Review of Maccabee Lady

[Emily Grogean]

[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Maccabee Lady" by Joshua Goldstein.]

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2 out of 5 stars

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The graphic novel "Maccabee Lady" by Joshua Goldstein tells the story of Sophia Kellman's transformation into a superhero and of some of her adventures. Sophia Kellman is an Israeli Defense Force nurse before she has a dream that sets her on the path to becoming Maccabee Lady. Various stories of her adventures fighting different supervillains are told in this graphic novel. Many of the events are based on Israeli politics from the last 20 years. If you get lost following the story, though, there is information in the preface that gives you some context for the characters and events you read about.

There were a couple of times, as I was reading this graphic novel, that I had difficulty reading the text in the text boxes. Some of the text boxes have an overlay with typed text, but a lot of them are still handwritten. The handwriting is cramped in some text boxes and blurred in others. Additionally, several grammar and spelling mistakes were made throughout. Despite these difficulties, I was still able to enjoy the story somewhat. You can really tell as you’re reading that Jewish culture and recent events involving Israel are near and dear to the author’s heart. However, the plot was lacking suspense. I was never on the edge of my seat wondering what was going to happen next. I never doubted that Maccabee Lady could save the day in the end, and that made the story a bit slow.

Overall, if you enjoy action comics and reading about recent political events, you might want to give this graphic novel a try. Due to nudity, sexual content, and profanity, I wouldn’t recommend it for children. Unfortunately, I do have to give this graphic novel a rating of two out of five. The difficulty when reading the text and the slow plot made the overall experience unsatisfying.

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Maccabee Lady
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[Kibet Hillary]

The story sounds captivating, but it appears the choppy editing, lack of suspense (as it appears largely predictable), and the slow-paced nature somehow detract from the overall reading experience. All in all, thanks for the informative review, @Emily Grogean.