Rating: 
Summary: I like SIP better
Review: I picked this up at the library after watching the movie a couple of years ago. I remember liking it OK, so I decided to check this out. It is OK, but zI find enid and Rachel so mean that I can't identify with them: they seem to see the worst in everyone and spend their entire time hurting others. I had a hard time sypathizing with them. I also had a hard time getting into the drawing style; it seemed too.. distant, i suppose. I much prefer Strangers in Paradise, which has something of the same premise (the friendship between to young women), but I identify with Francine and KAtcxhoo more than Enid and Rachel. I would recognize why others might lkike this though.
Rating: 
Summary: Sample reviews of GHOST WORLD from mainstream press:
Review: "The country's premier underground cartoonist." - NEWSWEEK"No one has his eye - or ear - focused on youth as acutely as graphic novelist Daniel Clowes." - VOGUE "[Clowes] spells out the realities of teen angst as powerfully and authentically as Salinger did in The Cather in the Rye" for an earlier generation." - VILLAGE VOICE "Dan Clowes is a master storyteller and artist - there's poetry in every panel." - ESQUIRE "Clowes' writing and art are crisp, clear and far removed from what most people expect from comic books." - SEATTLE WEEKLY "[GHOST WORLD] demonstrates that the medium, in the hands of an expert, can generate narratives as complex and textured as any work of fiction." - SPIN "A potent, elegiac reverie." - PHILADELPHIA CITY PAPER "If there was ever a comic book story meant to be examined by non-comics fans, it's this, a classic in any medium." - THE ONION "Haunting." - OPTION "Poignant and melancholy... One of the most distinctive and accessible recent graphic novels." - BOOKLIST "Hilariously real... Unusual and wonderful." CMJ NEW MUSIC MONTHLY "For once in a comic story, people are portrayed as they really talk and act. Clowes's pitch is uncannily accurate, as are his black and soft blue images, which deftly capture his story's scenes and moods." - THE WASHINGTON POST
Rating: 
Summary: Short and sweet and sour.
Review: 'Ghost World' is less a novel than a series of linked short stories, each of which is full of telling vignettes detailing the attempts of teenage friends Enid and Becky, just out of high school, to fill up the long, dull days in their anonymous home town which, in its monotonous uniformity, its relentless linearity, its surprising emptiness, seems more like a Cold War-era East German city than what we might expect from America, especially as evoked in the green monochrome of Clowes' drawings, emphasising the oppressive, box/prison-like angularity of buildings and interiors. There is a cinematic quality to Clowes' visual storytelling - American indie cinema, anyway; not just in the way he frames his compositions, or his movements from establishing 'shot' to close-up, but also in the elliptical editing between scenes, the abrupt cutting off that frees the reader to interpret the gaps, the unsaid between or behind the heroines' very verbal riffs. Because 'Ghost World' is an incredibly melancholy work behind the comic set-pieces (losing virginity, taunting loser friends, hanging out at record and comic shops, playing tricks on strangers etc.) and tart observations and cruel jokes, suffused with loneliness, fear for the future, as two young women with the unavoidable and unknown in front of them, try to avoid it by stasis, by submerging themselves in an unchanging, trashy everyday they despise. There's something desperately sad about 16 year olds (16!) aching nostalgic for their youthful records, which is only supposed to happen when you're middle-aged - we may grow up so fast, but the culture attending our needs never catches up. what's worse is that the anchor to which you cling, your best friend, will soon outgrow you. This book's ending is quite simply the greatest, most bleakly unforgettable, I have ever read. 'Ghost World' has been called an updated 'Catcher in the Rye', but is free from any of the sanctimony, sentimentality or self-pity such a comparison implies. it has an anguished comic truth and canniness and beauty of its own that makes it one of the great American novels.
Rating:
Summary: "Whaddya call a Japanese Jew? Sosumi!"
Review: Originally published in the Eightball comic, this story describes the lives of two weird girls in a regular town. And no, it's not cheesy. The characters are beatifully developed in a setting full of "Satanists", freaks, child molesters, self-esteem problems, and of course, cool hats. The art of this novel exhibits the great style of Daniel Clowes, this time in pale blue/green (as it was originally published in the Eightball series), maybe intentionally alluding to the title. It is an excellent graphic novel, one of the best in the genre. Not for those with weak stomachs, but rather for greatly openminded individuals bored with their lives and the stupidity of reality. I recommend it (in my pretentious way) to every intelligent person out there.
Rating:
Summary: Ghost World
Review: After my first reading of this graphic novel all I could say was, "wow!" I was very impressed with the fully developed charaters. That is just hard to find in graphic novels/comic books. It is a simple but great read!
Rating: 
Summary: ...
Review: After picking the movie up from a flea market, an awesome find for $2, I simply had to get anything about it (the soundtrack, which was great although I was dissapointed the children's song Enid listens to was not included, and some of the books, etc.). I enjoyed both the movie and the book, but I enjoyed the plot of the book somewhat more than that of the movie. I'm not quite sure why the movie chose to focus mainly on Seymor, who really doesn't exist as much of a character in the book, but this doesn't necessarily mean the movie was bad, just different.
Rating: 
Summary: Identity and confusion
Review: An enjoyable comic book that can aptly be called alternative, GHOST WORLD ultimately disappointed me because I didn't find it to be much more than entertaining. To his credit, Daniel Clowes creates characters that are believable, and I'm sure there are many people out there who can relate to the story, sympathize with Enid's dissatisfaction with her life, and agree with her general view of the world. And Clowes' treatment of his teen characters, a little cruel and unrelenting, but not cold-hearted, is refreshing. But at the end, I didn't feel attached in any way to Enid or Becky or Josh, and didn't really care anyway. Yeah, it was entertaining, but so what? And though this may be a personal bias, I wasn't too fond of Clowes' drawing style, which seemed a bit clumsy and inexpressive. I don't mean for this review to sound negative. I did enjoy GHOST WORLD, and I would recommend it without hesitation to people who are looking for something different. It's short anyway, and reading the other reviews, there's a good chance you'll find more to it than I did.
Rating:
Summary: Perfection
Review: And can't say enough about Ghost World, so to say time I'll say this, THIS ROCKS! buy it, buy it, buy it
Rating:
Summary: Don't Watch the Movie!
Review: But if you did, rest assure that the book doesn't [disappoint]. I read this book when I was Enid and Becky's age, and I tell you, though it's a comic book, it was and still is the most sympathetic and well written portrayal of two young female best friend's coming of age and inevitable split.
Rating:
Summary: An on-target slice of life
Review: Clowes gives a very effective characterization of his main characters, and even the minor ones come to life. Again and again I kept feeling a sense of recognition in his narrative- his characters did and said things similar to what I or people I knew did when we were teenagers. Insightful and impressive- I would highly recommend it, especially to anyone who hasn't realized how good some recent graphic novels can be; it ranks with the best novels and stories I've read lately.
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