Continuing in this grand and almost unheard of tradition of actually posting my thoughts about books I've recently read, I'm very excited to share one of the titles I talked about in our Indie Books Coming out in January post. Emma, the publicist for Myriad Editions, was kind enough to send over a copy of The Lady Doctor by Ian Williams and I read it in a morning.
I have yet to read a bad graphic novel from Myriad, and some of my go-to recommendations for non-superhero graphic novels are Myriad titles (Naming Monsters by Hannah Eaton and For the Love of God, Marie! by Jade Sarson, if you were wondering). I'm happy to report that this is still the case and I was impressed with The Lady Doctor. It's a very simple premise and is in fact about a doctor who is a lady.
Lois Pritchard, a general practitioner at the Welsh Llangandida Health Centre and part-time staff at her local Genitourinary Medicine (GUM) clinic, is a forty-year-old, divorced, sarcastic smoker who by her own admission is "not very good with relationships." But when her estranged mother makes a dramatic reappearance demanding a liver transplant, Lois has to examine her loyalties and confront some hard decisions both in and out of the surgery room.
The Lady Doctor is a humorous and insightful look at the realities of working in the NHS, as well as the complexities of human relationships of all sorts, and the many ways in which people use (and sometimes abuse) their doctors surgeries. It mixes levity perfectly with more serious issues and I found myself really feeling for Lois as she tries to get her life together and deal with her issues! I really enjoyed the honesty as it shows that doctors aren't superhuman and are just people living their lives and doing a job, and the art and words pair really well together. If you're looking for a quick , engaging read then this is definitely it, and you can even win our copy by doing the things in the Rafflecopter form below!
Indie Challenge Bingo Squares: An author from another country (if you're not from the UK), new to you press (if you've not read any Myriad titles before), and Out of your Comfort Zone (if you're not ordinarily a graphic novel reader).