Samantha's Reviews > Pinball: A Graphic History of the Silver Ball

I can’t claim to have any prior academic interest in Pinball and have never been more than a very casual and infrequent enthusiast for playing the game, but this nonfiction graphic novel was loads of fun to read even for this pinball naïf.

This illustrated history, packed with information at close to 200 pages, is probably more than anyone needs to know about pinball. And yet while reading it, I wanted to know all of it anyway.

Chad gives us an interesting and well-balanced to blend of the game’s history and the nuts and bolts (literally, at times) of how pinball works.

There are some interesting psychological observations as well about how our brains process the game and other games like it. This and the evolution of the game from Bagatelle in Louis XIV’s France through many iterations into what the game looks like today were my favorite components of the book.

But the real standout is the art, which is truly outstanding. It’s visually reminiscent of pinball itself, a riotous cacophony of detail and color, cleverly and beautifully rendered to represent the subject.

*I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.*