| Title | : | The Low, Low Woods |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 1779504527 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9781779504524 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Hardcover |
| Number of Pages | : | 168 |
| Publication | : | First published September 29, 2020 |
| Awards | : | Goodreads Choice Award Graphic Novels & Comics (2020), Ladies of Horror Fiction Award Best Graphic Novel (2020) |
Shudder-to-Think, Pennsylvania, is plagued by a mysterious illness that eats away at the memories of those affected by it. El and Octavia are two best friends who find themselves the newest victims of this disease after waking up in a movie theater with no memory of the past few hours.
As El and Vee dive deeper into the mystery behind their lost memories, they realize the stories of their town hold more dark truth than they could've imagined. It's up to El and Vee to keep their town from falling apart...to keep the world safe from Shudder-to-Think's monsters.
Collects issues # 1-6.
The Low, Low Woods Reviews
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Holy shit. Holy shit. I just finished this graphic novel and, friends, I truly do not see myself as someone who gets legitimately rattled easily — books may make me emotional, but rarely do they get under my skin and stay there — but I feel like The Low, Low Woods is going to linger in my bones for a long, long time to come. That's not because it's scary, but because it is horrifying, not in the haunted houses and ghosts sort of way, but in a sinister, nauseating manner that I never saw coming.
There is so little I can say without spoiling the entire thing, so instead, I'll just tell you that Carmen Maria Machado is one of the most brilliant creative minds I've ever seen and I cannot possibly recommend this story highly enough. It carries her signature speculative taste and bleak outlook on the world, despite following characters you can't avoid loving and rooting for (and naturally, it features queer women of color as the main characters, because we can always count on CMM to give us beautiful diversity in her dark little tales) ♥).
All of my appreciation not only to CMM for crafting this story, but to DC and the Hill House Comics team for helping this twisted creation come into being.
Thank you so much to the publisher for providing me with this review copy in exchange for an honest review!
✨ Representation: queer plus-size Latinx main character, queer Black main character, multiple queer and/or POC side characters
✨ Content warnings for: (MAJOR SPOILERS!!!) -
Reading this was like a science experiment.
See, historically, when I have read a Carmen Maria Machado book, I feel like I am simultaneously chopping an onion and being stabbed in the gut and having all of my deepest darkest secrets read aloud to me in the form of poetic verse.
So, a lot.
And, conversely, when I read a graphic novel, I feel nothing.
So, a little.
I was curious to see which one won out here, and unfortunately (but for the better in terms of my heart, mind, body, and soul), it was the graphic novel side of business. This just didn't hit for me.
The art was very nice, and I got what the story was trying to do, but none of it felt like enough.
Another lose / lose scenario for me and the graphic novel genre.
Bottom line: Sorry! I don't know why I'm like this.
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pre-review
the REAL monster was the patriarchy all along!
review to come / 3ish
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currently-reading updates
i am once again reading a graphic novel to prove i know how to read
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tbr review
a spooky graphic novel written by one of my favorite authors...i don't even know how to fit this much excitement inside me at once -
don’t listen to the men in the comments whose feelings are hurt that a comic isn’t for them!!!
the low, low woods is a perfectly queer, uncanny horror story that twists sociopolitical and gendered violence into an unforgettable homage to those who have been harmed by those who abuse power. i do wish there was more, but machado understands and utilizes silences and what goes unsaid on purpose, i think.
on a visual level, the page with jessica’s mother’s stomach will haunt me forever. you know the one. -
In Small Mining American Town, the women are having episodes of memory loss. Well, it’s gotta be the men’s fault, hasn’t it? Teenagers El and Octavia set out to find out what’s what because apparently only teenagers can crack this one.
I’ve never heard of either Carmen Maria Machado or Dani (really, artists are still going by single-name monikers?) and I can see why - The Low, Low Woods is a low, low quality comic!
The book is full of bad storytelling where all the disparate elements don’t mesh or come together as a coherent narrative. Deer monster, child witch, literal magic mushrooms, skinned men appearing out an abyss - ok, whatever. It’s coupled with really ugly, scratchy art throughout that often looks like thumbnails that got coloured in.
A totally unimpressive, thoroughly boring and unmemorable “horror” story, The Low, Low Woods is the worst one of DC’s Hill House range so far, and that’s saying something because they’re all terrible! -
I enjoyed this one and it had some moments of real beauty but, unfortunately, it fell short of what it could have been. The story was a little too loosely packed at times; left a little too open on occasion. I liked the impressionist art but it, too, didn't quite reach the heights it aspired to. There was an obvious Bill Sienkiewicz influence but it didn't manage to get to his level; too many times I felt like the abstraction was covering up shortcomings in the artist's technical draughtsmanship.
I would probably check out future works from this creative team, though, as I believe that, with more experience under their belts, they could well reach the standard they so clearly aspire to. -
I hated how this was put together. Four issues of watching these two girls live a high school existence with the occasional weird occurrence like deer women or skinned men appearing. Then in issue 5 it's all info dumped into our lap. It just wasn't at all satisfying. I didn't care for DaNi's loose, scratchy art either. There were times where I couldn't tell what was happening due to the poor art.
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So, let me start by saying that this book is heavy, and should be prefaced with many a trigger warning. This is a dark fantasy horror, and I do mean dark, and it will take an emotional toll. How much of one depends on how much of an empath you are. It didn't all necessarily make sense 100% of the time, but it was a worthwhile story, with lots of world-building, and it gets bonus points for diversity--the main characters were POC and LGBTQ, and one of them was curvy. The art itself was wonderfully done, and the colorist was superb. This is one of those rare instances where the art is just as good as the story. You can see and feel the oppressive mood of the story, and I think that's mostly due to the palette the colorist used. I recommend this to people who love horror, but I caution anyone who is triggered by abuse.
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Interesting. I enjoyed it but it felt like I was missing part of the story.
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LOVED this! I figured I would be in good hands with Carmen Maria Machado and I wasn't wrong. Fantastic horror comic that is creepy, disturbing, very queer, and touches on some intense topics (check content warnings below if you need them, but note they are kind of spoilery). It centers queer women of color which is awesome. Two young women are best friends living in small town Pennsylvania where there used to be coal mining. But strange things now inhabit the nearby woods. Love the friendship, love the way this uses horror to say something, love the art....just generally a fan.
Feel free to ignore all the men who didn't like that this wasn't for or about them. They are not the target audience and it's pretty clear when you look at the disparity in ratings. I think the art style is beautiful and fits the themes and tone of the story. And yeah, it may be a slow build but it's putting in place important elements of character and relationships. It's also worth noting that if men didn't find it to be scary, that is probably because they don't understand the lived experience of women. It is absolutely scary and disturbing when you aren't coming to it from a place of male privilege. This reminds me a lot of the conversations around horror by Black authors and white people saying it's not scary. Well yeah, not for YOU because your lived experiences are very different. It's funny that after looking at other peoples reviews my own doubled in length, but I think this is a fantastic horror comic if you are the target audience.
Content warnings include body horror, environmental horror, gore, violence, death. -
“. . . it’s like a very slow apocalypse”--Carmen Maria Machado, referring to the public health and economic disaster of coal country
My first experience with Carmen Maria Machado's work (illustrated by DaNi), which kinda makes me want to read her non-comics collection of short stories, My Body and Other Parties. I'm playing it safe now by giving this three stars to see if it gets any clearer or more interesting. It should be interesting to me; it features environmentalism (the story takes place in a small mining town) and connects the horror genre to real life horrors. It's a queer tale focusing on two teens, El and Octavia (as in Octavia Butler, get it) who may have fallen asleep in a movie or actually gone some place, as in some other magical or mystical dimension.
El and Tavi (who are friends) see deer girls, skinless boys (in addition to actual boy bullies), and so on. I have heard Machado's name connected to Kelly Link's speculative fiction, work described as "genre-bending," which leads me to wonder what is going on, periodically. There's color diversity, Tavi is having a relationship with a white girl, and this all figures in. . .
I read this because it was one of the nominees for the 2020 Goodreads Graphic Novels. I would not have voted for this to be in my top comics of the year, but hey, it's their first comics volume ever, maybe give it a chance? I do like the generally dark, expressionistic art style of DaNi, I like the coloring, sketchy for the darkness in which the tale takes place, but I am not et convinced. -
i don't have time to write book reviews just this second, but for now,
you can check out the newest book list i made for f(r)iction!!! it's great!! -
“I wasn’t wrong, but what I didn’t get was that she wasn’t wrong, either.”
The Low Low Woods follows two friends, El and Octavia (Vee), as they try to unveil a mystery within their small town. This gorgeous comic focuses primarily on topics of consent in a way I found incredibly compelling. The conflict between them is about one wanting to ignore the bear, ignore the night at the movie theater, but it’s really about belief—which one is willing to acknowledge truths, and which one is not. The elements of magical realism and fabulism, as they blend with the themes of the novel, work perfectly, with serving as a highlight for me. This was fabulous, and is definitely worth a read.
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Huh. Well, I disagree with some of the complaints I’ve read about this comic, but I definitely had some significant issues with it. *gathers thoughts*
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Four issues of floundering through teen angst and shuddering under a looming feeling of dread that something is wrong here as we are presented with confusing supernatural events. One issue of much exposition. And one issue that barely starts to scratch the surface of all the repercussions of the big reveal.
The themes here are powerful even if the execution leaves me wondering about the choices made in telling the story.
I've been thinking about it for a while, but now I need to check out
Her Body and Other Parties ASAP. -
WARNING: THIS REVIEW CONTAINS STRONG LANGUAGE! IF THAT OFFENDS YOU DON’T READ THIS BOOK OR MY REVIEW!
(Sigh)... This is gonna be a slight harsh one...
What’s it about?
Given how confusing and poorly written this is, good question. So basically there’s these 2 girls who wake up in a theater wondering what the fuck happened because they can’t remember anything and then they’re all “oh no what happened”. After that some weird shit happens.
Why it gets 1-star:
The story is confusing. I don’t know if it was too rushed, poorly written, not well thought out, not very good in general or all of the above (I’m thinking it’s the last one).
The characters are not good. The 2 main characters are a teenaged lesbian couple that are not only super bland, stereotypical teenage characters but also bland, stereotypical lesbians. They have no personality, they’re written the same exact way teenage girls are written in a huge pile of other YA books (though this is meant to be an adult book) and are super stereotypical regarding their sexuality. There’s a witchy character that is pretty much just there to make the ending happen. There’s other side characters that are mostly just uninteresting plot devices that are nothing more than that. The only character I liked or gave a shit about was the dog that showed up in a few pages here and there (he seemed like a good boy!).
The art is pretty bad. It’s often ugly, sometimes confusing and always flat. I actually blame some of my confusion and problems with the story on this art, it just doesn’t work.
The horror elements didn’t work for me. It’s not creepy, it’s not scary and there’s little-to-no gore. The only thing it could have shined with is monster designs but it fails there too. There’s these animal and tree women (or something) that aren’t even remotely scary or cool looking (with the exception of the deer woman that looks kinda cool until you realize only bucks have antlers so why the fuck would a feminine deer monster have them?). There’s also some male monsters that pretty much just look like bad Attack on Titan fan art.
The message of the story should work but doesn’t. So the story (I think) is meant to be a metaphor regarding violence towards women, mainly rape, and that should be a topic that works very well with the horror genre (I mean, what better genre of fiction to tackle real life horrors with, right?). Unfortunately due to being poorly written and poorly drawn, the message feels confusing and ultimately less meaningful than it should be. It’s a shame because I really do believe that horror would be an ideal genre to talk about things that are horrifying IRL, in fact I’ve seen it done very well and effectively many times, this just wasn’t even close to being one of those times.
The dialogue is terrible. Going back to another thing I talked about, it’s very stereotypical. The dialogue for lesbian teenagers is just a bit better than what I’d expect if a comicsgate supporter wrote these characters... I wish I was joking!
The pace seems... iffy. Sometimes it’s boring and other times it’s super speedy to the point of feeling rushed. The final issue was a bit better in that regard and actually fairly well-paced but the other 5 out of 6 issues ranged from boring to too fast. Machado really needs to figure out how to find that nice in-between area for storytelling.
There’s a romance element that I honestly couldn’t care less about. I mostly blame this on the characters being so poorly written and uninteresting but with it being a significant part of the story it is notable. I would also add that even with mediocre at best characters, I have seen some romance stories make it fun, sweet or cute... this book didn’t achieve that in the slightest IMO.
The ending is kinda stupid. It’s a meh solution that on one hand does finally explain to readers what the fuck they just read, on the other hand it’s a meh-at-best conclusion to the tale and really, it’s pretty bad that this book needed this ending to just kinda explain shit.
Overall:
I read this because it was nominated for best graphic novel in the opening round of the 2020 Goodreads choice awards. Being a fan of horror who reads piles of comics I was surprised I haven’t even heard of this, especially considering it was published by DC (seriously, I must have seen ads and just forgot it exists). Now I’m surprised that it got nominated.
A horror story approaching real life horrors is something that has been done a lot, often it’s done well and I like it... other times you get this. Instead of a gripping, intense and emotional story that effectively uses an outstanding genre we get poor quality artwork and terrible storytelling in a “why the fuck am I even reading this” worthy story with super stereotypical characters saying stereotypical dialogue, weak horror elements and bad pacing. It’s a mess and one of the worst horror books I’ve ever read.
I figured out that the fictional town this book takes place in, Shudder-To-Think, PA (because that DEFINITELY sounds like a town name (this is sarcasm even by PA standards and we have a place called Intercourse)) is most likely based on the real life town of Centralia, PA. Makes sense, as someone who’s been there I can confirm that it is a kinda creepy place, I could see using it as inspiration for a horror story (in fact, the film adaptation of Silent Hill is heavily influenced by Centralia). My advice is watch Silent Hill instead (and maybe visit Centralia if you find yourself nearby, it is a pretty cool and interesting place worth seeing). Don’t read this though. I’d shudder-to-think of myself sitting through another one this bad.
1/5 -
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2 ½ stars
Having only read Carmen Maria Machado's memoir, I wasn't sure what to except from The Low, Low Woods. The summary promised a creepy tale: we have the classic small town setting (here called Shudder-to-Think), strange creatures (deer-women, skinless men), and an old mystery.
The first issue begins with our two protagonists, El and Octavia, waking up in a movie theatre and not being able to recall the previous hours. Something happened, they know as much, but finding out the truth behind their missing memories might stir up some trouble.
While I appreciated the story's atmosphere, I didn't find it very unsettling. We have random monsters that seem to appear only because 'reasons'. Our two main characters weren't very interesting or likeable. One of them is secretly dating a popular girl, and that storyline felt very unexplored.
There were many events that had unconvincing explanations. The author seemed intent on making the story as mysterious as possible by leaving loose strands. Each issues ends in a cliffhanger that is often not directly resolved at the beginning of the following issue. And then we have the 5th issue which is basically info-dumping. There was no suspense. The two girls discover the truth behind the town's past in a very anticlimactic way. The 'feminist' angle was...meh? The story doesn't have anything interesting or insightful to say about men who abuse or control women.
The art I quite liked. I saw other reviewers criticising it for being 'scratchy' but I personally thought that it fitted with the story's aesthetics. Plus, there were some very stunning pages:
While I didn't particularly like this graphic novel's writing (we had clichéd quasi-wisdoms such as: "Sometimes, you have to listen to someone else's story"), its characterization nor its storyline, the art was pretty good and both main characters were queer. -
A horror filled with more real life horror and covered up with "monsters" to help illustrate the horrors of it all.
So the book starts with our two main characters, El and Vee, and right off the bat they're in a weird town filled with creatures that are monsters like half Deer humans, skinless men, and more. So when they awake in the theater and question what the hell happened, asking the guy who works there and not getting anywhere, they begin their investigation of the town and its dark past and secrets that are more horrifying than any "creature" out there.
And where The Low, Low Woods does well is it's characters. I liked Vee and El a lot because I like fucked up characters that aren't perfect and neither is. They're just trying to get through life, both being gay, and both trying to find their place in this screwed up town while also trying to get the hell out. The art gives a nice vibe of creepiness while also able to show good expression on character's faces. I also really dug the reveal, even if it's fucked up, they handled it well and the metaphors are well placed.
The things that didn't work for me as much is the fact this seems to be the author's first "comic" and so the dialogue can be a bit over preachy and much. This is common when authors of novels jump to comics. So I didn't take it to heart but the over-monologue and just general overwriting was getting a bit much by the end. I also thought the "scary" factor wasn't that well done. We could have gotten better monsters. Especially compared to what they represent and show, we could have for sure gotten "scarier" ones as a good metaphor.
Saying that this was still a pretty enjoyable read. A good first impression into the Joe Hill comic line. Excited to read more. A 3.5 out of 5. -
A creepy feminist horror comic about two teenage girls (one Latina, one Black, both queer) in a Pennsylvania coal mining town with shady shit going on. Very cool to see Carmen Maria Machado's imagination take shape with Dani's drawings, which were appropriately dark and mysterious. Content warning for sexual assault. I appreciated how this book explicitly talks about how there isn't one right way for survivors to act after assault.
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Half a star, and that's only for the six Jenny Frison variant covers.
There's a brief interview with artist Dani in the back of this collection, where the nameless interviewer states that there is s scene in the third issue that "will haunt readers for some time." When I saw it, prior to reading that comment, I said to myself "Am I supposed to know what the fuck that is...?" Which is a perfect commentary on Dani's scratchy, often indecipherable art. The story, by Carmen Maria Machado, is one of those "My hometown is so weird and quirky, tee hee hee, wink wink!" kind of Stranger Things riffs that drive me crazy. Yeah, we live in a town where women develop amnesia, rabbits have human eyes (Or so we are told...the art does not convey this.), skinless men roam the woods, and there is a deer/human hybrid, as well as an elderly witch who looks like a five-year-old girl. All perfectly normal. Despite taking place in some God-forsaken hillbilly coal mining town, cleverly (Not really cleverly) named "Shudder-To-Think", Pennsylvania, the lead characters are both people of color AND lesbians, which would probably get them beaten to death pretty quickly in a town as backward as this one is supposed to be. The girls go to school and do teenaged things for four issues while skinless people and deer-people walk around like it happens every day, and then we finally get a plot dumped on us all at once and out of nowhere in the fifth issue. (In case you didn't guess already, the gist of the story is "Men are horrible!", and GIRL POWAH!) Things are hastily wrapped up in the sixth issue, and I'm out fourteen bucks on this piece of junk. (As a man, there's nothing I love reading about more than how terrible I am....especially when I can pay for the privilege of reading about how terrible I am.)
I hate to come across as one of those terrible man cliches, but this was a hundred plus pages of social justice diatribes disguised as a story. Two Hill House books down...one great, one awful. Bring on the third collection! -
Die Freundinnen El und Vee leben im runtergekommenen Kaff Shudder-to-Think. Früher wurde hier Kohle abgebaut, aber dann gab es ein Unglück und seitdem ist der Ort eine weitgehend verlassene Geisterstadt, in der nur noch bleibt, wer keine andere Wahl hat. Unter dem Ort brennt ein Feuer, dem sonderbare Kreaturen entsteigen und die im Ort lebenden Frauen verlieren anfallsartig immer wieder ihre Erinnerung.
Für die lesbischen Freundinnen wäre das College der Weg raus aus der Albtraumstadt, aber die Eltern von El haben nicht die finanziellen Mittel, um ihr das College zu ermöglichen. Ab dem Moment, wo El nicht mehr bereit ist, die Augen zu verschließen und das Vergessen zu ignorieren, werden die beiden in einen Strudel von Ereignissen hineingezogen, an dessen Grund schließlich das Geheimnis von Shudder-to-Think gelüftet wird.
Carmen Maria Machado erzählt die Geschichte kunstvoll verwoben und komplex. Die vielen stimmigen Details sind es, die mich von Anfang an in die Story reingezogen haben. Im Vordergrund steht das Geheimnis der Stadt, das sich in zahlreichen Mystery=Elementen manifestiert, die sich zunächst nicht deuten lassen. Je weiter die Handlung fortschreitet, um so klarer wird aber, woher das Übel stammt, das die Frauen im Ort befällt.
THE LOW, LOW WOODS ist eine der besten Graphic Novels aus dem Horror=Genre, die ich seit langem gelesen habe. Es hat mich sehr angesprochen, dass die sehr unheimliche Atmosphäre, die Machado fantastisch herzustellen weiß, zunächst mehr Mystery als Horror ist und dass sich erst am Ende das als Horror herausstellt, was die tägliche Realität ist: Dass Frauen ständig Opfer männlicher Gewalt werden und Vergessen / Verschweigen / Verdrängen allzu oft die Regel ist.
THE LOW, LOW WOODS: Horror und Gesellschaftskritik verbinden sich hier exzellent, der Anspruch steht der Genre=Unterhaltung dabei nicht im Wege. Großartig! -
Una historia muy interesante en un pueblo rodeado de un bosque con inusuales e inquietantes criaturas.
Este pueblo tiene una característica y es que el ambiente, la naturaleza y los elementos que este posee incide en los habitantes de cierta forma. Y como siempre unos sacan provecho de esto, utilizándolo a su favor de una forma horrible y muy macabra.
Tiene un ritmo pausado, pero que invita a seguir leyendo, es de esas historias en las que te introduces, conoces al pueblo, sus habitantes, modo de vida, aunque sea por encima, te metes en la historia y en la vida de las dos protagonistas.
Una historia con un mensaje conciente, sólido y atemporal que invita a reflexionar con respecto a la manipulación, los miedos y sobre todo de la libertad en diferentes aspectos.
El dibujo me ha gustado, tiene unas ilustraciones hermosas y al final trae un compilado de las que fueron posibles portadas y son una belleza. -
Two teen-age girls leaving a movie theater without any memory of watching the movie. One very angry, El, and the other not wanting to know, Vee. They both are very much aware that something happened. What exactly DID happen to them?
El and Vee are best friends, inseparable since they were young children. They met in the woods. The woods they were not to go near. El rescued Vee from the skinless man. The reason they were to stay away. And the human deer figure that El saw on a camping trip. Vee chose to ignore her. Guess what? El was telling the truth. There first and last fight at the time. Their friendship endured, but something is trying to tear them apart.
Skinless men, the strange, malformed animals, the fire raging beneath them., and those women with a void that opens in their middle sucking in all that is around them.
And the witch. Did I not mention the witch?
This graphic novel is about women taking their power back. Women choosing to remember. Women willing to fight to regain the lives they had lost. When El, Vee, and the witch begin working together, tables are turned.
What exactly happening to the women of Shudder-To-Think, Pa.? You are about to find out and, oh boy, what a rush!
The beginning of this graphic novel had me confused. I wasnt quite sure what was going on. I held in there and was glad I did. Those that abused their power got what was coming to them. The story, at times brutal, does not stray from the harder topics. Although the supernatural is a huge part of this graphic novel, the story could very easily play out in our world. There are many monsters walking around with human faces.
Thanks to NetGalley, DC Black Label, and Carmen Maria Machado for an ARC in return for an honest review. -
fuck yeah.
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Shudder-To-Think, Pennsylvania, has been on fire for years. The coal mines beneath it are long since abandoned. The woods are full of rabbits with human eyes, a deer woman who stalks hungry girls, and swaths of skinless men. And the people in Shudder-to-Think are not doing well either.
When El and Octavia wake up in a movie theater with no memory of the last few hours of their lives, the two teenagers embark on a horrifying adventure to discover the truth about Shudder-To-Think. Like so many women before them, all they have is a void where the truth once was. Can these two teens discover the cause of their amnesia before whatever is lurking beneath their town rears its ugly head?
This was a pretty solid addition to the Hill House titles, with an interesting setting, characters, and art carrying these 6 issues. Carmen Maria Machado scripts an interesting horror mystery with some very likable characters, while Dani is able to bring so much life to said script with her stunning artwork. It’s definitely not for everyone and can be a bit scratchy, but it was perfect for this story.
Shudder-To-Think feels so well realized as a place and is my favorite of the already incredible settings that the Hill House comics have had. El and Vee, who are both queer women of color, have an incredible friendship that carries the story on its back, with some truly amazing scenes making me care about them both a lot. Yes, they have the usual teen angst, but I loved the journeys they both went on. It’s also great that nowadays in the comic market, there seems to be a book for just about everyone.
My only complaint is this has the same issue Basketful of Heads had, which is the author feels the need to give a big exposition dump during the second half of the story, and it just isn’t all that great since it can take the scary out of the horror that had been built up until that point. I get why the writer did it, but it really didn’t need it.
Everything else about this is great though, and this is a book that will hopefully appeal to those who don’t normally read comics. Would recommend it to anyone interested in these Hill House books or horror comics in general. -
Oh man. I was the only person at book club who voted against reading this, due to my well-documented hatred of horror, but I was strongly overruled and here we are. I won't say I was wrong in being disinclined to dive into something that centers on... well I suppose I won't spoiler it but see if you can guess from the book's blurb what might be happening to a town full of women who regularly lose time and cannot remember what's been done to them. Go ahead and skip right to the darkest explanation you can imagine, and you still probably won't have guessed just how dark this book gets.
And yet. Filled as it is with self-possessed "dirtbag" teens, burgeoning queer love, the power of teen-girl friendships, tiny witches, black-hole women, skinless monsters, glowing supernatural mushrooms, bicycles as metaphors for freedom (and as, you know, actual freedom), it's quite compelling, even the pages you have to read with one eye basically closed, since they're so upsetting.
There's a lot in here that didn't make complete sense, which led to a spirited and interesting book club meeting, but still I'd recommend this for being evocative, wild, strong, and powerful. But gird your loins or harden your heart or whatever you need to do, because this shit is dark. -
(4,1 of 5 for another more than interesting Hill House horror comics)
Low, low woods is LGBT+ empowered six-issue-long horror comics. I know it sounds sketchy because many LGBT+ inclusion comics is annoying because too much attention is directed more to "LGBT+ inclusion" than to the quality of the comics. But not his time. The "LGBT+" aspect is included in a way which feels natural, normal and part of the setting. That feels alright, making it normal, not privileged. Bend it around the story, not the other way.
Back to the story - it is good, supernatural, kind of Stranger Things in witch town and I appreciated how the art supplements the theme (and vice versa). I won't go into details because I do not want to spoil anything to anybody, but I must say I enjoyed "young witch" character. And there is a lot of other clever ideas too. -
Creepy art, dark and moody and perfect for this time of year. Dark, feminist story centered on a town that's perpetually on fire (based on Centralia, PA).
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El and Vee wake up in an empty movie theatre, realizing that their memories have been stolen. In the gloomy Pennsulvania mining town of Shudder-to-Think, a mysterious phenomena that eats the memories of its female inhabitants creates an inescapable cycle of abuse and conformity. El and Vee seek out an old witch to help them crack the code of the strange curse that haunts their town and the rise of strange creatures that crawl up from its shadowy depths.
Deer women, flayed man-beasts, dimensional womb portals, tree people, witchcraft and more. This story has lots of cool ideas that I was excited to read about, but it fails to deliver or properly explore any of them to a satisfying degree. None of the characters or their relationships are particularly likable minus the cute bond between El and her father. The main story feels less like a horror mystery and more like generic YA fantasy tripe. The explanations are flimsy and the big plot twist is haphazardly info-dumped in half a chapter, leading to a very unsatisfying resolution that doesn't make use of its assets at all. Some of the monster designs were kind of neat, but they didn't fit in with the narrative much and they felt uninspired as a result.
Maybe would've benefited from being a longer series. It tried to cram too many complex ideas into less than 200 pages and couldn't satisfyingly explore any of them to their full potential. I did like the theme of the silence of people trying to maintain a positive image leading to the upholding of harmful traditions protecting dangerous people, but even this wasn't accomplished all that well.
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This short story has almost everything I look for nowadays in a comic book: diverse, LGTB female lead characters with a well defined personal agenda, witchcraft, gender issues, and a dark, grimy and thrilling atmosphere. And girl, it really pays off. Only the last two issues start to feel too rushed, looking for an ending that feels not totally ready or well developed. That's the only low in this comic. Apart from that, the artwork feels really good: attractive but not so much that it will steal protagonism from the plot or its characters. A not too pretentious plot, with a well-defined mystery that, at least, gets a decent solution by the end. But what is really going to make me remember The Low, Low Woods are its teenage protagonists. They both grew in me from the very first issue. They are charismatic but terribly relatable. Their friendship is crafted carefully and it's what really moves the whole book.
In the end, I would have expected a little bit more cathartic resolution to the plot, but I don't complain that much. It seems like each day it's more complicated to find comic books that I find enjoyable, and this one was clearly one of the best I read this year. I would highly recommend giving it a chance. -
I was going to give this 3 stars but if we go by that definition, I can't say I liked this. This books was depressing and just had a dark cloud hovering over the story all the way through. The idea of this town made no sense, with women with sinkholes in the middle of their stomachs, female deers I didn't quite understand the purpose of, or the skinned men, for that matter. When it was loosely explained why the town (that always appeared to be inhabited by less than 20 people and seemed to be in perpetual twilight hours) was the way it was, I had lost interest and didn't really care anymore.
The one thing I did like was the relationship between El and her dad, but that wasn't a big part of the story. One particular scene I really hated and wondered why it even had to be included was a scene where Vee enters El's room and states her room smelled like something. Why was that necessary? I'm frankly embarrased the author felt the need to add that scene.
The artwork was muddy and gloomy and faces weren't executed very well. And why did it feel that as the book progressed, El kept getting bigger and bigger? I am all for making one of the lead characters a larger girl, but be consistent. She starts off looking thin and then her body keeps shifting throughout the story.
