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A review by kandicez
A Tale of The Children's Crusade: Free Country by Neil Gaiman
4.0
A fairy tale is the last place a child is safe, and yet the misfortune of childhood is learning this lesson as grown-ups sing songs of innocence and hand us these tales and stories. Gaiman is, as always, a marvel, for his ability to take the mundane, the mystical, the magical, the historical, and combine it all into not just a semblance of a story, but a web of experiences and images that are unlike anything else.
The stories of the dead detectives (boys themselves) and a group of children stolen away to a magical land, this story is an example of the real horror of violence against children. There were many passages/panels that left me aghast and only prove the strength of the tale and the illustrations that accompany it. Rather than pretend childhood is a time of innocence and bliss, Gaiman is able to show the real vulnerability of children and their subjectivity to vice and manipulation.
Fairy tales are often stories of horror, pain, loss, and danger, but Gaiman reminds us that, even in the darkest of places, the capacity for strength in human beings, especially children, is everlasting.
The stories of the dead detectives (boys themselves) and a group of children stolen away to a magical land, this story is an example of the real horror of violence against children. There were many passages/panels that left me aghast and only prove the strength of the tale and the illustrations that accompany it. Rather than pretend childhood is a time of innocence and bliss, Gaiman is able to show the real vulnerability of children and their subjectivity to vice and manipulation.
Fairy tales are often stories of horror, pain, loss, and danger, but Gaiman reminds us that, even in the darkest of places, the capacity for strength in human beings, especially children, is everlasting.