Tom Hammock

I got this free from Netgalley and this my honest review of it.

Aurora Grimeons parents are dead from mushroom poisoning. They really should have known better. In lack of other relatives she is sent to live with her paternal grandfather on Ossuary isle out in the swamplands.

Her grandfather treats her curtly and the other inhabitants while not exactly unfriendly are a strange bunch of people.Most everyone there seems obsessed with death and the dead in some form be it her grandfather whose profession is making skeleton casts to the hoodo lady who would like to talk to her dead husband...

Since there arent many young people on Ossuary Isle Auroras only companion is her grandfathers pet racoon Missy who provides some comic relief. Together they roam around the swamp.That is when she is not helping her grandfather sort animal skulls.

But things are about to take a turn for the weird(er) when mysterious deaths starts to occur and people go missing when the ominious will o the wisp moves through the swamps. The will o the wisp is a bad omen indeed.

I was pleasantly surprised by this graphic novel as I went into it with no expectations. But before long I was in the Ossuary Isle with the main character and was engrossed in the story.

The art isnt what I would call overly pretty but its good and brings the right atmosphere to the story.There is something eerie about it that made quite an impact on me and even at times caught me off my guard as I was turning to a new side.

If I have any complaints is that Aurora remains a bit impassive to some frightening events that she is exposed to but then as I was thinking back on the story and her character I came to the realization that she might have ended up in a strange new place but she is quite the odd one herself. It fits with her as a a character even if I found it a bit cold.

In fact I was reminded of Courtney Crumrin though Aurora has a bit more of a pleasant disposition towards people. I would love to see more of her.
… (lisätietoja)

Aurora's parents die when they eat death cap mushrooms. Aurora survives and is sent to live with the grandfather she's never met on Ossuary Island. At first she thinks she doesn't fit in, but gradually she makes friends with her grandfather, his pet raccoon Missy, Mama Nonnie the hoodoo conjurer, and even a boy she meets in the swamp. But things on Ossuary Island aren't right. People are disappearing. Dying. And the people might need Aurora's help to survive.

This book was beautiful. I loved, loved, loved the art. The ends of things--hair, beards, tails, clothes--drift off into question mark shaped wisps. It was great how Aurora's gradually wore more black and white stripes--there were times she and Missy were matched striped friends. It was as cute way to show how Aurora began to fit in on the island and in her new family.

I don't know a great deal about hoodoo, so I can't vouch for the accuracy of it in this book. But I did find it to be treated respectfully. Though Aurora and her family are white--Aurora especially so with her pale skin and white hair--you will see a variety of people of color living in this Louisiana town. I worried at first that Mama Nonnie would be a "magical negro" but she was fleshed-out as a character with her own dreams and desires, she didn't exist only to further the plot.

I liked this a lot. It was eerie, sad, and beautiful, all at once.

(Provided by publisher)… (lisätietoja)

I was able to get this book for an advance review for Netgalley.

I've always had a bit of a fascination with the Louisiana Bayou and the vanishing ways of life attached to it. The hoodoo tradition is one that is misinterpreted about as often as it is referred to in popular culture - fortunately, [b:Will O'the Wisp|4528470|Will O The Wisp|Thomas Burnett Swann|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1301234432s/4528470.jpg|4577672] did a rather good job of showcasing both the traditions themselves and how people tend to view them nowadays.

The artwork for this book was highly reminiscent of the style used in [b:Locke and Key|6120349|Locke and Key, Vol. 2 Head Games|Joe Hill|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1351338040s/6120349.jpg|6298472], which is one that I'm especially fond of. There's a fluidity to the landscapes, the swamps, the fire, that is both beautiful and eerie. The bugs and the bones as well are beautifully rendered, and I would say that the book is worth looking at for the artwork alone.

While I'd like to rate the book more than three stars, I'm not entirely certain I could. While the book lends itself to reading for the hoodoo traditions and the artwork, and the story was a traditional tale of vengeance from beyond the grave and uneasy isolation, I felt that overall it was missing something. There was constantly more to the story that I wanted to uncover, but couldn't. I would say that this is the fault of the medium itself and the age of the audience it's intended for, but I've read a great deal of graphic novels and know the medium to be virtually unlimited in the scope it could cover storywise and the YA genre itself is fast accepting more and more titles that delve into what previously may be considered questionable content.

My disappointment with the depth of the story being told could easily be remedied by telling more stories of Aurora's time with Silver in Ossuary Isle, and is offset slightly by the attention paid to the spells of Nonnie, the begrudging respect paid to the hoodoo traditions by Silver, and the beauty of the artwork in the piece itself. It's certainly a title that I know friends of mine would enjoy, and by no means was it a bad read at all. I enjoyed it, and I'm certain a great many others will as well.

Couldn't be happier that traditional Louisiana hoodoo culture is getting treated to some good storytelling for a new generation!… (lisätietoja)

I honestly don't consider myself a horror fan. However, Will O' the Wisp struck the right balance of creepy yet suspenseful for me. An orphan, Aurora, is out of her element as she goes to live with her strange grandfather on an eerie, swamp island full of the supernatural. Curiosity gets the better of Aurora and she gets caught up in the secrets of the bizarre islanders.

Will O' the Wisp is very similar to an old-fashioned mystery. I could honestly see Vincent Price playing the role of the estranged grandfather. Also, the art is very beautiful in a dark, macabre sort of way. Overall, a good, graphic novel read!… (lisätietoja)