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seriouslybookedup's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
tense
medium-paced
5.0
I'm so dismayed by the middling ratings so I wanted to write a different perspective. Initially, I, too, struggled with the overall format, pacing, art and storytelling and finished it with questions. After a re-read I can confidently say, it's all there brilliantly rendered with details in every panel and dialogue. It's a very purposeful story with a singular focus: the all-consuming, indiscriminate nature of fire (destruction/violence) and how we choose to wield it (and rationalize its use) against others and against ourselves.
In a podcast interview about Little Bird, writer Darcy Van Poelgeest says a pretty provocative statement: "The institution of religion, the church, has always been used as a weapon." And it's one of the pillars that make up the story and universe of Little Bird.
For the patient, careful reader, there's lots to uncover here and I found multiple re-readings to be incredible rewarding and helped crystalize the story. As a regular reader of graphic novels, I think they're generally easier and faster to consume than a standard novel and that probably contributed to my initial frustrations when I picked up this volume. I want to fully understand everything right away and I was mostly baffled. It starts off feeling like it could be an accessible dystopian story but it quickly deviates. We can identify some similar parallels to our world like an oppressive, religiously zealous regime fighting for control over a neighboring nation. But then we get panels of completely abstract elements with no parallels like the science and technology systems which just look like bubbles and bizarre floating shapes.
There's no hand-holding here. For example, in the beginning pages we get a brief glimpse (it's literally a short horizontal panel) of the citizens of The United Nations of America and we see they're sickly. Covered in abrasions and many are hairless. We see other panels of the city that are completely barren of trees or any greenery, buildings are shrouded in a cloudy smog and it's colorless and lifeless. The panels are a bit innocuous and it's easy to skim over but we can clearly see, the city is not thriving under the leadership of the Bishop or the New Vatican.
In fact, artist for the book Ian Bertram, said in another interview, "...their hope is in the construction of the new Vatican: every block of the buildings carefully arranged, one on top of the other. A depiction of strength and wealth, but one that is rigid and unable to adapt. The elites trying to find that perfect balance. Inequality and class disparity versus pious platitudes and fear of the other... united under one belief system and destined to rot."
Compare that to one of the last panels in the graphic novel wherethe citizens in New Vatican look healthy, recovered from whatever disease was plaguing them. They are attentive and look like they're waiting for someone to come on stage at any moment. They're clearly out from under the Bishop's thumb and something new is on the horizon. We see another panel that there is someone new at the podium about to speak, though we never hear what they say. None of that is explicitly explained to the reader, we just have to infer a conclusion for ourselves.
Same with the nature of the Resurrection Gene.We're not explicitly told all the details about what having the Resurrection Gene (or how the Bishop attempts to extract it) means but we're shown that an all-consuming fire is permanent death. And we see how the Bishop weaponizes it literally and figuratively as religious propaganda. Then, we later see how Little Bird takes what destroyed her family, her village and nearly destroyed her and weaponizes it herself in an effort to end the cycle of violence.
I wish more readers would give this a second chance and spend more time with it. It's admittedly weird and disorienting but I promise there's a method to the madness here and it's worth spending time with.
I felt so compelled to justify my 5-start review that I've copied a forum response I wrote on GoodReads in reaction to some questions a reader had about plot points near the end. Hopefully it's help to those who have finished the volume and may have similar questions:
The child in the flashback scene at the very end of the graphic novel is Tantoo (Little Bird's mother). Axe is Tantoo's father and Little Bird's grandfather. What we don't know for certain as a reader is who fathered Tantoo's twins (Gabriel and Little Bird) although it's most likely the Bishop. We know Little Bird calls him father when they meet again at the end of the book.
What we learn at the end is that Axe (who has the Resurrection Gene and passed it down to Tantoo) made a horrible decision to destroy his own child in an attempt to keep her from being experimented on (to extract the Resurrection Gene) by the New Vatican. It's important to remember, those that have the Resurrection Gene can survive *almost* anything. They can still be permanently killed through an all-consuming fire. That's why Axe attempted to burn his house down with baby Tantoo inside and that's why Bishop also uses it to permanently kill Tantoo (when he makes Gabriel do it), Axe and who he thought was Little Bird (but it was actually Gabriel).
At the end, Bishop nearly kills Little Bird with fire and we see several panels of her recovery from the brink of permanent death (she's traveling from the spirit world and through the forest).
When she emerges, time has passed (her burned down village is taken over with greenery) and although it's not clear how or when she finds out Bishop is still alive, she sets to work on a plan. When Bishop arrives, we learn he successfully used the Resurrection Gene for himself and he returns to finish Little Bird off for good. We can assume the Bishop is now permanently dead in the end because Little Bird blew the whole place up, fittingly at her home village that was burned to the ground and where her journey started.
In a podcast interview about Little Bird, writer Darcy Van Poelgeest says a pretty provocative statement: "The institution of religion, the church, has always been used as a weapon." And it's one of the pillars that make up the story and universe of Little Bird.
For the patient, careful reader, there's lots to uncover here and I found multiple re-readings to be incredible rewarding and helped crystalize the story. As a regular reader of graphic novels, I think they're generally easier and faster to consume than a standard novel and that probably contributed to my initial frustrations when I picked up this volume. I want to fully understand everything right away and I was mostly baffled. It starts off feeling like it could be an accessible dystopian story but it quickly deviates. We can identify some similar parallels to our world like an oppressive, religiously zealous regime fighting for control over a neighboring nation. But then we get panels of completely abstract elements with no parallels like the science and technology systems which just look like bubbles and bizarre floating shapes.
There's no hand-holding here. For example, in the beginning pages we get a brief glimpse (it's literally a short horizontal panel) of the citizens of The United Nations of America and we see they're sickly. Covered in abrasions and many are hairless. We see other panels of the city that are completely barren of trees or any greenery, buildings are shrouded in a cloudy smog and it's colorless and lifeless. The panels are a bit innocuous and it's easy to skim over but we can clearly see, the city is not thriving under the leadership of the Bishop or the New Vatican.
In fact, artist for the book Ian Bertram, said in another interview, "...their hope is in the construction of the new Vatican: every block of the buildings carefully arranged, one on top of the other. A depiction of strength and wealth, but one that is rigid and unable to adapt. The elites trying to find that perfect balance. Inequality and class disparity versus pious platitudes and fear of the other... united under one belief system and destined to rot."
Compare that to one of the last panels in the graphic novel where
Same with the nature of the Resurrection Gene.
I wish more readers would give this a second chance and spend more time with it. It's admittedly weird and disorienting but I promise there's a method to the madness here and it's worth spending time with.
I felt so compelled to justify my 5-start review that I've copied a forum response I wrote on GoodReads in reaction to some questions a reader had about plot points near the end. Hopefully it's help to those who have finished the volume and may have similar questions:
What we learn at the end is that Axe (who has the Resurrection Gene and passed it down to Tantoo) made a horrible decision to destroy his own child in an attempt to keep her from being experimented on (to extract the Resurrection Gene) by the New Vatican. It's important to remember, those that have the Resurrection Gene can survive *almost* anything. They can still be permanently killed through an all-consuming fire. That's why Axe attempted to burn his house down with baby Tantoo inside and that's why Bishop also uses it to permanently kill Tantoo (when he makes Gabriel do it), Axe and who he thought was Little Bird (but it was actually Gabriel).
At the end, Bishop nearly kills Little Bird with fire and we see several panels of her recovery from the brink of permanent death (she's traveling from the spirit world and through the forest).
When she emerges, time has passed (her burned down village is taken over with greenery) and although it's not clear how or when she finds out Bishop is still alive, she sets to work on a plan. When Bishop arrives, we learn he successfully used the Resurrection Gene for himself and he returns to finish Little Bird off for good. We can assume the Bishop is now permanently dead in the end because Little Bird blew the whole place up, fittingly at her home village that was burned to the ground and where her journey started.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore, Torture, Blood, War, and Violence
Moderate: Suicide and Gun violence
lanternheart's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
I'm writing a review and updating it after a reread of this book, having found it again on my bookshelf and realizing I didn't fully recall the story. As with the first time I read Little Bird, the story told is a grim and dark one, and filled with blood — North America a future wasteland of the frozen Canadian wilderness, seemingly largely uninhabited, and a brutal, theocratic "United Nations of America." Our main character, the titular Little Bird, is the daughter of a known Canadian rebel against this new America, called by them a terrorist, who strikes her daughter into the cause of bringing down that brutal government with her every wish. What ensues is a brutal quest of revenge, travel, and horrific family history unraveled.
As I reread, my first thing I wish could have improved this book is simply better pacing — it runs quite quickly for how deeply Van Polgeest clearly cares about its characters, and for all we can see what the Axe is meant to be for Little Bird, his death feels all too soon, all too brutal, to be as meaningful as it might be. A reread did make the tangled family web at the heart of the story clearer, which I will say I did appreciate. Gabriel's gambit and sacrifice come to the fore of the ending, even if his murder of his and Little Bird's own mother cannot be washed from his hands (or psyche). The villainous Father is a truly dark man, and easy to have as a villain — we never sympathize with him, we never see anything other than sheer desperation and violence, sheer desire to cloak every desire in the smoke of a brutal theology.
I came away, though, wanting more explanation as I did the first time, more space to breathe and absorb the world Van Poelgeest so clearly thought out — what happened to make this world like this? Why is genetic modification so despised? What about people whose modification was not quite so superheroic as the Axe or Little Bird? Who are the Elders, and what connection lives within Little Bird and the land that she so deeply wants to protect? These questions aren't all necessary to be answered, only that I wish they were to help us see the stakes better, to understand what spurs a story of such escalating violence, such deep hatred and war.
There is a grim hope at the end of this book, but it is one that comes at a high cost for Little Bird — that of having lost over this book her mother and grandfather, and forced to rebuild her life in ash. That the theocratic dictator is dead offers only slim hope, since we have no promise of what the United Nations of America will do in response with this change, some rebels having pulled down a massive stone cross while it seems a new bishop has risen. I read this book quickly once more, but I do wish it explored its world, even a dark one, more deeply.
As I reread, my first thing I wish could have improved this book is simply better pacing — it runs quite quickly for how deeply Van Polgeest clearly cares about its characters, and for all we can see what the Axe is meant to be for Little Bird, his death feels all too soon, all too brutal, to be as meaningful as it might be. A reread did make the tangled family web at the heart of the story clearer, which I will say I did appreciate. Gabriel's gambit and sacrifice come to the fore of the ending, even if his murder of his and Little Bird's own mother cannot be washed from his hands (or psyche). The villainous Father is a truly dark man, and easy to have as a villain — we never sympathize with him, we never see anything other than sheer desperation and violence, sheer desire to cloak every desire in the smoke of a brutal theology.
I came away, though, wanting more explanation as I did the first time, more space to breathe and absorb the world Van Poelgeest so clearly thought out — what happened to make this world like this? Why is genetic modification so despised? What about people whose modification was not quite so superheroic as the Axe or Little Bird? Who are the Elders, and what connection lives within Little Bird and the land that she so deeply wants to protect? These questions aren't all necessary to be answered, only that I wish they were to help us see the stakes better, to understand what spurs a story of such escalating violence, such deep hatred and war.
There is a grim hope at the end of this book, but it is one that comes at a high cost for Little Bird — that of having lost over this book her mother and grandfather, and forced to rebuild her life in ash. That the theocratic dictator is dead offers only slim hope, since we have no promise of what the United Nations of America will do in response with this change, some rebels having pulled down a massive stone cross while it seems a new bishop has risen. I read this book quickly once more, but I do wish it explored its world, even a dark one, more deeply.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gun violence, Murder, Death, War, Blood, Gore, Torture, Religious bigotry, Body horror, Child death, and Violence
Moderate: Ableism, Child abuse, Colonisation, Kidnapping, and Fire/Fire injury
Minor: Medical content
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