by the sea,
live a witch and a witch-to-be...'



What a sweet (in every way!) little witchy chapter book for children, that was clearly inspired by 'Kiki's Delivery Service' - Kiki even appears on one page, drinking juice with an old lady on the terrace of a seaside café!

'Witchycakes #1: Sweet Magic' also reminds me of 'Sunday The Sea Witch', 'Witch in Training', 'The Witching Hour', 'My Mummy is a Witch', 'Little Witch's To-Do List', 'Doughnuts and Doom', 'Crumble', 'Pizza Witch', 'Flying Witch', and 'Sabrina' and 'Hilda', with a light dash of 'Mooncakes' and 'Legends & Lattes' to go with the flavouring. It's a bitsy-witchy of what I imagine 'Books, Iced Coffee & a Side of Dragons' will be like.

It is about Blue, a little blue-haired, sunhat-and-sandals-and-overalls-wearing witch-in-training, who delivers baked goods from their Mama Moon's bakery, to people in their quaint and ordinary seaside town, Shellville.

As Blue helps their varied neighbours with their varied problems, they learn that not everything can be solved with magic. No quick and easy spells. No sprinkle of magical dust. Sometimes a pinch of flour, sugar, or crumbs can do the trick. Hard work, a helping hand, and just listening to people are just as effective and rewarding as using any real magic, if not more so.

Focus on people as well as your spells.

Finding spells can be about looking for what's in hearts as well as what's exterior.

How fulfilling, sweet and adorable.

And those cakes, muffins, tarts, crumbles, biscuits (apparently called 'raspberry sandbars' here? Which sounds very odd to me), buns, pies, bread loaves, pancakes, fries, jam jars, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and more! So many treats and groceries are represented in this darling wickle book!

Shellville looks absolutely cute and colourful and peaceful! As it's written in the book, 'Their village looks like an enchanted town from a fairy tale, the kind Mama Moon reads to Blue before bed.' (page 18). I'd love to live somewhere like it!

As if the cuteness and preciousness factor wasn't high enough, in this mini witch lit cauldron there also lie shells, sea glass, a bottle of full moon water, a lucky rabbit's foot, Blue's seagull familiar (Gully), Mama Moon's cat familiar (Pearl), a guinea pig (Barnacle), a deceased pug (Marina) (okay, that's less cute and more sad, but still, it works well with the grief theme presented by the end of the story), crescent moons, and so much of the seaside magic aesthetic (no broomsticks here, only a delivery bicycle). It's a pity there isn't a mermaid in sight, actually. Or a selkie. That would have been perfect.

Oh, and of course there is POC and LBGTQA+ representation. Blue is referred to by they/them pronouns, and the seaside café is owned by the married Spinnakers, Cliff and Derrick, who have a son, Jib, the owner of Barnacle the guinea pig, who is Blue's age (Jib, not Barnacle).

The only thing I'm iffy about 'Witchycakes #1: Sweet Magic' is the inconsistent way the issue of consent is raised. At the beginning, Mama Moon uses 'soothing magic' on the confrontational, talking sentient animal familiars, Gully and Pearl, without their consent, to 'quiet' them. Then it is used by Blue after they specifically ask for permission from people like Jib and Mr. Haddock the grocer, who is grieving for his pug Marina. Then there is the dubious way Blue treats Mrs. Sanderson, an exhausted, stressed and overworked mother of four; I highly doubt Blue didn't use magic on her to make her fall asleep without her consent...

I really hope Mama Moon and Blue never use magical drugs spells in their baking...

But apart from that, 'Witchycakes #1: Sweet Magic' is a lighthearted, soft, cosy, funny, charming and charmed little witchy book that comes with a big recommendation from me.

A slice-of-life-and-crumble-with-whipped-cream mini witch delivery chapter chronicle that can be inhaled in under an hour. I'm glad books like it exist for children to read.


'In a village by the sea
live a witch and a witch-to-be.
Life is sweet and never dull,
and it's always, always magical.'


It comes with a recipe for 'Mama Moon's Beach Crumble' (from her 'beach plum crumble') at the end, too!

What multiple, magical treats!

Final Score: 3.5/5