A comic horror tour de force.
When nightmarish creatures attack, the fate of humanity rests in the hands of a 10-year-old girl.
It is Halloween night, and all young Mona wants to do is trick-or-treat, but her parent is unable to take her. In the dark and gloom of night, monsters descend, and Mona finds herself absorbed into a motley but friendly crew of creatures: tween vampire Ringley, creepy living doll Robert, teenage ghoul Shirley, and Banjo the wereopossum. The nightmarish monster scourge has been unleashed by the presumed death of the Phagocyte, a magical being who keeps the balance between worlds. Can Mona and her friends find the Phagocyte’s heir before the monsters devour all of humanity? In this spectacularly wrought graphic offering, writer and artist Howard’s illustrations are unquestionably striking, utilizing a perfect mood-setting black-and-white pen-and-ink scheme and grabbing its reader with both the scope of its imagination and its clever use of perspective, including fish-eye shots. Despite its prepubescent protagonist, this is not a middle-grade tale; Howard has a keen eye for creative gore that may deter the squeamish, however, those who forge on will be utterly captivated by its unexpected heart and dark humor. Although Howard’s first volume in a proposed series is a hefty doorstop at nearly 450 pages, expect readers to blaze through it at wildfire speed and absolutely demand more. Mona’s parent is nonbinary; most characters appear to be White.
A comic horror tour de force. (character list, reader questions, guide to making a comic) (Graphic horror. 14-18)Pub Date: Oct. 27, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-945820-66-3
Page Count: 442
Publisher: Iron Circus Comics
Review Posted Online: June 14, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Hinds adds another magnificent adaptation to his oeuvre (King Lear, 2009, etc.) with this stunning graphic retelling of Homer’s epic. Following Odysseus’s journey to return home to his beloved wife, Penelope, readers are transported into a world that easily combines the realistic and the fantastic. Gods mingle with the mortals, and not heeding their warnings could lead to quick danger; being mere men, Odysseus and his crew often make hasty errors in judgment and must face challenging consequences. Lush watercolors move with fluid lines throughout this reimagining. The artist’s use of color is especially striking: His battle scenes are ample, bloodily scarlet affairs, and Polyphemus’s cave is a stifling orange; he depicts the underworld as a colorless, mirthless void, domestic spaces in warm tans, the all-encircling sea in a light Mediterranean blue and some of the far-away islands in almost tangibly growing greens. Don’t confuse this hefty, respectful adaptation with some of the other recent ones; this one holds nothing back and is proudly, grittily realistic rather than cheerfully cartoonish. Big, bold, beautiful. (notes) (Graphic classic. YA)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-7636-4266-2
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Sept. 15, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2010
Light and refreshing fare.
The summer after graduation, high school besties in New York City play an epic game.
Cassie Donato and her three best friends have big plans to live it up before setting off on their post–high school lives. But while the London-bound Latine musician Nico, body-positive Asian artist Marcy, and Aaron, who’s Black and headed to Harvard, all seem certain of who they are and where they’re going, Cassie, who reads white, is taking a gap year to work at her family’s diner, and she isn’t so sure what she wants. All she knows is that this is the last chance for their friend group to be together before everything changes. But as the weeks pass, she’s disappointed that the others seem too busy to make the most of this summer. Her solution? A revival of Risky Slips, their favorite childhood game during which players take turns on increasingly risky dares. They have 24 hours to complete them or forfeit. But as the friends compete, the stakes get higher and unspoken tensions rise to the surface, testing their friendships and future. Porretta’s debut is narrated through speech bubbles and color-coded texts, and it captures Generation Z in all their exuberance and acceptance as well as anxiety. Despite a last-minute romantic twist that feels out of step with the work as a whole, the themes of embracing and growing with change prevail. The attractive, jewel-toned art dynamically conveys the urban setting.
Light and refreshing fare. (Graphic fiction. 15-18)Pub Date: July 2, 2024
ISBN: 9781665907033
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Atheneum
Review Posted Online: April 20, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2024
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