Prose (Story): Wynd is a teenage boy who lives and works at a bawdy tavern in Pipetown, working with the cook downstairs at preparing and sending food orders, via pressurized chutes, up to the tables in the inn above. His best friends are Oakly, an engineering apprentice, and her mother - his found family, as he has none of his own. His job keeps him downstairs and away from actually facing customers; a good thing as Wynd, under his unruly head of hair, has pointed ears - a sign of magic in his blood, and magic is forbidden in Pipetown. So forbidden, in fact, the king has recently called the sinister Bandaged Man back to hunt down and kill anyone in the city even touched by magic. Magic contaminates, after all, and Pipetown is seemingly the last truly, wholly human city left standing; the king is determined to keep it that way. So Wynd stays indoors mostly, covering his pointy ears with his thick hair or hood - even when he sneaks up to the crow's nest above the tavern on break time, to spy on Thorn, the beefy, handsome son of the king's gardner, when the young man goes on his daily runs. Wynd dreams of this young gardner boy as much as he does a normal life ... though dreams, these days for Wynd, include nightmares where he transforms into a hideous beast with wings that Oakley beats to death when she doesn't recognize it's him. But an escalation in the Bandaged Man's plans, conbimed with the king's son's attempt to flee the kngdom with Thorn in a plot to help make Pipetown free, puts Wynd on his own path, along with Oakley, to get out of Pipetown before he's discovered and killed - and find his way north, to where he'll be able to not only live with his own kind ... but accept himself for who he is, as well.
Don's (Review): If the plot above sounds complicated, it's not really - and yet is, thanks to writer Tynion's cinematic take on this pretty brilliant first-in-a-series graphic novel that - thanks to artist Dialynas's artwork, as well - plays out like a film while reading. A very unique history and world surrounds the seemingly simple Pipetown, and that world is populated with real characters you can either hate or root for, as well as a natural storyline pulsating with dramatic tension that plays a bit like an Indiana Jones-style adventure on the page. Wynd is endearing and sweet, torn between who he is and his desire to lead a normal life (hopefully with the right boy; hopefully Thorn), and even supporting characters like Oakley, Thorn, the prince, etc. all come to life in this exciting, suspenseful page-turner that I loved from cover to cover, spurred on by both great story and art. Even the ending, thankfully, leaves some doors and questions open for book two, while not pulling the silly, too-often-used trope of leaving the reader with a doozy of a cliffhanger to literally yank them into book two. No such gimmicks needed here; here, your attachment to (love for) both characters and story will be more than enough to make you wonder what happens next, long after you close this one. Only my second 5-star graphic novel read of 2021 so far, and one of my favorite reads of all time. Outstanding. 5/5 stars
NOTE: I received a free ARC of this title from NetGalley and the publisher, in exchange for an honest review.
No comments:
Post a Comment