I really enjoyed this graphic novel. There are great messages behind the plot. A lot of sports stars are portrayed as "divas" or pinks. What we don't see is that a lot of those same starts are heroes in their own communities. They just don't make a huge deal out of it.

The plot was engaging and the artwork was done very well. It flowed very nicely and kept my attention through the entire story.

After reading 'The Stereotypical Freaks', I didn't feel like continuing on with the series. The first book in the series I didn't really like the art style, which is the main thing I am looking for when I am reading a graphic novel or comic. I believe that this story is more suited for a younger audience or someone interested in reading about characters in a high school setting.

This a heart warming story set in the world of professional hockey. It has a lovely illustration style. A thoroughly enjoyable story.

3 out of 5 stars

I enjoyed this book. I had problems with the formatting on my e-reader so it made it a bit hard to follow at times but when I got into the story it was quite enjoyable. The artwork was very clean and I thought the colors were vibrant. I really enjoyed the character arc of Jacobson and the fact that everyone got theirs in the end really. It was quite satisfying.

The Hockey Saint is a story of friendship between aspiring hockey player and student Tom Leonard and world famous hockey champion Jeremiah Jacobson as the unlikely pairing explores that there is more to behind the life of a world famous sports star and the true meaning of friendship.

Being an occasional fan of Ice Hockey I was excited to see a graphic novel based in the hockey world and was eager to start this, I did unfortunately have to push through finishing it as I lost interest as the story progressed.

I found that the story was just to easy and neat. I felt a lot of it had a nice idea and had hope but instead of character development and a plot, things just fitted into place to easy such as when a character needed to be investigated it is just our luck that the eighty year old grandmother has a degree in genealogy to find this out. It wrote a little like a cartoon where the villain was just trying to dig up dirt on the angel that is Jeremiah to find out his only faults are chain smoking and drinking, which in this world is exactly what they were after.

If the dialog was improved and a little more time was spent on this it could be a pretty good story but unfortunately it just wasn't for me.

I'm probably not the intended audience for this comic/graphic novel. I requested an ARC so I could read it alongside my nephew, a young hockey fan. While my nephew enjoyed the illustrations the story was a bit mature for him and too juvenile for myself. We did discuss the importance of friendship and the dangers of fame, money and drug dependency.

Although not up my usual alley, I really enjoyed this story. An unlikely friendship, with two troubled hockey players in seemingly different worlds blossoming into something so real, made me feel all fuzzy inside, and my heart race when the friendship was tested. I really liked the suggested music to listen to while reading each part, it really enhanced the story.

Follow-up to The Sterotypical Freaks. Tom, the main character in The Stereotypical Freaks is now a college Sophomore and hockey, rather than music, is at the center of this book. The focus shifts from Tom to his idol, Jake, a professional hockey star and the different sides of his fame. Another entertaining installment.

The Hockey Saint is an interesting read in that it has several problems with the plot, but the characters are strong enough that you’ll likely overlook every problem and enjoy the book from beginning to end. What’s strange about that, is that this happens to me a lot. I can enjoy something and still pick it apart and write a review for it, while still enjoying it.

The thing is, there’s only one time that I looked at the story and thought, well that’s a little far fetched. The rest of it is character moments pure and simple, and for a book about hockey, there’s almost zero hockey in the book.

The story follows Tom, he’s recently been orphaned and now living with his grandma as he attends university. He’s on the hockey team, but the fourth line. I’m not going to explain hockey to you nor is the book, but thankfully details like that are given smoothly in conversation and not something that ends up being important to the story.
The Hockey Saint.jpg
A friend of Tom’s finds out that the best player in hockey and star player of their local team lives in the burbs near by them. For some reason, Tom goes to visit Jake, the star hockey player’s house. I say “for some reason,” but I know the reason, and that’s another interesting aspect of the storytelling. You’d think that this scene doesn’t make any sense, and that’s it’s a big “Deus ex machina” just getting the plot going, but it does have meaning and turn into something more than that.

Jake invites Tom into his life, and it’s not what Tom was expecting. The first time Tom completely bails on his life and practice to hang out with Jake, but he ends up helping at a food bank, a hospital and having a private dinner at an Italian restaurant. From there Tom becomes more and more involved in Jake’s world, learning things about him that are never said in the press. But as Tom says, it’s a carefully orchestrated house of cards that could come crashing down at any moment.

The artwork is a little weak at times. Based on the info presented it seemed as if Tom and Jake were pretty close in age, but they never looked it. There were also numerous scenes in which Tom’s clothes look massive on him. Otherwise, there was a significant bit of detail to the artwork and consistency to the characters. The coloring is vibrant and matched the tone of the story. It's strange to say this, but the lighting effects were almost too much at times. It made the art look sharp and animated, but particularly with the hair, it seemed like overkill.

The ending is the only part that seemed far-fetched regarding what we see in the story. It’s not far-fetched, but because it has a twist we’re suddenly not privy to some character information that we’ve previously been exposed to. That’s my only gripe with the story, and even then it works quite well for the rest of the ending.

The Hockey Saint was not what I was expecting it to be about. It’s about role models, idol worship, friendship, and family, with just a sprinkle of actual hockey. It’s human drama, and it’s quite well done.

The Hockey Saint is the second book in the Forever Friends Trilogy and tells the story of Tom Leonard and Jeremiah Jacobson. Tom is a 19-year-old student who loves playing hockey and who's fascinated by Jeremiah, a hockey player. Tom and Jeremiah meet one night and from that they on they're friends. But is Jeremiah the hockey player that Tom thought he was?

The Hockey Saint is such a nice graphic novel about some tough topics, just like The Stereotypical Freaks. I think that it's a good sequel, but I loved The Stereotypical Freaks more. I do love that all the comics are in colour though!

I cannot wait to see what Hockey Karma has in store for me!

I kept hearing about the Forever Friends Series from one of my library friends so I finally decided that I should give the much talked about The Hockey Saint a try, and I wasn't disappointed. Although a little on the shorter side for a graphic novel, this book covers a lot of ground in both the topics covered and the development of it's characters throughout. Dealing with coming of age, assisting an alcoholic come to grips with his addiction, and coping with the loss of one's parents this is a book that might be better suited to older/ more mature YA readers and adults. Yet, at the same time it is also incredibly relatable. 

The sports focus was the perfect vehicle to broach some much broader topics all while keeping the action high and the plot trucking along. I really enjoyed the development of the relationship between Tom and Jeremiah, and how they both came to help each other in their own ways. It does a beautiful job at addressing the pressures that accompany pursuits such as university, college sports, professional hockey, and managing private lives in the public eye. But more than that, Shapiro talks unabashedly about some of the socio-economic differences experienced based solely upon your zip-code. The messages that good people can make bad choices, that snakes and spies can be outed, and that we really can make a difference in the world if we so chose to truly ring loud and clear.

I really enjoyed the artwork throughout as well. The colours are beautiful and striking, faces expressive, and the layout is clean and easy to follow. Just enough action happens in the gutter to spark the imagination a little - and as a life-long hockey fan I really loved how all of the action scenes were depicted. I could envision every deke, pass, and play and really got caught up in the practices and games.

I like diving into books without knowing anything. However, I just learned that this was the second book to a trilogy or a series. But the thing is, readers would still understand this book even if they haven't read the first book. The story focuses on friendship and people's impression towards others. I'm not that sold or not into the story. This is one of those books that I'm reading but I'm not fully engrossed with what's happening. However, the graphics are so beautiful. Recommending this to people who loves sports and would love to read something about friendship and self-discovery.

I'm not a big sports fan but having read another book by the author, I decided to try this one out. I'm glad it turned out to not be a sports book, just a good book with hockey in it. I love how the author includes song suggestions to go along with the chapters. My favorite part though is how he portrays his characters as flawed but inherently good people. I look forward to more from him.

An uplifting story of friendship where a college aged hockey fan (Tom) meets and becomes friends with his idol at the expense of his own studies and friendships. The star hockey player has secrets which others want exposed so try to bribe Tom to spill the dirt on his idol whom is a really decent person but has a few vices he needs to resolve. A teen story of friendship, keeping trusts and doing the right thing.

Book – Hockey Saint (Forever Friends Trilogy #2)
Author – Howard Shapiro
Star rating - ★★★★☆
No. of Pages – 133
Cover – Great!
Would I read it again – Maybe
Genre – Young Adult, Comic, Sports


** COPY RECEIVED THROUGH NETGALLEY **


It was a little strange going from teen Tom to adult Tom, but I think it worked well. It didn't have quite the same emotional impact as book 1 in the trilogy, but it was a really great story.

Again, I loved the illustrations and the way the story was paced. It had a nice undercurrent of good will and teaching a lesson, this time about appreciating what you have because others have it worse and helping out those who really deserve it. I did think, for a moment, that Tom might have mentioned Jacoby when they were at the Children's hospital, so I missed that when it didn't happen.

Tom has really grown a lot, since the first book, but I did feel that he was a little too over-eager, too naive and easily led compared to before. I found it a little weird the way he met Jeremiah, only because it was kind of stalker-ish and there was no real reason for Jeremiah to continue to hang out with Tom. I didn't really believe in their friendship, much, because it felt superficial. Jeremiah wasn't a good guy and he wasn't a great role model, he seriously affected Tom's social and educational lives, in a negative way, and that wasn't great. But I did like the way that Tom tried to help him, once he knew there was a problem.

Again, there were some serious issues tackled – drinking, death, excessive smoking etc. They all had their impact on the story, the characters and the way the plot flowed from one part to another.

Overall, a decent follow-up, but it failed to have that emotional tug on the heart-strings that book 1 had.

4.5 stars

Introduction:

After I had finished reading Howard Shapiro’s previous graphic novel, “The Stereotypical Freaks,” I was excited to find out that “The Stereotypical Freaks” was a part of the “Forever Friends Trilogy” and I was even more excited to find out that I was approved of the second book in the series “The Hockey Saint” by NetGalley! After reading this graphic novel, I found this story to be just as memorable as “The Stereotypical Freaks!”

What is this story about?

Tom Leonard is back once again as he is now a college sophomore who is a part of the school’s hockey team and he now has a new dilemma to face! The story starts off with Tom’s parents being killed in a car accident and Tom is still trying to deal with this tragedy. Also around that time, Tom has been offered a scholarship for his talents in hockey and Tom is striving to get that scholarship as much as possible. One day however, Tom ends up meeting his favorite hockey player, Jeremiah Jacobson, who is known as the world’s best hockey player. Tom then quickly becomes good friends with Jeremiah and the two of them started spending a lot of time with each other. But later on, Tom discovers that Jeremiah has a terrible secret: he is a heavy drinker and a smoker and Jeremiah refuses to acknowledge that he has this problem.

Can Tom help Jeremiah with his drug addiction before it is too late?

Read this book to find out!

What I loved about this story:

Howard Shapiro’s writing: Howard Shapiro’s writing is as usual a delight to read as the characters are written extremely well and I loved the real-world plot of this volume as it addresses the dangers of drug addiction that has rarely been addressed in many comic books. I loved the fact that we actually have a comic book that details drug addiction in a realistic way by showing that Jeremiah is in denial about his addiction and how it was difficult at first for Tom and his loved ones to try to get Jeremiah to understand about the severity of his drug addiction. I also loved the way that Howard Shapiro wrote the relationships between the characters, especially between Tom and Jeremiah as I loved the fact that Jeremiah shows Tom that there is more to life than just playing hockey all the time and Tom cares enough for Jeremiah to go out of his way to help out Jeremiah with his drug addiction.

Maricia Inoue and Andres Mossa’s artwork: Maricia Inoue and Andres Mossa’s artwork is beautifully done as the characters look truly realistic and I loved the way that the characters glow off the pages. Now, I will admit that there were some facial expressions on the characters that looked a bit odd, especially regarding Tom always smiling during some serious moments; but other than that, the artwork really captures the raw emotions that the characters feel during this serious situation that deals with drug addiction.

What made me feel uncomfortable about this story:

The reason why I took off half a point from this rating was because I felt like the pacing was a bit slow at times, especially at the beginning and I sometimes wished that the plot moved at a much faster pace to get to the main point of the story.

Final Thoughts:

Overall, “The Hockey Saint” was a truly heartwarming and realistic story about drug addiction that anyone who wants to read about the consequences of drug addiction and the importance of true friendship will truly enjoy!

I enjoyed this story on the whole,as I feel the message of it was a very important one. Everyone is human and needs some help now and again,it doesn't matter how rich you are or how famous you are. Anyone can fall on hardtimes.

Tom Leonard is a hockey player and a sophomore in university. His coach made him assistant captain for the team and he may get a full scholarship for his next year at school. He lives with his grandmother because his parents were killed in a car accident when he was a kid. He loves hockey and his favourite player is Jeremiah Jacobson. When he finds out where Jeremiah lives, he goes and sits outside his house, just to think about the problems in his life. Jeremiah goes outside and starts talking to Tom. Jeremiah tells Tom that he lost his father as a child too, so he understands what Tom is feeling. He invites Tom to go out with him the next day.

When Tom meets him the next day, they go to a food bank where Jeremiah volunteers every week. Tom assumed that Jeremiah went there to sign autographs but he wants to help people. Then he takes Tom to his next stop at a hospital to visit with veterans and children with cancer. Jeremiah continues to defy Tom's expectations of who a stereotypical athlete should be.

Tom learns that his idol is very generous. Jeremiah is a famous hockey player who uses his status to help people who are less fortunate. Tom is shocked when he does this without asking for recognition. There are some celebrities that do this in the real world. Celebrities, whether they are athletes, singers, actors, or another profession, have a lot of influence over large portions of the population so they could make a positive impact on the world if they use their influence in a good way. However, many don't use their power to make positive changes.

This is a really good graphic novel because of the way it looks at helping people who are less fortunate. Tom's assumptions of Jeremiah looking for recognition of his good deeds are also knocked down. I like this positive message in the story. It is the third graphic novel in a trilogy from Howard Shapiro. The first one is called The Stereotypical Freaks.

This review will be posted on my blog on May 20, 2017.

This is perfect for young adults. The Hockey Saint is relatable and covers real life issues. It also has a friendship between a hockey sports star and an average kid, the everyday and something that would be a fantasy for many. The artwork is great, and the message a good one.

An exciting story but not quite appropriate for my classroom.