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doctorwithoutboundaries 's review for:
Beautiful Darkness
by Fabien Vehlmann
Fucking YES. This is how you do it. Here is a bande dessinée that throttles the word ‘genre’. There are so many ways to read it, and it offers so much: philosophy, humour, sociology, psychology—and horror, of course. Or you could just stare at the amazing watercolour art; that works, too.
Beautiful Darkness begins with a girl dying in the woods, as minuscule fairy-tale characters pour out of her orifices, trying to escape. Most remain nameless, barring a few prominent ones: conscientious Aurora (named after the dead girl), feeble Hector, power-hungry Zelie, timid and disabled Timothy, resourceful and independent Jane, and fair-weather Plim.
Lost in the wilderness, they must fend for themselves. Their enemies are the woodland creatures, the weather, starvation and... one another. Aurora, still optimistic, tries to establish some semblance of civilised society. But on almost every page, the lilliputian characters drop dead, each fate more gruesome than the one before, yet written with the blackest comedy:
One day, as Aurora bathes in a pool, something huge and powerful almost crushes her naked and frail body: a man (“giant”, to our characters). But, why isn’t he surprised by the decomposing maggot-ridden dead girl on the forest floor? Why are there dolls in his cabin? Was she his captive? Did he violate then murder her as she tried to escape, too? ... All questions that hang in the air.
And then it dawned on me: these tiny people are figments of the girl’s psyche... No wonder Aurora who believes the best of everyone, innocent to the ways of the world, is the most well-developed, whereas Hector, the only male character, is the weakest and a caricature. The rest are personifications of nascent traits and minor tendencies.
There are other plausible interpretations—none of them right or wrong, which makes the book that much more interesting. But whatever our theory, these fragments of her ego must still struggle to survive in a cruel and harsh world... Gradually, Aurora hardens, having learnt the laws of the universe: adapt or die, kill or be killed; yet she remains trusting enough to end up.
Dripping with irony, Aurora’s happily never after disconcerts and unsettles... a fitting conclusion to a shocking journey that features cannibalism, incineration, and more. This bleak and terrifying allegory, told with nonchalance, is blended with and contrasted against cute characters and a rich landscape, prodding us to inquire what lies beneath the veneer of everyone and everything we encounter.
This is my second graphic novel by this writer, though I don’t think [b: Isle of 100,000 Graves|10864775|Isle of 100,000 Graves|Fabien Vehlmann|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1338496863l/10864775._SX50_.jpg|15779945] counts; while its dialogue might have come from him, that story is classic [a: Jason|70011|Jason|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1292116815p2/70011.jpg]... So I wasn’t prepared for [a: Vehlmann|761380|Fabien Vehlmann|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1533659436p2/761380.jpg]’s brand of weird, thought-provoking, funny, insightful, riveting and twisted storytelling. Darkness looks surprisingly beautiful in these ninety-three pages by [a: Kerascoët|752696|Kerascoët|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png].
...
Visual aid stolen from Karen’s review.
Beautiful Darkness begins with a girl dying in the woods, as minuscule fairy-tale characters pour out of her orifices, trying to escape. Most remain nameless, barring a few prominent ones: conscientious Aurora (named after the dead girl), feeble Hector, power-hungry Zelie, timid and disabled Timothy, resourceful and independent Jane, and fair-weather Plim.
Lost in the wilderness, they must fend for themselves. Their enemies are the woodland creatures, the weather, starvation and... one another. Aurora, still optimistic, tries to establish some semblance of civilised society. But on almost every page, the lilliputian characters drop dead, each fate more gruesome than the one before, yet written with the blackest comedy:
One day, as Aurora bathes in a pool, something huge and powerful almost crushes her naked and frail body: a man (“giant”, to our characters). But, why isn’t he surprised by the decomposing maggot-ridden dead girl on the forest floor? Why are there dolls in his cabin? Was she his captive? Did he violate then murder her as she tried to escape, too? ... All questions that hang in the air.
And then it dawned on me: these tiny people are figments of the girl’s psyche... No wonder Aurora who believes the best of everyone, innocent to the ways of the world, is the most well-developed, whereas Hector, the only male character, is the weakest and a caricature. The rest are personifications of nascent traits and minor tendencies.
There are other plausible interpretations—none of them right or wrong, which makes the book that much more interesting. But whatever our theory, these fragments of her ego must still struggle to survive in a cruel and harsh world... Gradually, Aurora hardens, having learnt the laws of the universe: adapt or die, kill or be killed; yet she remains trusting enough to end up
Spoiler
infatuated with her once-captorDripping with irony, Aurora’s happily never after disconcerts and unsettles... a fitting conclusion to a shocking journey that features cannibalism, incineration, and more. This bleak and terrifying allegory, told with nonchalance, is blended with and contrasted against cute characters and a rich landscape, prodding us to inquire what lies beneath the veneer of everyone and everything we encounter.
This is my second graphic novel by this writer, though I don’t think [b: Isle of 100,000 Graves|10864775|Isle of 100,000 Graves|Fabien Vehlmann|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1338496863l/10864775._SX50_.jpg|15779945] counts; while its dialogue might have come from him, that story is classic [a: Jason|70011|Jason|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1292116815p2/70011.jpg]... So I wasn’t prepared for [a: Vehlmann|761380|Fabien Vehlmann|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1533659436p2/761380.jpg]’s brand of weird, thought-provoking, funny, insightful, riveting and twisted storytelling. Darkness looks surprisingly beautiful in these ninety-three pages by [a: Kerascoët|752696|Kerascoët|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png].
...
Visual aid stolen from Karen’s review.