Goodreads Mobile | see what your friends are reading

Feb 03, 2008

Claire rated it:

Aww! This was a sweet re-imagining of fairy tale settings and tropes with a decidedly feminist slant, in which everything ends happily but without the darkness or chance of real fairy tales. In the first half of the book, a pregnant Lady goes on a quest for the fabled "Castle Waiting," a safe haven for all who seek it. She finds it and essentially lives happily ever after with her baby, who takes after his (literally) ogreish father rather than the Lady's husband. The second half of th More...

6 comments like (5 people liked it)

Sep 02, 2008

Jason rated it:

(Reprinted from the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com]. I am the original author of this essay, as well as the owner of CCLaP; it is not being reprinted here illegally.)

Like any self-respecting obsessive book nerd, at any given moment I'm actually in the process of reading three or four books simultaneously; there is the deeper and more complex novel, for example, that I will read only at a cafe during the day, a less complex one I read in more distractin More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Aug 25, 2007

Arun rated it:

I was a little skeptical when I picked this book up at my local library. The cover was beautiful but art really did not intrigue me at first. Nevertheless, the world of fairy tales and folk tales has always drawn me in and so I decided to give it a go.

Of course, having Fantagraphics as a publisher did not hurt its reputation as well.

Linda Medley definitely does show a master storyteller's finesse in working with already existing concepts and turning them onto a side tha More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Sep 02, 2007

Chris rated it:

Although I know this has absolutely nothing to do with the content of the book, this collection of Castle Waiting is served up in a really lovely hardcover edition that screams to be read. My fiancee normally gives most of my comics a pass, but she picked up the book and loved it, and I daresay that she wouldn't have done that if it hadn't looked so swell.

A revisionist fairy tale, Castle Waiting is a treat. Creator Linda Medley's artwork is wonderful to behold; I don't really get int More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

May 22, 2008

Grace rated it:

Fans of Fables (the comic book) and fables (the genre) alike will enjoy this wonderful comic book compilation of fairy tale-like stories. In fact, even though I'm an enthusiastic fan of Fables, I'd have to actually rank this one as even better, in my estimation. The characters leap off of the page with their charm and fascinating stories. And the author, while alluding to fairy tales frequently, tells her own new stories with magnificent talent!

The book ends abruptly, and I sincer More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Nov 22, 2011

Seth rated it:

[This is a review for both Fantagraphics volumes.]

Castle Waiting by Linda Medley

One of the great, nearly insurmountable problems of genre literature is that it has a need to follow after the conventions of its genre. This can be fine if all one wants is more of what one has already read. More hard-boiled detectives down on their luck who come up against the jealous or crooked police force in order to solve the case but ultimately lose the fight. More unsuspecting lads who flee their home villages to g More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Nov 16, 2011

R. rated it:

Je me souviens très bien avoir acheté ce livre il y a quelques années à la période de Noël. D'emblée, j'avais été séduit par l'objet lui-même. L'objet livre est magnifique, c'est un fac-similé d'un vieux livre relié d'un format assez compact mais très épais. Dès les premières pages tournées, la bonne impression initiale n'est pas démentie. Nous avons à faire à un travail soigné. Les dessins sont à l'avenant, de la ligne claire très propre et expressive mais pas de couleur. Fier de mon achat, je More...

0 comments like

Sep 13, 2011

Jess rated it:

I'd heard a lot of praise for "Castle Waiting" & this book did not disappoint in charm. I wasn't pulled in by the artwork, so it took me a few days to actually open the book & get down to brass tacks. The opening story is a (not very interesting) re-telling of the Sleeping Beauty story. Though the story is very told, i noticed small nuances that made the characters seem more relatable than characters tend to be in fairy tale retellings. After Sleeping Beauty is kissed by her prince More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

May 07, 2011

Kimberly rated it:

I first read Linda Medley's Castle Waiting graphic novel as part of an assignment in library school. It was the very first graphic novel/comic I had read in years (the last one before that was probably an issue of Casper when I wasn't even double digits). I wasn't averse to reading graphic novels, and I had long embraced the notion of having them in public libraries as practical and necessary, I just hadn't ever bothered to go find one I thought I would like.

I'm glad I chose Castle W More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Apr 11, 2011

Leslie rated it:

"Castle Waiting is a marvelous comic in how it has wide appeal. The black and white line-drawing is pleasing and expressive. There is a great deal of humor and the bizarre. The stories, both over arcing and small, are interesting. The most novice reader of tales will be entertained and intrigued. The veteran tale reader will enjoy the scavenger hunt as Medley honors traditional storylines and figures even as she uses them at will—up-cycling, repurposing. Castle Waiting isn’t just feminist, More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Feb 03, 2011

Story rated it:

This has to be one of the very best graphic novels yet placed into my hands. Medley's storytelling is deft and engrossing in a way to which I cannot here do justice. It is tender, powerful, inclusive... and wickedly funny. I could rattle off everything which colored me delighted about this volume-- Medley's keen observation of humanity, her wit and sense of humor, the puns, the deliciousness of her slanted fairytales, the voice and dialogue of so many of her characters... but that's a laundry li More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jul 05, 2010

Jennifer rated it:

This is one of the most amazing, awesome things I've read in a really long time. Castle Waiting is all about how people who don't fit need a place where they do--not because of how they can be like everyone else, but because of the ways they're not. It's about how home is where they always take you in and family are the ones who see you for who you are and still love you, sometimes in spite of yourself.

The artwork is incredible, with beautiful backgrounds and fully-realized character More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

May 10, 2010

Emily rated it:

Kim lent me a copy of the hardbound first collection of the graphic novel Castle Waiting by Linda Medley and produced by Fantagraphics Books. The story is a sort of feminist Chaucer set in the never never land of fairy tales. It opens with the story of Castle Waiting, a castle set over a land once lush and prosperous until it became the bramble-covered castle of the story of Sleeping Beauty. Once the Prince woke the Princess and everyone else from their century-long sleep the town was gone an More...

0 comments like

May 02, 2010

Thurston rated it:

Can't recall the librarian blog that pointed me towards this. Again a graphic novel, and here another tweaking of fairy tales (including arguably a loose rewriting of Christ as a bearded woman?!!?).

My kids really like this, so did I. Although more of Rackham (a stork), Chess (a stable horseman but no jockey) and Henry (a sullen mumbler whose *grunts* speaks volumes) would have been welcomed by us, the latter third dedicated to the Solicitine Order (a convent of the bearded women) is More...

0 comments like

Feb 21, 2010

Kelley rated it:

At first, I was a little disappointed with this book because it started off by retelling the story of Sleeping Beauty. However, the story quickly progressed into a tale of what happened to the rest of the characters from that classic fairy tale. In a less shocking way, this graphic novel reminded me of Gregory Mcguire's Wicked series. A mother runs away because the bears an illegitimate child and ends up at Castle Waiting, where the story of Sleeping Beauty once unfolded. Now it is occupied by " More...

0 comments like

Sep 20, 2011

Jennifer rated it:

I recognized the title when I saw it on the shelf at the library, so I checked it out. If I would have opened it up first, I would have noticed it was a graphic novel. That is fine. I tried something new. Now, I can definitely say, I am not a graphic novel fan. I didn't find the jokes very funny, and the characters were a bit annoying. I didn't understand why so much of the book was dedicated to the bearded nun when there were so many other characters that might have been interesting, and More...

0 comments like

Jan 24, 2011

Ruhama rated it:

A graphic novel that combines several folk and fairy tale elements to create an original story. Medley starts with the outline of Sleeping Beauty, but then quickly shifts the story to her own once the princess wakes up and leaves with her prince, thus making the main character of the story the castle itself. We learn about all the inhabitants of Castle Waiting, including a bearded nun, a man with a heart of iron and a talking stork.

This is an interesting story, and I really enjoyed p More...

0 comments like

May 15, 2010

Catherine rated it:

Castle Waiting started off very mediocre with a retelling of Sleeping Beauty which does not do anything but set up the actual story. The actual story has to do with a secluded village called Castle Waiting which carries a small communal group of people who live there happily. A woman named Lady Jain (not really a Lady) comes into their village and settles in. This is the basic set-up of the story. Once we are introduced to the characters who would inhabit the main story, the graphic novel become More...

0 comments like

Jan 05, 2012

Jared rated it:

I really enjoyed reading this, and I swept through it pretty quickly. It was not at all what I expected it to be when I picked it up to start reading. It starts out as sort of a fractured fairy tale, but then turns into a medium for telling the stories of anyone the author feels like. It's pretty brilliant, really. She's not tied to any plotline or set of central characters--Linda Medley uses the storied Castle Waiting to freely introduce characters and tales as she wishes. There are even s More...

0 comments like

Oct 14, 2009

Rosalia rated it:

This is one of my favorite graphic novels and one of the first ones I ever read. While reading through Castle Waiting the reader will find bits and pieces of many other fairy tales including Sleeping Beauty, Puss in Boots, and various mythologies. However Castle Waiting picks up where the stories end. We find that Sleeping Beauty's Castle has become a sanctuary for people who need a place to go whether it's to begin a new life, or end life in peace. The main focus of this book is Lady Jain, More...

0 comments like

Jul 14, 2011

Cat rated it:

This was a very cute graphic novel, and its heart is in the right place, namely with bearded ladies (proud freaks and passionate nuns), single mothers, patron saints who defend women from brutal husbands, and Sleeping Beauties who get the hell out of Dodge because, well, Dodge (or, in this case, the castle life) is boring. I wanted to be more transported by it than I was, so I didn't love it. Some of this may have been due to my own limitations as a graphic novels reader; as someone who somehow More...

0 comments like

Jan 22, 2012

Carl rated it:

3.5 stars. Entertaining, uplifting stories about an altered fairy tale world where Sleeping Beauty quickly elopes with her beau and her castle becomes a refuge for misfits, castoffs, and those seeking protection. The illustrations are clean and artfully-rendered. The characters and their stories are intensely personal; the scope is individual rather than epic.

Admittedly, I was turned off by the blurbs on the back of the book which couch "Castle Waiting" in sociopolitical More...

0 comments like

Jul 14, 2011

Hank rated it:

Tapestry is the word that comes to mind for Castle Waiting. A tapestry of fairy tale legends populated by a slate of characters who each have their own histories. The story, told as a graphic novel, takes place in Castle Waiting, a place that wants to have it's story told - it's the old castle that Sleeping Beauty grew up and pricked her finger in. We all know what happens to her, but what became of the castle and it's court? Now Castle Waiting is a place of refuge for those with a story see More...

0 comments like

Sep 21, 2010

Summer rated it:

I'm not quite sure how to rate Castle Waiting. On one hand the presentation and art inside are excellent. The premise sounds interesting and it kept my attention for the first third or so of it. But after that it was just like.... nothing was happening at all. Just a bunch of strange occurrences and introductions to more strange characters. I wanted to know what had happened with the pregnant lady and how she got there but it wasn't really explained. And when I flipped through to the end to see More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jul 07, 2010

Lucila rated it:

Wow! I randomly picked this graphic novel up from the library 2 days ago. I didn't think much of it and didn't know a thing about it. It just looked interesting. I flipped the pages and thought the art looked interesting. I took it home. I started reading it that night and before I knew it I was struggling to stay awake to keep reading the book. It was past midnight and I couldn't put it down. I eventually went to sleep, but I made sure to finish it the next day. By the end of the book, it had m More...

0 comments like

Jun 30, 2010

Scott rated it:

This is a really reluctant 2 stars - should really be more 2 1/2 edging towards three. There's a lot to like about Castle Waiting: the blending of fairy tales with a delightful cast of new characters, the crisp, clean artwork, the strong female protagonists but the story veers off track in a number of cases with multiple flashbacks that I felt watered down the main narrative. Also, plotwise, there's very little that actually HAPPENS - no conflict, no payoff. Its a book that meanders and while I More...

0 comments like

Apr 06, 2011

Frances rated it:

This is a well-written, well-drawn, well-characterized graphic novel filled with interesting characters and unexpected back stories. I believe someone described it as a feminist Canterbury Tales, and it definitely has that same quality of intermingled oral histories. The denizens of Castle Waiting are a lovable bunch of oddballs, each of them with their own reasons for ending up here. The fantastic elements of the story -- including a man-horse, a demon that's mostly a head, a water sprite, and More...

0 comments like

Nov 01, 2009

linnea rated it:

I was thinking of this as a graphic novel when I read it, which made it seem very strange and wander-y. But now I realize it's a collection of comic books. It makes more sense if you think of them as related short stories. The other thing that makes it weird is that the author seems to have run out of money to publish the rest of her stories, so there's a lot of loose ends at the end of the "book." But really, even without knowing that this is a delightful book about wise women and bea More...

0 comments like

Feb 18, 2009

Felicia rated it:

I bought this book on recommendation for my graphic novel education. When I was a kid I was obsessed with fairy tales, my guilty secret is that I tried to weasel my way in to folklore "major's only" classes in college. (never worked :( ) This is very folkloric in it's storytelling, and the drawings are charming.

"Castle Waiting" is presented in a beautiful edition and it's lovely to hold and look at, I am pleased to add it to my collection. The stories were ver More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 14, 2011

Laura rated it:

This enchanting graphic novel tells the story of what happens at the castle after the sleeping beauty wakes up and buggers off. A collection of interesting characters, seeking refuge from various things in the world, find a home at Castle Waiting. A whimsical story with a bearded order of nuns, various little spirits, magic and mundane life, and humanoid animals. There are several interwoven stories from various times and places - it's not confusing though, it's well put together. There's a volu More...

0 comments like

reviews