MYSTERIES OF THE MOUNTAIN MOON TRIBE

Child elder Mia longs to know what lies beyond her tribe’s village, but the ill-fated arrival of a mysterious stranger leads her to discover wonders and terrors beyond her wildest imaginings.

As the only child in her generation, Mia’s fate is predetermined. The beauty and love cradling her aren’t enough to relieve the burden of expectations. One night, she wishes for adventure. Instead, a terrible storm arrives, and the land and people begin to sicken. Mia must venture “beyond the walls” in search of the Great Spirit—and what she finds upends everything she’s ever been taught. Ruedisueli’s illustrations contain fantastical, soft-edged, jewel-toned landscapes; pagoda-like structures; and brown-skinned human characters with face paint and vaguely Asiatic garb. The art depicts a rich, vast, yet strangely static world of bygone splendor, wilderness, and creatures nothing like the terrible monsters Mia has been told to fear. The physical journey feels contrived, almost aimless: a way to get a character, any character, out to explore the world, rather than a fully rounded story. The sparse narration is hauntingly lyrical at times but more often hides behind generic cliches that tend, frustratingly, to obscure Mia’s emotional journey as she doubts and thinks and fears in circles around big questions and feelings without ever really reaching the heart of them. The tiny white sans serif typeface outlined in black is difficult to read and detracts from the overall appearance.

Despite striking landscape illustrations, feels like an undeveloped setting for an RPG.