Well-paced and thrilling; readers will fly high with Raven’s tale.
Mother. Gone. Memory. Gone. Seventeen-year-old high school senior Raven rebuilds her life in New Orleans after a car accident takes away everything she knows.
Raven now lives with her late mother’s sister, a voodoo priestess and “the Mother of Souls,” and her daughter. Raven searches for clues to her past while navigating conventional teenage social problems: a mean girl and a cute boy. She also contends with other people’s emotions invading her mind and the tricky tendency for her own mean thoughts to manifest into reality. While she cannot remember anything from before the accident, she suffers continual nightmares featuring a multieyed spirit. A compelling storyline pulls readers into Raven’s turmoil, guiding them competently through the floating panels of expressive artwork. The muted palette pairs perfectly with the noir tone of Raven’s search for her origins. The respectful but not extremely nuanced inclusion of matriarchal African heritage religions such as voodoo is more empowering than campy. In one notable scene, the spirits of dead “mothers, daughters, sisters, and grandmothers, voodoo queens and warrior women of O’rleans” are called forward to gather and vanquish evil alongside Raven. Picolo’s (Icarus and the Sun, 2018, etc.) ghostly images of girls and women from different eras erupting from their graves to surround and support their earthbound sisters elicit good chills. The diverse cast is indicated through names and variations in skin tone.
Well-paced and thrilling; readers will fly high with Raven’s tale. (Graphic fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: July 2, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4012-8623-1
Page Count: 176
Publisher: DC Ink
Review Posted Online: April 6, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2019
Haunting, beautiful, and complex.
Pimienta’s debut is a graphic novel set in Mexicali, Mexico, where music is life and—for a brief moment—life threatening.
High schooler Beatriz Ana Garza has played guitar in a few bands. Her love of music comes from her grandfather Tata Mario, a former musician whose declining health leads, after long decline, to his death in the hospital. While emptying her Tata’s belongings from his home, Beatriz discovers her grandfather’s soul is trapped inside his Gibson guitar. Tata’s spirit explains that years ago he made a trade with an Indigenous Yaqui man he met while traveling in Sonora, gaining musical talent but forfeiting the ability to finish writing the song that has haunted and eluded him; only her playing it in its entirety will set him free. Determined to liberate Tata’s soul, Beatriz joins a band and becomes obsessed with completing the song. Together with her new band mates, she begins to riff and write music. Chronicled in a nonlinear fashion with intermittent flashbacks, the dynamic illustrations pan Beatriz’s bedroom, concert venues, garage rehearsal space, and Mexicali streets. Awash in shades of purple and yellow, with splashes of pink and orange, they convey the 1990s setting and help readers feel the music. Refreshingly, colloquial Spanish greetings and nods to Baja California landmarks pepper the pages of the story, immersing readers in the northern Mexican city.
Haunting, beautiful, and complex. (author’s note, glossary, Mexicali info) (Graphic fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: May 19, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-593-12482-6
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Feb. 29, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2020
A tsunami of emotions—sharp and heavy.
Two women on the run from their pasts travel across west Texas.
Eighteen-year-old Bea runs away from home without a plan except escaping—until she crosses paths with 27-year-old Lou at a gas station on the way out of town. They share the same need to get away from all the people they know. Together, they embark on a road trip to Lou’s great-aunt’s house in San Angelo and then to return a lost cat to a mysterious town called West. However, the dark and foreboding Office of Road Inquiry pursues them in search of the cat in their possession. Walden (On a Sunbeam, 2018, etc.) crafts a story rich in metaphor about two gay women on a journey through trauma and grief. The unpredictable, shifting landscape in which lakes appear and roads change course encapsulates the treacherous and nonlinear path of healing. Complex panel layouts in dark tones and moody reds often bleed together, and stretches of silent art fit the heaviness of the tone. Background characters whose eyes are hidden add to the rising sense of anxiety throughout the story. In the midst of this intense atmosphere, Lou and Bea develop a moving bond and deep trust that allow Bea to open up to Lou. The resolution offers hope that both characters will continue to heal. Characters appear to be white.
A tsunami of emotions—sharp and heavy. (Graphic novel. 14-adult)Pub Date: Sept. 10, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-250-20756-2
Page Count: 320
Publisher: First Second
Review Posted Online: June 22, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2019
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