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A review by liralen
The Court Charade by Flore Vesco
4.0
This graphic novel is chaos—and that's exactly how Countess Seraphine Marie-Geneviève Alexandrina de Notre-Dame Chancies du Jousselinier Senestre lez Castiche de l'Auberivière sié l'Ostel de la Colline would have it.
Call her Serine—she may not know how to read, but she knows that her name is a mouthful, and she has better ways to spend her time...like turning the palace upside-down in her quest for adventure (and a better life), befriending chambermaids and executioners, and riddle-and-rhyming her way in and out of scrape after scrape. (Serine though she may be, serene she is not.)
Tidy, sharp illustrations add to the lively feel of The Court Charade, while the pastel colour scheme (done with watercolours, I think?) make this just a pleasure to look at. The plot requires a bit of suspension of disbelief, but then...it's a graphic novel. I'm also not entirely sure what age range is intended for the audience here—I suspect it would be considered an all-ages comic in France (and: my non-American parents wouldn't have taken issue with it when I was a kid), but more conservative American audiences might occasionally find it a bit, ah, French. (The adults, anyway. The kids would just find it funny.)
At about a hundred pages, this is long for a comic book but relatively slim for a graphic novel, and I'm a little bit sorry that it isn't in comic form. It's fun enough as a book that I'd love to see it as an adventure series—Serine's scrapes and adventures continuing on and on.
Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a free review copy through NetGalley.
Call her Serine—she may not know how to read, but she knows that her name is a mouthful, and she has better ways to spend her time...like turning the palace upside-down in her quest for adventure (and a better life), befriending chambermaids and executioners, and riddle-and-rhyming her way in and out of scrape after scrape. (Serine though she may be, serene she is not.)
Tidy, sharp illustrations add to the lively feel of The Court Charade, while the pastel colour scheme (done with watercolours, I think?) make this just a pleasure to look at. The plot requires a bit of suspension of disbelief, but then...it's a graphic novel. I'm also not entirely sure what age range is intended for the audience here—I suspect it would be considered an all-ages comic in France (and: my non-American parents wouldn't have taken issue with it when I was a kid), but more conservative American audiences might occasionally find it a bit, ah, French. (The adults, anyway. The kids would just find it funny.)
At about a hundred pages, this is long for a comic book but relatively slim for a graphic novel, and I'm a little bit sorry that it isn't in comic form. It's fun enough as a book that I'd love to see it as an adventure series—Serine's scrapes and adventures continuing on and on.
Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a free review copy through NetGalley.