A review by pawact
Voices in the Dark by Ulli Lust

3.0

Somewhat successful adaptation of the novel by Marcel Beyer. Taking place in Germany during the end days of WWII, tthe story revolves around a Hermann Karnua young man who is obsessed with sound recording and engineering and the children of Joseph Goebbels, particularly the eldest Helga. The story starts with Hermann who, after giving a lecture, deriding theories of German pure blood and emphasized the importance of the voice in determining someone's heritage, he gets invited to work on a special project with Goebbels. Here is where he meets Helga, and they are instantly taken with each other (in a completely benign way, Helga is twelve). After that the story toggles between the two as Kernau becomes obsessed with getting to the essence of humanity, eagerly committing atrocities that the Nazis were, of course, known for and Helga, who slowly but surely is realizing the horror of war and that Germany is, in fact, losing.

Its an intriguing concept and Lust's illustrations are first rate. She uses different shadings, lines and coloring for each storyline. The main problem is the superiority of one storyline over the other. Although, Kernau is ostensibly more original, we have seen variations of this storyline before and we never really care about Kernau as a person, while with Helga, which is also somewhat familiar, we do. Helga's storyline is touching and horrifying and, ultimately, heartbreaking. If the book simply focused on this, and it could have, it would have been excellent.

It is still worth checking out. It is very well crafted. It just could have been much better.