Reviews

The Amateurs by Conor Stechschulte

bluepigeon's review

3.0

There are two stories told here, all seemingly taking part in the vicinity of a river, presumably close to each other, but the reader isn't sure about this. In fact, there is a lot that is left unexplained, and one wonders how much of it is unexplained on purpose and how much is just a poor effort. The art is great, the dialog is well done, and the paneling adds to the eerie feeling in the butcher scenes. The story narrated by a girl through her diary entries is of a group of female students who participate in a strange ritual that involves the river. The only thing other than the river that connects this story to the butchers somehow is the severed head two girls run into in the woods by the river. Now, the severed head certainly seems to be a part of the whole ritual stuff; it speaks words that seem like a warning to the girls, who are told not to look back as their school mistress cuts a lock of their hair to toss in the river. But what this severed head has anything to do with the story of the butchers who lost their memories and go through a series of violent comical episodes trying to butcher their animals for two customers is not clear. The butcher story follows the two men, until the very end where we follow the two female customers flee the shop in terror, wash themselves in the river, and encounter floating body parts... There doesn't seem to be a head, so maybe this is the rest of the talking head, or maybe the two butchers finally butchered themselves to severed death. Who knows? The two women don't speak of this episode to anyone (another parallel), not even when they run into each other years later at a party. Then there is the strange episode of girls carving initials on a turtle's back, a scene that takes several pages and doesn't seem connected to anything else other than create some animal rights sentiment.

All in all, I'm glad I read The Amateurs and I think Stechschulte is very talented. I'll be looking out for more of his stuff. I think the two stories could have been separate entities, which would have satisfied me more, or a more solid connection between the two, even if it was the eerie location or the bend in the river, would have served to make the book a more solid read.