Sparkles the Last Unicorn, as you might imagine, enjoys world-wide celebrity and endless marketing opportunities. Completely self-involved, Sparkles encounters Death — yeah, the Death — when the unicorn dies in an incredibly stupid stunt orchestrated by Sparkles’ malevolent agent. Neither Death nor Sparkles have had any real friends heretofore; everything Death touches literally dies, and Sparkles has been so controlled and manipulated that he’s been totally cut off.

This graphic novel resonates even more in light of #FreeBrittney and of news accounts of self-absorbed celebrities, be they actors, influencers or politicians. Sparkles’ initial shallow and selfish nature and Death’s bureaucratic work prove pretty funny, and the superficiality of the media and fandom strikes a chord. “All they want is sparkles and bonbons.” A pretty accurate description.

So why didn’t I like this book more? Because, despite being 368 pages long, this book was a one-trick pony, er unicorn. Aren’t celebrities stupid and vain? Didn’t you just know that the afterlife would have as much red tape as this life? People sure gravitate to superficialities and shlock while ignoring what’s important! Not that I disagree with any of that; however, author and illustrator Rob Justus had made those points by the end of the Chapter 5, and we still had to slog through another 278 pages to get to the end. Where there some funny spots later on? Sure. I loved “the power of bureaucracy” and how often that can save the day. Despite such an auspicious premise, most of the final portion is just pretty cliché.

In the interest of full disclosure, I received this book from NetGalley and Chronicle Books in exchange for an honest review.

Here's a fun sentence I never really thought I'd say: "Aw, I kind of want to hang out with Death." (I've always wanted to hang out with a unicorn, so that one was less of a surprise.) It's tricky to pick my favorite part of this book--the amazing art, or the fantastic characters. The one thing I'm sure of is how excited I am to add this book to my collection...and share it with some of my favorite patrons!

Get ready for the world of Death and Sparkles. This graphic novel tackles many philosophical issues such as the temptations of fame, fickleness of celebrities, consumerism and ecology, as well as social media consumption. Despite all this the author manages to do a good job of juggling it all in an entertaining, funny way that readers will be sure to understand the message without becoming lost in the message.

When Sparkles, the last living Unicorn, has a fatal accident while promoting a product of socks, he comes in the contact with Death, a lonely otherworldly employee of the claims department. At the same time as Sparkles and Death's relationship a trio of alien lizards have arrived to try to educate Earth on recycling and proper planetary care. With Sparkle's death the extraterrestrial lizards are lured into the influencer lifestyle. Will this be the last of Sparkles?

I still don’t know how I feel about this one. Part funny part serious, almost like a whimsical Neil Gaiman children’s graphic novel? But…not exactly that. It tried to be something different and succeeded but I’m not sure that’s a good thing.