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3.75 AVERAGE
3.75 AVERAGE
This was a strange dark fairytale. Survival is hard.
Wow. This was so good. Disturbing and eye-opening; an allegory of society and our civilization that hits home pretty hard. Everyone should read this. Right now.
This book was not what I expected and that is a great thing. The playful and beautiful imagery mixed with the dark unresolving context really played with my senses. A book that I couldn't put down because of its beauty, but also because I was searching for a meaning and purpose that never came.
Strange and brutal and astonishingly gorgeous, much like nature itself.
I’m not sure what I just read, but I think I liked it. This one will probably need a re-read or 70 to figure out.
While it had some good ideas, I found the story dull and was uninvolved with any of the characters. The highlights were when the world was quiet and we just got to see illustrations of the scenery. Cannot recommend.
In the lee of a dead girl, little dolls/spirits/embodied fragments of her consciousness eke out a living. I like the vibes of very much--as it says on the tin, it's whimsical and morbid, cute and cruel, and reminds me of the gothic/creepy kawaii subgenres. But I kept waiting for the plot to amount to something, and it doesn't: there's episodic glimpses of their lives, a more plotty and character-focused climax, but no real insight or parallels drawn between the dead girl and these little creatures. Fine to browse, but more memorable in tone than in what it says.
Beautiful Darkness is what nightmares are made of. I almost wanted more of this twisted little world, but my jaw was beginning to hurt because it stayed open most of the book. Many gasps were had. What sickeningly wicked imagery. I loved it. I hated it. I need more. I'm scared.
Translated text is such a delight to behold, but translated graphic novels are another matter entirely. Visuals allow us to transcend the miscommunication that the written word risks mangling. Even so, the alien nature of translated dialogue can prove unsettling. Luckily, the stark images can either work in harmony or competition with this aspect, and Beautiful Darkness manages the former spectacularly.
I don’t know what the intended message of this text might be, but a considered reflection exposes the devilish inhumanity of innocence. When we lack civility and society, we are no greater than the beasts of the wild with whom we so staunchly deny kinship. However, even society can bring out the beasts within us, resulting in savagery hitherto unforeseen. That’s enough philosophical meandering, what’s with this text? Well, the decomposing body of a girl in the woods births new life in the form of fragmentary, infantile fairies. Varied in size and complexity, they rely on their meager sense of self until they gradually succumb to the poisons of the natural and human world. Jealousy, lust, ignorance, and a simple inability to provide for themselves, these are fractured reflections of our own visage. In presenting their descent into (beautiful?) darkness, the work manages to unlock a primal understanding of the lies and comforts we choose to believe as we stray further and further from the truth of our world: the world we have created for ourselves is just as chaotic and unruly as the void from which we were borne.
The following is my thought process when reviewing a text:
1 Star: Poor craftsmanship, unappealing subject material, lacking substance.
2: Unappealing subject material, lacking substance
3: Average craftsmanship, lacking substance, enjoyable subject material
4: Enjoyable subject material, possesses substance
5: Enjoyable despite subject material, excellent craftsmanship, deeply substantive
I don’t know what the intended message of this text might be, but a considered reflection exposes the devilish inhumanity of innocence. When we lack civility and society, we are no greater than the beasts of the wild with whom we so staunchly deny kinship. However, even society can bring out the beasts within us, resulting in savagery hitherto unforeseen. That’s enough philosophical meandering, what’s with this text? Well, the decomposing body of a girl in the woods births new life in the form of fragmentary, infantile fairies. Varied in size and complexity, they rely on their meager sense of self until they gradually succumb to the poisons of the natural and human world. Jealousy, lust, ignorance, and a simple inability to provide for themselves, these are fractured reflections of our own visage. In presenting their descent into (beautiful?) darkness, the work manages to unlock a primal understanding of the lies and comforts we choose to believe as we stray further and further from the truth of our world: the world we have created for ourselves is just as chaotic and unruly as the void from which we were borne.
The following is my thought process when reviewing a text:
1 Star: Poor craftsmanship, unappealing subject material, lacking substance.
2: Unappealing subject material, lacking substance
3: Average craftsmanship, lacking substance, enjoyable subject material
4: Enjoyable subject material, possesses substance
5: Enjoyable despite subject material, excellent craftsmanship, deeply substantive