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Graphic Novel Review: Wingbearer (Wingbearer Saga #1) by Marjorie Liu, art by Teny Issakhanian

Cover art for Wingbearer (Wingbearer Saga #1) by Marjorie Liu

Wingbearer (Wingbearer Saga #1) by Marjorie Liu, art by Teny Issakhanian

Quill Tree, 2022

ISBN-13: 9780062741165

Available: Hardcover, paperback, Kindle, Comixology

Buy: Bookshop.org | Amazon.com

 

 

Marjorie Liu takes a step away from horror and dark fantasy with her middle grade graphic novel, Wingbearer. Zuli, raised in the Great Tree by mysterious bird spirits, is unique. She doesn’t look at all like the bird spirits, and she has never seen anyone like her. She has never left the safety of the branches of her home. When an evil magic begins to affect the new growth of the tree and bird souls are not returned to its branches for rebirth, Zuli sets out to spread her wings with her guardian owl, Frowly, to discover the problem and return the bird souls home. Zuli is also on a quest to discover who she is and where she comes from. Along the way, she meets new friends and foes, and perhaps comes face-to-face with her biggest threat or salvation, the Witch-Queen.

 

Upon seeing the world beyond the Great Tree, she finds the land ravaged, broken ruins everywhere. Her first encounter with any other living creature is when she is  attacked by giant spiders. She discovers this world is not what she was hoping and dreaming about in the safe branches of her home. Throughout her journey, she also finds that not everything is black and white: there are grey areas that she must grapple with.  A memorable scene is when she becomes distraught after she sees other goblins in her friend Orien’s camp chopping tree branches for building materials and fuel. She does not understand why the destruction of even one branch of a tree is necessary for others to live. Zuli grapples with other philosophical and identity-related themes, as well as having to learn new things.

 

Liu’s creative power is in her world building, and Wingbearer does not disappoint. She creates a complex world without bogging down the story with too much detail, and everything is cohesive and well-constructed. As with her Monstress series, she fills the world with compelling and driven characters, each with their own motivations and personalities shining through. For instance, Zuli’s friendship with the goblin Orien progresses in a very real way, with philosophical and cultural conflict, as well as learning more about each other.

 

Teny Issakhanian, an Armenian-American artist, provides lush and beautiful illustrations. She really brings the characters to life, the emotion in their facial expressions is so powerful. The bird spirits are particularly beautiful. Her previous work includes DreamWorks TV Animation, Disney TV Animation, and the Jim Henson Company.

 

Reading Wingbearer was like revisiting past Dungeons and Dragons games for me. High adventure, magic, good and evil butting heads, interparty conflict…all the great stuff from RPGs. For parents wanting to introduce their kids to the fantasy genre, Liu and Issakhanian would be a great first read. This is the first of the series, and I am very much looking forward to the second volume. Highly recommended.

 

Reviewed by Lizzy Walker

 

Posted on January 5, 2024 by , Reply

Book Review: Through the Witches’ Stone by Scott A. Johnson

Cover art for Through the Witches' Stone by Scott A. Johnson

 

Through the Witches’ Stone by Scott  A. Johnson

Timber Ghost Press, 2023

Available: Paperback

Buy:  Bookshop.org  |  Amazon.com

 

 

12 year old  Hadley and her younger twin brothers are stuck for the summer on her grandma’s isolated farm. It isn’t as boring as she expects: she learns she is descended from a long line of witches, and her grandmother starts teaching her magical spells. Hadley’s grandma has only three rules: stay out of the locked rooms upstairs, stay out of the woods, and don’t invite strangers into the house. But while the twins have each other, Hadley has no one her age to talk to, until one night she spots a girl in a white dress and sneaks out to meet her.

 

Although her brothers are uneasy, Hadley keeps it a secret from her grandma. There’s a magical barrier that prevents the girl from crossing between the house and the woods, so she lets the girl lead her into the woods, and they become friends. Then Hadley makes the mistake of inviting the girl into the house. She turns out to be a changeling, who kidnaps Hadley’s brothers and grandma. Hadley must go into the inhospitable woods alone and attempt to find and defeat the changeling to rescue her brothers and grandma. She saves a pukwudgie (a short creature with hedgehog quills down its back and a large nose that originates in Native American mythology) She is also accompanied by a duo of brownies she calls Tom and Jerry. Despite the unfriendly folk and forest, Hadley wins them over and eventually, after some really creepy and compelling adventures, rescues her family.

 

There’s a lot of grief work going on. Hadley’s father was killed in a car accident she blamed her mother and herself for. Her mother is grieving her sister, husband, and father. The pukwudgie is grieving his family. Much of this is about making peace and letting go of grief and fear, but it does not overwhelm this fantastical, scary tale reminiscent of Mary Downing Hahn’s books, the Spiderwick Chronicles, and Outside Over There.

 

 

Posted on December 31, 2023 by , Reply

Book Review: Monster Club by Darren Arnofsky and Ari Handel

Monster  Club by Darren Aronofsky and Ari Handel

HarperCollins, 2022

ISBN: 9780063136632

Available: Hardcover, paperback, Kindle edition

Buy:  Bookshop.org  |  Amazon.com

 

If you’ve seen The Wrestler, Black Swan, or The Whale, you know Darren Aronofsky is a serious director who directs serious films.  Who knew that he and Ari Handel could write such a seriously fun kid’s book?  A loving tribute to the nerdy, role-playing gamers who still hide amongst the ‘cool’ students in junior high schools across the country, it’s impossible to dislike Monster Club.  It has it all: cool, comic-book styled monsters, light, frothy action that’s its easy to enjoy and laugh along with, and of course, the nerdy kid gets the girl!

 

Set against the backdrop of the famed Coney Island boardwalk, Eric “Doodles” King and his junior high pals, who go by the nicknames of Yoo-hoo, Smash, Hollywood, and Beanie, spend their time outside of school playing Monster Club, an RPG game they designed themselves, a cross between Dungeons and Dragons and pro wrestling. Their characters consist of monster drawings created by the players, each with hit points and attack skills, using some dice and a spinner from the old boardgame LIFE to determine their actions as the characters battle it out for superiority. 

 

Fortune strikes in the form of a Sharpie with magic ink, which allows Eric to draw characters that come to life off the page.  Can he use this gift to help save his dad’s carnival, which is threatened by land developers?  

 

The story sells itself with the characters and breezy, happy nature of the writing. It’s easy to root and relate to the Monster Clubbers since we all knew kids like them when we were kids, charming in their goofiness. Brainy Beanie is a member of a club that designs drones and Smash tends to crash her skateboard, often into lockers.  Of course, they get picked on by the big kids, and can’t play sports worth a damn.  The story picks up the pace and shifts into the crazy fun section when the Sharpie falls into the wrong hands, allowing for creatures such as Noodle Monsters and Crumple Noodle.  The last quarter of the book is insane fun,  reminiscent of the movie Gremlins.  You knew that the gremlins were bad and were wrecking the town, yet you had to laugh at how they did it, thanks to the presentation.  It’s the same with the Noodle Monsters as they go wild on Coney Island.

 

However, the Monster Club creations of Brickman, BellyBeast, Robokillz and their ilk stand ready to do battle and save Coney Island.  The fights themselves are some of the best parts.  They aren’t bloody, they are fun, Gremlins-style.  BellyBeast picks his nose and sticks it in Brickman’s ear, while Brickman himself dishes out some pretty mean ball-shots with his cannonball on a chain to neighborhood bullies.  Readers will be enthusiastically cheering on the good guys in their quest to smash those evil Noodle Monsters and save the carnival.

 

Bottom line here: this is lighthearted fun with a lot of bounce to it, and it’s one all readers of this site would enjoy.  It’s oriented towards the middle grade/early teen crowd, but it’s plenty of fun for adults too, especially those who grew up like the main characters, they will see themselves in the story.  Recommended.

 

Reviewed by Murray Samuelson

Posted on September 13, 2023 by , Reply
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