Northunberland, England, 1851. Artemisia is a bi-racial young woman, the illegitimate daughter of a naval captain living with her father's upper class family but enjoying none of its perks or stature because she is half-black. Indeed, with a mostly-absentee father and bigoted stepmother, the girl's only solace is her stepsister. But when an evil Faerie Queen from another realm tricks Artemisia into trading places with her so she can conquer this realm, the young woman finds herself in an ugly, brutal land of dark magic and monsters, some of whom may help her get out while hiding their darker motives on the side. In order to escape, Artemisia must literally kill her way to enough strength and power to break through the mirror she must use to get back home - the catch being that with every death she causes, Artemisia enjoys the art of killing more and more, turning more violent and even transforming piece by piece into a metallic-like creature with wings after each kill. While I thought the premise interesting enough to give this graphic novel a go, what really sucked me in was the intense, beautiful cover art of the book. Sad to say, the inside art is nowhere near as dramatic or provocative; indeed, the alternate world our heroine finds herself in is all hard lines and harsh colors, as if a paintbox were spill on the original drawings. Sadly, I also couldn't identify or really care about any of the characters, including Artemisia herself. While I understood the corruptive effect this alternate world had on the poor girl throughout the story, with each change I found myself disliking/not caring about the character a little more. An "okay" script and unattractive artwork, even with a gorgeous cover wrapped around it, just made for a disappointing read. 1/5 stars
NOTE: I received a free ARC of this title from NetGalley and the publisher, in exchange for an honest review.
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