Colorful, often shady characters propel this diverting mystery.
In Douek’s graphic novel, a celebrity couple who’ve already lost a child make headlines when their daughter goes missing.
Fourteen years ago, Andrew and Emma Walker’s young daughter Mandy vanished, only to tragically turn up murdered. Since then, media coverage has made the Walkers famous. Now they star in a reality TV show called Second Chancesthat focuses on the couple as they raise their other girl, Meghan. On the morning of her 6th birthday, Meghan is missing; an open window in her room suggests another abduction. The Walkers quickly point fingers at Nina Hendrik, a journalist who had accused them of exploiting Mandy’s murder, leading to a defamation suit that wrecked her career. Nina starts looking into the old case with LAPD Detective Raul Martinez, who, while trying to apprehend Mandy’s killer all those years ago, fatally shot the culprit. That man didn’t work alone, Nina believes, and she compiles a list of potential accomplices. (“Three solid suspects. None of them the poor schmuck you put six bullets into.”) Meanwhile, the Walkers get a phone call from Meghan’s kidnapper, who makes an unusual demand if they want to see their daughter again. Douek’s rich characterization generates tension—quite a few characters seem dubious, as if they’re hiding something. The story comes in pieces, shining a light on characters’ past involvement in the 14-year-old case as the present-day investigation gradually unravels. This approach leads to a handful of plot turns that, while entertaining, are mostly predictable—but that certainly doesn’t dilute the scathing examination of social media personas. (Are the Walkers being their true selves on their show? How much do they allow the public to see?) The standout among a robust cast is whip-smart Detective Connors, the scene-stealing lead investigator of Meghan’s abduction. Illustrator Olson excels at depicting the surroundings, from an impressively detailed stand of woods to deep-black shadows in darkened rooms to the memorable, lightly toned flashbacks.
Colorful, often shady characters propel this diverting mystery.Pub Date: Aug. 6, 2024
ISBN: 9781952303753
Page Count: 82
Publisher: Mad Cave Studios
Review Posted Online: July 30, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Immensely enjoyable.
The debut graphic novel from Mohamed presents a modern Egypt full of magical realism where wishes have been industrialized and heavily regulated.
The story opens with a televised public service announcement from the General Committee of Wish Supervision and Licensing about the dangers of “third-class wishes”—wishes that come in soda cans and tend to backfire on wishers who aren’t specific enough (like a wish to lose weight resulting in limbs falling from the wisher’s body). Thus begins a brilliant play among magic, the mundane, and bureaucracy that centers around a newsstand kiosk where a devout Muslim is trying to unload the three “first-class wishes” (contained in elegant glass bottles and properly licensed by the government) that have come into his possession, since he believes his religion forbids him to use them. As he gradually unloads the first-class wishes on a poor, regretful widow (who then runs afoul of authorities determined to manipulate her out of her valuable commodity) and a university student who seeks a possibly magical solution to their mental health crisis (but struggles with whether a wish to always be happy might have unintended consequences), interstitials give infographic histories of wishes, showing how the Western wish-industrial complex has exploited the countries where wishes are mined (largely in the Middle East). The book is exceptionally imaginative while also being wonderfully grounded in touching human relationships, existential quandaries, and familiar geopolitical and socio-economic dynamics. Mohamed’s art balances perfectly between cartoon and realism, powerfully conveying emotions, and her strong, clean lines gorgeously depict everything from an anguished face to an ornate bottle. Charts and graphs nicely break up the reading experience while also concisely building this larger world of everyday wishes. Mohamed has a great sense of humor, which comes out in footnotes and casual asides throughout.
Immensely enjoyable.Pub Date: Jan. 10, 2023
ISBN: 978-1-524-74841-8
Page Count: 528
Publisher: Pantheon
Review Posted Online: Oct. 26, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2022
PERSPECTIVES
PERSPECTIVES
Gorgeous and troubling.
Cartoonist Kuper (Kafkaesque, 2018, etc.) delivers a graphic-novel adaptation of Joseph Conrad’s literary classic exploring the horror at the center of colonial exploitation.
As a group of sailors floats on the River Thames in 1899, a particularly adventurous member notes that England was once “one of the dark places of the earth,” referring to the land before the arrival of the Romans. This well-connected vagabond then regales his friends with his boyhood obsession with the blank places on maps, which eventually led him to captain a steamboat up a great African river under the employ of a corporate empire dedicated to ripping the riches from foreign land. Marlow’s trip to what was known as the Dark Continent exposes him to the frustrations of bureaucracy, the inhumanity employed by Europeans on the local population, and the insanity plaguing those committed to turning a profit. In his introduction, Kuper outlines his approach to the original book, which featured extensive use of the n-word and worked from a general worldview that European males are the forgers of civilization (even if they suffered a “soul [that] had gone mad” for their efforts), explaining that “by choosing a different point of view to illustrate, otherwise faceless and undefined characters were brought to the fore without altering Conrad’s text.” There is a moment when a scene of indiscriminate shelling reveals the Africans fleeing, and there are some places where the positioning of the Africans within the panel gives them more prominence, but without new text added to fully frame the local people, it’s hard to feel that they have reached equal footing. Still, Kuper’s work admirably deletes the most offensive of Conrad’s language while presenting graphically the struggle of the native population in the face of foreign exploitation. Kuper is a master cartoonist, and his pages and panels are a feast for the eyes.
Gorgeous and troubling.Pub Date: Nov. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-393-63564-5
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Norton
Review Posted Online: Aug. 18, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2019
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