Reviews with content warning for Violence - Something is Killing the Children : The angel of Archer's Peak

Reviews tagging 'Violence'

Something is Killing the Children : The angel of Archer's Peak by James Tynion IV

61 reviews

steveatwaywords's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.75

I may revise my rating later, but this first entry into the series of horror comics feels at one and the same time cliched in its scenes and characters and working too hard to provoke readers through its gore of child bodies.

I'm a fan of Tynion's other work, especially Nice House on the Lake, so I want top read the rest of the series to see where it goes; this first volume leaves far too much yet unexplained (though the foreshadowing of a dark cabal of monster-killers isn't altogether promising).

Am I missing something, or is some horror now more akin to dark fantasy? I felt no horror, but was compelled a bit by the action.

(And as ever, kudos to Tynion for normalizing the non-binary.)

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megwilli's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

5.0

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ksuazo94's review against another edition

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challenging dark sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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sunshinestark's review against another edition

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5.0

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maedae4's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

This comic was recommended to me by my friend Joe and I wasn't sure I would like it because I don't usually read comics/image-text/graphic material like this. Plus, the art was different from what I normally read--it's quite realistic, gritty, dark, and sketched out.

But wow, this is great! And utterly horrifying. Definitely some of the most horrifying visuals I've seen in a long time. But it relates to something James Tynion said in an interview (which is included in the final pages of my edition): "Horror and comedy... are trying to elicit reactions from an audience more than they are trying to tell an audience something. They can be blunt instruments, because it's less about the blow [and] more about the aftermath of that blow." It also relates to this point about how comics can achieve dread through or in spite of visual pacing: "you need a complicated enough image that you force the reader to look at it for more than a split second to absorb the horror of it, and then you use the dialogue coming out of the scene to carry that feeling forward, or turn away from it." I find both of these quotes to represent my reading experience. Werther Dell'edera does such an amazing job with these gut-wrenching visuals of dead and dying bodies that I feel horrified and also compared to investigate every square inch of the bodies. It's a conflict that forces me to look inward, question myself, and also stretches out that feeling of dread.

For the most part, I found the story wonderfully understated and intimate. No one is ever killed without a visceral, if brief, look at how that death has shocked other people to their core. Dell-edera captures the look (that I can fortunately only imagine) of someone being actively rewritten by what they've witnessed. Erica is a fascinating character who doesn't quite fall into the hot girl monster hunter she could be (even though she IS a hot girl monster hunter); she's not a hero, not clean and tidy, she's strange and alienating and not always good at communicating. At the same time, she contains multitudes, because she can be great at communicating with the kids and frightened adults she's trying to help and she's the only one at House of Slaughter who actually seems to care about protecting human beings. The authority figures who come from local systems are totally disillusioned, clueless, and emotionally worn, but their grumpiness feels real and heartrending rather than gruff and vaguely masculine. The exposition about monsters and Erica's career are sprinkled in mysteriously and subtly rather than frontloaded, which would break the spell of realness in this story. Overall, the story manages to be stylized but also grounded and real.

Even though I'm not sure why Bian had to be there for the ritual at the end (unless she helped create the monsters too?), I still loved her presence and I loved the way that she bounced off of Erica, as well as the way James bounced off of her. They make an unusual but appropriate team. It's also meaningful that a kid like James is at the center of this debacle. He's an awkward, shaggy queer kid who's too guarded to ever show his face except for the ritual, when he has to face the source of the monsters and the extent of his responsibility (something he's been struggling with throughout the story). He's probably been made to feel like he doesn't deserve to take up any space. But he want to help and he doesn't want to give up on his life--he says as much in his post-gunshot delirium. I can take that as a statement that we can face the horror of ourselves and our role in a problem without abandoning hope or self-respect or a will to live. And it feels poignant that the monsters exist because James could imagine them in the first place. It sends an interesting message--the worst things you can imagine are real. Maybe that's the underlying horror of the book and its images, which I would call audaciously violent if they weren't, somehow, so subtle.

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