Karen is a strong character, attached to the idea of being turned into a monster to save her mother (who is dying from cancer). She snoops and becomes a detective in order to make sense of the cold, cruel world around her. She is often alone, looking in on the living, the happy, the down trodden. There are several moments where Karen's fear is palpable, where it can be felt either through her words or the illustrations she draws within her notebook. She befriends other outcasts, some real and some possibly imagined. The illustrations were vivid, the sketching grotesque, but beautiful. A lovely contrast between black and white and colour, splatters of the rainbow interspersed throughout bleak, dark pages. Colour was used to display something that means a lot to Karen, or was symbolic of the person she was drawing. Karen also draws beautiful copies of the paintings she sees at the museum, where she feels safe, but she adds her own artistic signature. Pulling out the details she sees and highlighting her interpretation of the work. I loved the chapter breaks, covers of horror comic books that Karen is copying from her own stash. Each one foreshadowing what is to come in the following pages. All of them colourful, fearful, terrifying, but less horrific than the actual things Karen encounters in her world. As well, the notebook style pages add to the feeling of being a personal reflection by a young woman, still in school, writing these thoughts as she experiences them. The drawings shape a story of death, weaving an image of who might have murdered Anka. Dragging the reader into darkness, worried for Karen, disgusted by the world. I found some moments to be too long, too in depth, sometimes it felt like I was trudging through. But, overall, it was an eerie, well crafted look at the inner workings of a young girls mind. The tangents, the embellishments, the trust and love for her family (who clearly lie to her). I am excited for the next volume.
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