Summary: Turning Pages consists of two three-issue story arcs. First is "1883", in which Jack is posing as Smilin' Jack Candle, leader of a notorious gang of outlaws in the Wild West, and in which we finally learn why Bigby Wolf really dislikes Jack so much. The second arc is "Turning Pages", in which the Page sisters' cousin (who is herself a Literal) tells us a little about each sister in turn, about their history, and their role in the aftermath of the events we've seen in previous Jack of Fables volumes.

Review: Not one of the better Jack of Fables volumes. I'm okay with installments where not a lot happens, plot-wise, as long as we learn something new about the characters or the history... and in this one, we just... didn't. I mean, I like Westerns well enough, andas happy as I was to see Bigby show up, I didn't realize that the animosity between him and Jack really needed explaining. I'd always assumed that Bigby hated Jack because Jack is an insufferable, obnoxious nuisance... and it turns out I'm right. And while the background on the Page girls was interesting in its own way, it wasn't enough to carry the volume, especially when there are so many pieces to keep in motion at one time - something Willingham is usually pretty good at. So, while I'll certainly keep reading, this volume didn't exactly leave me crying for more. At least the writers are playing to the crowd a little bit, and included plenty of Babe the Blue Ox. 3.5 out of 5 stars.

Recommendation: One of the weaker volumes so far, but there's enough little snippets of interest that it's worth reading... plus true Fables fans can't *not* pick up this latest installment. ( )

Unfortunately, though, this spin off from the popular Fables comics series isn't my cup of tea. I couldn't even tell you why I read all five volumes, except that I have a weird completist gene in me somewhere that doesn't let me not finish books. The "Jack" of these books is the Jack you read about in "Jack the Giant Killer" and "Jack and the Beanstalk" -- the "Jack" of any fairy tale or fable is apparently all one and the same. In the first volume, Jack is thrown out of Fabletown and promptly falls into the hands of Mr. Revise, a very bad man who is trying to rid the world of all notions of fairy tales and fables. In the second volume, he has an unfortunate encounter with Lady Luck -- a literal Lady Luck -- in Las Vegas. The third book finds him in the Grand Canyon with a sword through his chest that somehow doesn't kill him; I guess you can't kill a fable. Americana, a sort of fairy tale America, is the setting of the fourth book, where we meet Mr. Book Burner, who is apparently somehow a rival to revise, who, we learn, is somehow related to the Pathetic Fallacy, who we know as Gary. Yes, things are getting pretty complicated. The fifth book has us in Western Americana, and tells us more about the Page sisters, who are Revise's henchwomen. All of it gives me a great big feeling of "Eh!" Maybe I just don't like Jack, a classic anti-hero who treats women like dirt and cares about nothing but money. Or maybe the weavings of the plot, which appear to be trying to say something about literature -- something that would normally fascinate me -- just fall flat here. In any event, this is one series I won't be following any further.