{"id":2742,"date":"2024-08-19T12:35:02","date_gmt":"2024-08-19T16:35:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/ReadingBites\/?p=2742"},"modified":"2024-08-05T20:36:50","modified_gmt":"2024-08-06T00:36:50","slug":"graphic-novel-review-when-i-arrived-at-the-castle-by-emily-carroll","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/ReadingBites\/?p=2742","title":{"rendered":"GRAPHIC NOVEL REVIEW: WHEN I ARRIVED AT THE CASTLE BY EMILY CARROLL"},"content":{"rendered":"

**Cross Posted from The Circulation Desk.**<\/p>\n

\"Cover<\/a><\/p>\n

When I Arrived at the Castle<\/em>\u00a0by Emily Carroll<\/p>\n

Silver Sprocket, 2024 (previously published by Koyama Press in 2019)<\/p>\n

ISBN-13: 9798886200409<\/p>\n

Available: Paperback, Kindle edition<\/p>\n

Buy:\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0Bookshop.org\u00a0<\/a>|\u00a0Amazon.com<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

On a dark and stormy night, a cat woman arrives at the mysterious Countess\u2019 castle on an unspoken mission. The Countess mentions that this attractive visitor is not the first to come on this mighty errand. She is offered a warm bath after being out in the rain for so long, for which she accepts, and this is interrupted by loud knocks on the door. The cat woman ventures out to search out her prey, peeking through a keyhole, where she sees the Countess shedding her skin. When the Countess catches her at the door, a violent and erotically driven confrontation happens between the noblewoman and the cat.<\/p>\n

I appreciate Carroll\u2019s attention to Gothic literature tropes in her sequential art. The structure of the story flows in such a way that the eyes do not have time to rest most of the time. The frenetic pace blends with the reader\u2019s sense of unease as the cat woman explores the castle and is dragged along the halls by the Countess, and when the final battle ensues.<\/p>\n

Something else I enjoy about Carroll\u2019s work is her use of color, as she uses the most bold selection almost as another character itself. In the case of\u00a0When I Arrived at the Castle<\/em>, she uses black, white, and red. The red acts as solid backgrounds, text bubbles, the text itself, outlines of various figures, doors, flooring, skin, blood, and more. Spending a few minutes exploring the red in the pages was an interesting exercise in reading images without words.<\/p>\n

If you are looking for a standalone Gothic horror graphic novel for your collection, you can\u2019t go wrong with When I Arrived at the Castle<\/em>. If you have not picked up Carroll\u2019s\u00a0Through the Woods<\/em>, I encourage you to do that, as well. Recommended.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Reviewed by Lizzy Walker<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

**Cross Posted from The Circulation Desk.** When I Arrived at the Castle\u00a0by Emily Carroll Silver Sprocket, 2024 (previously published by Koyama Press in 2019) ISBN-13: 9798886200409 Available: Paperback, Kindle edition Buy:\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0Bookshop.org\u00a0|\u00a0Amazon.com On a dark and stormy night, a cat woman arrives at the mysterious Countess\u2019 castle on an unspoken mission. The Countess mentions that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[76,119],"tags":[487],"class_list":["post-2742","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-graphic-novels","category-horror","tag-emily-carroll"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3Eu9f-Ie","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/ReadingBites\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2742","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/ReadingBites\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/ReadingBites\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/ReadingBites\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/ReadingBites\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2742"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/ReadingBites\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2742\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2743,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/ReadingBites\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2742\/revisions\/2743"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/ReadingBites\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2742"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/ReadingBites\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2742"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/ReadingBites\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2742"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}