Book Review: Avatar: The Last Airbender: The Search part 2

Book: Avatar: The Last Airbender: The Search part 2 by Gene Luen Yan with illustrations and cover by Gurihiru and lettering by Michael Heisler

Edition: Paperback

Description:

Enter the Forgetful Valley!

As Fire Lord Zuko continues his quest to uncover his mother's fate, a shocking revelation causes him to question everything he knows. It's an opportunity that his sister, the deadly and insane Azula, will not fail to take advantage of as she joins Zuko and his friends Aang, Katara, and Sokka on their journey into a mysterious forest from which some people never reemerge...



Rating: 2 stars

Review:

After reading part 2 of The Search, I'm still not enjoying this arc of Avatar: The Last Airbender. I was hoping that this second part would add more to the story but it continues to rely on the use of shock value instead of good story telling.

Part 2 continues with the Gaang and Azula still on their quest to find Zuko and Azula's mother Ursa and Zuko dealing with the discovery that Ozai may not be his father. The story does not progress very much in this second part, when they were not putting out Azula's randomly set fires, the Gaang and Azula manage to go to Ursa's former village where they met Noren and his wife Noriko and their daughter Kiyi. From speaking with the couple they were able to find their next clue in search of Ursa. The clue led them to a mysterious forest where they met yet another duo who explained why they were in the forest and the importance of why they needed the help of a spirit.

This was not a very good read, even though I didn't enjoy The Search part 1, at least the reader was shown a somewhat interesting backstory for Ursa detailing how she wound up in an arraigned marriage with Ozai. However in this second part, the backstory in a rushed attempt at trying to line up with the scenes from the animated series made absolutely no sense especially in explaining the reason behind Ursa's banishment.

The character development or the lack there of for Aang, Katara, Sokka, Zuko and Azula is really disappointing. All of the characters were so one-dimensional and the writing for them seemed to have taken a step back especially for Zuko. He has worked too hard to become a confident and self-assured person by overcoming the hardships he endured to have unfortunately turned into this milksop version in this arc. I was disappointed with how the Gaang kept getting upset or annoyed by Azula starting fires yet they made no mention or acknowledgement of her deteriorating mental state. Azula is getting worse, she's paranoid and keeps seeing images of her mother who in her mind believes is plotting against her.

In the end, the artwork is the best thing about this slow moving story that continues to fail in trying to unravel this supposed mystery of what happened to Ursa. For some reason, I get a sense that Noren and Noriko are of some importance to the overall story. Perhaps I will get my answer once I read the finale part of this story. I'm not exactly looking forward to it but I do hope it will be an improvement over the first two parts.