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Graphic Novel Review: Mr. Higgins Comes Home by Mike Mignola, art by Warwick Johnson-Caldwell

Mr. Higgins Comes Home by Mike Mignola, art by Warwick Johnson-Caldwell

Dark Horse, 2017

ISBN: 9781506704661

Available: print, ebook

 

Mr. Higgins Comes Home is an original graphic novel by Mike Mignola and Warwick Johnson-Caldwell. The household at Castle Golga are planning for the annual festival of Walpurigsnacht, as a pair of vampire killers question a man locked in a monastery on the Baltic Sea. The last thing Mr. Higgins wants to do is relive the last moments of the death of his beloved wife, and be reminded about the terrible thing that happened to him. The problem is that the vampire hunters are persistent, and will stop at nothing to destroy all vampires that plague the land. To do so, they feel they must have the help at the exhausted and frightened Mr. Higgins. When the trio do manage to get themselves into the castle, things don’t quite go as planned; Mr. Higgins reveals just why he didn’t want to go there in the first place, and why he insisted upon his own imprisonment.

 

This is yet another fantastic story by Mike Mignola, and is set unexpectedly outside the universe readers are used to seeing. There is no Hellboy, and no BPRD in this setting. The horror setting is also well paired with some great humor. Johnson-Caldwell’s artwork complements the story nicely in that he selected a very different colour palette for the typical Victorian setting. Colors are brighter, while somewhat muted, and the art style is simple, yet communicates the necessary details to the scenes. If you are a Mignola fan, you really should pick up a copy of this book. You will not be disappointed. Recommended.

 

Contains: some violence

 

Reviewed by Lizzy Walker

 

Posted on March 20, 2018 by , Reply

Book Review: In the Valley of the Sun by Andy Davidson

In the Valley of the Sun: A Novel by Andy Davidson

Skyhorse Publishing, 2017

ISBN-13: 978-1510721104

Available: Hardcover, paperback, Kindle edition, audiobook

 

In the Valley of the Sun is Andy Davidson’s first novel. It walks a thin line between the genres of Southern Gothic and classic Western. Andy Davidson has a gift for building atmosphere; at times, West Texas drips off the page like humid air. The world is made vivid: you can picture the rust of the trucks,  the stress on the sheriff’s belt, and the smells of the badlands. There are plenty of grim settings, balanced by gorgeous prose.

It is absolutely a monster novel. The story kicks off with the main character, Travis, waking up covered in blood. While is isn’t immediately clear, once the reader realizes what’s happening, the story takes on a dangerous, otherworldly edge. While the word “vampire” is never specifically mentioned, as the story progresses, there is no doubt what monsters we are dealing with.  These are not Anne Rice’s “sexy” vampires; Travis is in trouble.

In addition to his supernatural worries, Travis has financial problems. He doesn’t have the money to park his truck and camper at the campground run by Annabelle Gaskin. Many of the best moments in the book are Travis’ conversations with Annabelle’s ten-year-old son. These moments are both tense and emotional, adding depth to the story.

Davidson does an excellent job in jumping between different characters’ third person point-of-views. and a variety of time periods. It all works, and is not jarring at all.

In the Valley of the Sun is a close cousin of Stephen Graham Jones’ Mongrels. While the two books focus on different monsters and cultural backgrounds, both take the same off-color look at the American South.

This is not the kind of horror novel that would benefit from a marketing department blasting out its nature. Davidson definitely has the potential to become a powerful writer in the genre of literary horror. The reality is that this is a fine debut of a strong new voice in horror fiction, and a book that can appeal to both horror and mainstream readers. In the Valley of the Sun is a thought-provoking and entertaining read that should be in every library collection. Highly recommended.

 

Reviewed by David Agranoff

 

Posted on November 2, 2017 by , Reply

Book Review: Down Among the Sticks and Bones by Seanan McGuire


Down Among the Sticks and Bones (Wayward Children #2) by Seanan McGuire

Tor, 2017

ISBN-13: 978-0765392039

Available: Hardcover, Kindle edition, audiobook

Down  Among the Sticks and Bones is a companion novella to Seanan McGuire’s award-winning novella Every Heart a Doorway. Every Heart a Doorway explored the question of what happens after children who walk through a door to a fantasy world return to our own. In that novella, the main character was sent to a boarding school specifically for children who have returned, to help them readjust. It’s a spare, magical, heartbreaking, and brutal mystery that explores identity, destiny, and desire in multiple ways.

Down Among the Sticks and Bones is the story of Jack and Jill, twins who play major roles in Every Heart a Doorway, and their lives in the world they walked into. The girls escaped a life of strictly enforced gender roles by entering a door to a world with many dangers called “The Moors.” There, the girls are able to discard their parents’ expectations, although they are shaped by new ones.  Unfortunately, what the girls’ parents wanted for them affected not just their outward actions, but their interior thoughts and emotions, so the characters are very flat. Jack has a little more self-awareness and develops a genuine loving relationship with another girl, so her character is slightly more developed. The story is more of a fable than a work requiring deep character development, but it means the reader feels much less invested.

In Every Heart a Doorway, Jack and Jill are a mysterious and disturbing pair, but Down Among the Sticks and Bones dispels a lot of that mystery, in the process making their actions, or lack of them, more explicable and sympathetic. The story also lacks tension: it’s the story of growing up over time, and doesn’t have the urgency or bloodiness of the mystery in the earlier novella (this isn’t to say it lacks blood and gore: in a Gothic world of vampires and mad scientists, there’s always going to be blood and gore, but I feel like it’s dialed down in this story).

Seanan McGuire is a fantastic writer, and I’m glad she wrote this second novella, because almost the first thing I wanted to know after finishing Every Heart a Doorway was Jack and Jill’s story. Despite the events of Down Among the Sticks and Bones taking place first, though, and although it can stand alone, readers should read Every Heart a Doorway first, to prevent spoilers and preserve its suspense and wonder. Recommended.

Contains: murder, gore.

 

Posted on September 13, 2017 by , Reply
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