A brooding, dark thrill ride that interrogates machismo.
Kriss is not like the other men in his remote medieval village.
With a sickly gray pallor, a lithe, decidedly nonmuscled physique, and long, lank hair falling over black-ringed eyes, orphaned Kriss was left to live in a Game of Thrones–inspired village with an uncaring farmer and his wife. Kriss’ solace is best friend Anja, who is beautiful, blonde, and unwaveringly loyal to him. After a viciously victorious fight with an enchanted wildcat, he is offered the gift of wrath, which manifests as a sinister internal voice. Kriss tries to carve a place for himself in the village, finding a knack for blacksmithing in Anja’s father’s smithy. However, when Anja’s machismo-drenched, square-jawed brother attempts to murder him in a fit of jealousy, Kriss is the one who finds himself ostracized when he defends himself. Alone again, Kriss ventures out to uncover his shadowy past and learn where he fits in to his world. Naifeh’s (Night's Dominion Vol. 2, 2018, etc.) graphic novel is an utterly enjoyable first volume with accessible worldbuilding and an eye-catching goth-tinged aesthetic. While the cast is abundantly white, Kriss thoughtfully explores male gender constructs and toxic masculinity. Most of the men Kriss encounters have some air of entitlement that he squashes with force, however he must confront his own violent impulses and bring his own accountability to the forefront.
A brooding, dark thrill ride that interrogates machismo. (Graphic fantasy. 13-adult)Pub Date: Sept. 17, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-62010-661-7
Page Count: 120
Publisher: Oni Press
Review Posted Online: July 13, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2019
A sparse, beautifully drawn story about a teen discovering her heritage.
In this YA graphic novel, an alienated Métis girl learns about her people’s Canadian history.
Métis teenager Echo Desjardins finds herself living in a home away from her mother, attending a new school, and feeling completely lonely as a result. She daydreams in class and wanders the halls listening to a playlist of her mother’s old CDs. At home, she shuts herself up in her room. But when her history teacher begins to lecture about the Pemmican Wars of early 1800s Saskatchewan, Echo finds herself swept back to that time. She sees the Métis people following the bison with their mobile hunting camp, turning the animals’ meat into pemmican, which they sell to the Northwest Company in order to buy supplies for the winter. Echo meets a young girl named Marie, who introduces Echo to the rhythms of Métis life. She finally understands what her Métis heritage actually means. But the joys are short-lived, as conflicts between the Métis and their rivals in the Hudson Bay Company come to a bloody head. The tragic history of her people will help explain the difficulties of the Métis in Echo’s own time, including those of her mother and the teen herself. Accompanied by dazzling art by Henderson (A Blanket of Butterflies, 2017, etc.) and colorist Yaciuk (Fire Starters, 2016, etc.), this tale is a brilliant bit of time travel. Readers are swept back to 19th-century Saskatchewan as fully as Echo herself. Vermette’s (The Break, 2017, etc.) dialogue is sparse, offering a mostly visual, deeply contemplative juxtaposition of the present and the past. Echo’s eventual encounter with her mother (whose fate has been kept from readers up to that point) offers a powerful moment of connection that is both unexpected and affecting. “Are you…proud to be Métis?” Echo asks her, forcing her mother to admit, sheepishly: “I don’t really know much about it.” With this series opener, the author provides a bit more insight into what that means.
A sparse, beautifully drawn story about a teen discovering her heritage.Pub Date: March 15, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-55379-678-7
Page Count: 48
Publisher: HighWater Press
Review Posted Online: Feb. 28, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
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