Morning glories. Vol. 3 : P. E.

[Slight spoilers]
More flashbacks, now interspersed with other flashbacks and current events in different locations, all at the same time. With few or no signals as to which what-where we're looking at. Weak. Zoe is mean to Hunter and keeps stabbing people. Hunter has a crush on Casey, who spurns him but that's okay because he immediately meets a girl who's into him (for about three pages, until Zoe stabs her too). Jun/Hisao appears just long enough to be suddenly gay. Jade and Ike help Casey escape, sortofbutnotreally, and spend the time snarking a lot. Casey time travels, I think, which would explain how young Jade was hanging out with Old Jade in volume two.

I hate to keep harping on the "Lost" similarities but the resemblance is uncanny. A lot of the plot turns seem to exist not for narrative reasons, but to crank up the artificial-mystery dial. I'm seriously doubting that Spencer really knows where all this is going. My expectations are now officially low enough that I'm not planning to finish the series.

I almost gave P.E. an exasperation-driven two stars, but the writing is just so sharp and the art is just so satisfying... I'm quitting Morning Glories due to the plot failures, but I can't bring myself to rate it that low.