A review by novelbloglover
Eros/Psyche by Maria Llovet

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

4.25

 

Book Review 

Title: Eros/Psyche by Maria Llovet 

Genre: LGBT, Graphic Novel 

Rating: 4.25 Stars 

Eros/Psyche was a strange yet interesting graphic novel following a bunch of budding witches at a female boarding school called The Rose. We are introduced to our protagonist, Sara, who seems to be telling the story in the past tense and the whole graphic novel is snap shots of her time at The Rose accompanied by her narration from the future. The first person she meets at The Rose is Silje and the pair quickly become almost inseparable which has an added benefit for Sara and Silje is the key student meaning she is in charge of the other students and keeping them in line. There don’t seem to be many rules at The Rose but the ones they do have are heavily enforced and punishment for breaking them is a trip to The Room. 

The Room is a mysterious place and the first time we are introduced to it is when a student hangs herself after being taken there. However, the student don’t linger on this long as they have exams coming up and the student that scores the lowest will be forced to leave the school. Over the next several months students come and go from The Rose and during this time the relationship between Sara and Silje is deepening too. However, our focus is drawn to a new student, Vanna, who isn’t like the other girls at the school as she is disturbed and violent and ends up getting kicked out barely a week after arriving but before she leaves she says something to Sara that she doesn’t share with anyone. We are also introduced to Tamlyn who finds an injured boy on the school grounds and keeps him hidden while she helps him heal and the pair end up in a relationship. When this is discovered the boy is taken by Silje and shown the way out and Tamlyn is taken to The Room and she isn’t the same afterwards. 

After witnessing this Sara is hesitant to take her relationship with Silje to a physical level but attempts it but Silje’s reaction at first isn’t a good one. Sara obviously hurt hides away in the garden where they first met and Silje comes to find her. Here their relationship takes a physical turn and things begin returning to normal but not for long. It soon becomes clear that the student numbers are going down until only Sara, Silje and Tamlyn remain and one needs to leave. Tamlyn volunteers as she has been wanting to leave The Rose for a while meaning the last two students are Sara and Silje and only one can remain. During the final exams, Sara is fully prepared to leave the school but is heartbroken to learn that Silje is leaving not her. Here Silje explains something about the school that I wasn’t expecting and her role within the school as key student which is now being passed to Sara. The ending leads me to believe that Sara is still at the school and that one day she hopes to reunite with Silje like Eros and Psyche did in Greek mythology. Overall, Eros/Psyche was an interesting story with a great minimalist art style and surprisingly little dialogue meaning the story is told almost entirely through its imagery and it took me by surprise.