The design and UX isn't done, Rob and Abbie, okkurrrr! 😌
gunstreet's review against another edition
2.0
I quite liked the art but did we really need another story where women are raped and murdered in a post-apocalyptic hellscape?
numberoneblind's review against another edition
1.0
A white man wrote about women characters being raped and murdered by men in a post-apocalyptic world. Wish I read the reviews before buying and reading this comic.
tangiblereads's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
funny
mysterious
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
4.0
Black River is an odd dystopian book that is really graphic and gory. This group of travelers, mostly ladies, have to make some tough choices for survival. And sanity if definitely a luxury they don't have. The wierd sex scene was funny also. The black and white illustrations are perfect to depict the harshness of their reality. This book has minimal dialogue, which I appreciated. I mean, not much to say when your world has been destroyed and you are just surviving day by day. I enjoyed this book even if I didn't get what really was meant by the ending.Â
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Violence
bluehairedlibrarian's review against another edition
dark
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
1.0
The author has absolutely nothing to say with this book. It's a series of tropes from apocalyptic fiction played out by one-dimensional characters sleep walking through nothing. There's no substance, no voice, nothing.
coffeedog14's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Having blitzed through a variety of this authors works all at once, I think this is my favorite in spite of a really lengthy and uncomfortable section at the latter half. The agony of everything falling apart is most of what I was reading for, and I think it really brings that feeling home.Â
amandaegle's review against another edition
2.0
This is a post apocalyptic story about a group of women and one man who are trying to survive.
I found a lot of things problematic with this. It's overly violent, graphically sexual, the art is a little intense, and the lettering is strange and jarring. One character for some reason can only say the word "dickpussy" which I didn't really find funny or understand why she only said that.
This just made me uncomfortable than anything.
I found a lot of things problematic with this. It's overly violent, graphically sexual, the art is a little intense, and the lettering is strange and jarring. One character for some reason can only say the word "dickpussy" which I didn't really find funny or understand why she only said that.
This just made me uncomfortable than anything.
lindsaymae14's review against another edition
2.0
wasn't enough character development or backstory to feel invested in their journey
zuulish's review against another edition
1.0
we love subjecting women to sexual violence with no aid to the plot... thanks for this crap
francoisvigneault's review against another edition
4.0
I'm not gonna necessarily "recommend" it for all (or even most) readers, it is an absolutely ruthless and withering post-apocalyptic tale, totally raw, and definitely not for the faint of heart (myself perhaps included), but I think it's an incredible piece of graphic narrative. Horrible and haunting.
ellenripleysleftboot's review against another edition
1.0
SPOILERS AHEAD FOR MAJOR PLOT AND CHARACTER RELATED STUFF
I don't I've ever read a book that made me physically repulsed before, and I've read some pretty messed up stuff. However, this book has succeeded in being the most repugnant and disgusting thing that I've ever read. I don't mind sensitive topics being covered in a post apocalyptic settings (like rape or extreme violence). However, this story uses these things purposelessly not to show how hopeless the world of this universe is, but for the hell of it. Or that is at least how it feels due to the poor quality of the writing. I could understand that perhaps Simmons was trying to show how utterly hopeless and pointless these particular characters need for survival ultimately is as all these bad things happened to them, but non of it had a rhythm or even a clear motivation to it. I get that it might being going for the angle that the apocalypse if it ever happens is going to suck, but it doesn't even successfully achieve that, as we don't spend enough time in the world to understand what happens, why it sucks, or why any of it even matters. Not that there has to be an inherent meaning in everything. Simmons could be going some cold nihilistic existential bleak outlook on existence (which I believe he is), but I have Camus and Sarte for that (they're better at writing about that stuff anyway). This authors nihilistic approach feels more like that one emo kid who thinks he's super deep, philosophical and subversive for putting a bunch of heavy subject-matter in his short story for creative writing, coming off as a desperate ploy for attention as he isn't creative enough to actually try writing an actual story. I read a book the other day called Laid Waste (Julia Gfrörer) which handles its grim and hard subject-matter leaps and bounds better than this book ever could hope to, and it does it 80 pages. Though it isn't post-apocalyptic, it does have that overhanging sense of grim existentialism and deals with themes of entropy (something I believe Black River also attempts and fails miserably on).
The story is violent act after violent act without any context or even a shred of character to it. Not to mention that all the characters in the story ranged from one-dimensional to no-dimensional as they had no defining traits or characteristics that made them seem even a little like they had a personality. There were hints to some possibly having personalities (if you consider a character who's only lines of dialogue is repeating the word "dickpussy" over and over again to be a character trait). There is one battle-hardened character named Seka who has at least that going for her, but there is nothing else to her other than that she is tough. No other personality traits. She instead becomes that one cliche tough-no-nonsense female character that is often seen in these types of media al-la Furiosa (Mad Max Fury Road), Michone (Walking Dead), Vic McQueen (NOS4A2, not a post-apocalyptic novel but uses the same general archetype) and Ellen Ripley (Alien), but without any of the charm or distinguishing personality that sets these characters apart from one another. Because this story refuses to have any actual characters, instead opting for cardboard-cut-outs of characters that are there solely to have bad things happen to them, the story lacks any tension or stakes. We don't care what happens and are instead disgusted with the fact that someone would even write this stuff the way they did in the first place.
This of course brings us to the long and drawn out section of this short book involving the rape and murder of a lot of the main cast. I have never seen a story handle this subject matter worse than this book, and I've read a couple books that deal with this stuff. The rape is done to characters we don't care about for shock value and nothing more (which is not how rape should ever be treated in any story what-so-ever). It is a disgusting and reprehensible thing to write about. It is clear that the author either doesn't understand the gravity of what he is writing about or doesn't care. There is also this stereotypical post-apocalyptic bad guy (Benji) who spouts of things like "I hurt people who are close to me" and "I did things to other human beings I never could have imagined." Like thanks for the info Mr. Walking-Cliche-Villain. Benji's lines are tired and don't have much of any bearing on the themes of the overall story, not that the story is actually any good. There is also a scene where one of the "characters" we meet at the half-way point of the story (Caramel) who is barley even discussed that much after her introduction is senselessly raped and then killed. She doesn't have any purpose in the narrative and is just there for her death to be trauma-fuel and shocking. Caramel's death is used as a gimick in this scene in order to push the characters into acting, and its horrible. Her's is of course not the only death in this book or scene that is pointless and hollow.
Now, I want to mention the pacing, which is the worst that I've ever seen in any book thus far. The book takes place over the course of a couple weeks (maybe, it's not clear) and then jumps forward twelve years at the end of the book, however due to its length of 109 pages (thank god it didn't go on longer) the book has to be condensed. This makes it so you don't know how much time is passing and it can be confusing. For example when characters like Daisy, Seka, Shaunna, etc, got upset over Caramel's death enough to go after the men who had captured them, I was confused. I guess you could say the very acts these men committed were horrific and thus Caramel's death was the breaking point, but I didn't understand why characters were crying over her since it seemed that they had just met her two days ago. The pacing is poor and doesn't allow for character growth and development to occur naturally. There even has to be an offhand comment near the end of the book saying "it's been twelve years" in order to establish that time has passed instead of showing us that the time has passed.
The final thing I am going to touch on briefly is how bad the artwork is. It's not the worst I've seen, but it's still ugly and sometimes makes it hard to distinguish who certain characters are due to the poor rendering. There is a scene near the end of the book where it looks like a bunch of characters are in a war-zone eating human flesh or bleeding from the mouth (either could be viable) and it's so unclear because of how badly the story is structured and how poor the art is done what the heck is going on.
All in all, this book was a massive piece of garbage. Not hot garbage like How We Live Now or trashy fun like A Court Of Thorns And Roses (Sarah J. Maas). This book is actual trash. Don't buy it as a gift for a friend unless you hate them, and definitely don't buy it for yourself. If you want to read a good graphic novel set in a post-apocalyptic/dystopian world, check out the following: The Walking Dead (Robert Kirkman), The Wrenchies (Farel Dalrymple), Akira (Katsuhiro Otomo), Y: The Last Man (Brian K. Vaughn), or V For Vendetta (Alan Moore). Literally anything is better to spend your money and time on than this novel. $20 dollars is not worth the amount of hateful and poorly written tripe that is found in this book.
I don't I've ever read a book that made me physically repulsed before, and I've read some pretty messed up stuff. However, this book has succeeded in being the most repugnant and disgusting thing that I've ever read. I don't mind sensitive topics being covered in a post apocalyptic settings (like rape or extreme violence). However, this story uses these things purposelessly not to show how hopeless the world of this universe is, but for the hell of it. Or that is at least how it feels due to the poor quality of the writing. I could understand that perhaps Simmons was trying to show how utterly hopeless and pointless these particular characters need for survival ultimately is as all these bad things happened to them, but non of it had a rhythm or even a clear motivation to it. I get that it might being going for the angle that the apocalypse if it ever happens is going to suck, but it doesn't even successfully achieve that, as we don't spend enough time in the world to understand what happens, why it sucks, or why any of it even matters. Not that there has to be an inherent meaning in everything. Simmons could be going some cold nihilistic existential bleak outlook on existence (which I believe he is), but I have Camus and Sarte for that (they're better at writing about that stuff anyway). This authors nihilistic approach feels more like that one emo kid who thinks he's super deep, philosophical and subversive for putting a bunch of heavy subject-matter in his short story for creative writing, coming off as a desperate ploy for attention as he isn't creative enough to actually try writing an actual story. I read a book the other day called Laid Waste (Julia Gfrörer) which handles its grim and hard subject-matter leaps and bounds better than this book ever could hope to, and it does it 80 pages. Though it isn't post-apocalyptic, it does have that overhanging sense of grim existentialism and deals with themes of entropy (something I believe Black River also attempts and fails miserably on).
The story is violent act after violent act without any context or even a shred of character to it. Not to mention that all the characters in the story ranged from one-dimensional to no-dimensional as they had no defining traits or characteristics that made them seem even a little like they had a personality. There were hints to some possibly having personalities (if you consider a character who's only lines of dialogue is repeating the word "dickpussy" over and over again to be a character trait). There is one battle-hardened character named Seka who has at least that going for her, but there is nothing else to her other than that she is tough. No other personality traits. She instead becomes that one cliche tough-no-nonsense female character that is often seen in these types of media al-la Furiosa (Mad Max Fury Road), Michone (Walking Dead), Vic McQueen (NOS4A2, not a post-apocalyptic novel but uses the same general archetype) and Ellen Ripley (Alien), but without any of the charm or distinguishing personality that sets these characters apart from one another. Because this story refuses to have any actual characters, instead opting for cardboard-cut-outs of characters that are there solely to have bad things happen to them, the story lacks any tension or stakes. We don't care what happens and are instead disgusted with the fact that someone would even write this stuff the way they did in the first place.
This of course brings us to the long and drawn out section of this short book involving the rape and murder of a lot of the main cast. I have never seen a story handle this subject matter worse than this book, and I've read a couple books that deal with this stuff. The rape is done to characters we don't care about for shock value and nothing more (which is not how rape should ever be treated in any story what-so-ever). It is a disgusting and reprehensible thing to write about. It is clear that the author either doesn't understand the gravity of what he is writing about or doesn't care. There is also this stereotypical post-apocalyptic bad guy (Benji) who spouts of things like "I hurt people who are close to me" and "I did things to other human beings I never could have imagined." Like thanks for the info Mr. Walking-Cliche-Villain. Benji's lines are tired and don't have much of any bearing on the themes of the overall story, not that the story is actually any good. There is also a scene where one of the "characters" we meet at the half-way point of the story (Caramel) who is barley even discussed that much after her introduction is senselessly raped and then killed. She doesn't have any purpose in the narrative and is just there for her death to be trauma-fuel and shocking. Caramel's death is used as a gimick in this scene in order to push the characters into acting, and its horrible. Her's is of course not the only death in this book or scene that is pointless and hollow.
Now, I want to mention the pacing, which is the worst that I've ever seen in any book thus far. The book takes place over the course of a couple weeks (maybe, it's not clear) and then jumps forward twelve years at the end of the book, however due to its length of 109 pages (thank god it didn't go on longer) the book has to be condensed. This makes it so you don't know how much time is passing and it can be confusing. For example when characters like Daisy, Seka, Shaunna, etc, got upset over Caramel's death enough to go after the men who had captured them, I was confused. I guess you could say the very acts these men committed were horrific and thus Caramel's death was the breaking point, but I didn't understand why characters were crying over her since it seemed that they had just met her two days ago. The pacing is poor and doesn't allow for character growth and development to occur naturally. There even has to be an offhand comment near the end of the book saying "it's been twelve years" in order to establish that time has passed instead of showing us that the time has passed.
The final thing I am going to touch on briefly is how bad the artwork is. It's not the worst I've seen, but it's still ugly and sometimes makes it hard to distinguish who certain characters are due to the poor rendering. There is a scene near the end of the book where it looks like a bunch of characters are in a war-zone eating human flesh or bleeding from the mouth (either could be viable) and it's so unclear because of how badly the story is structured and how poor the art is done what the heck is going on.
All in all, this book was a massive piece of garbage. Not hot garbage like How We Live Now or trashy fun like A Court Of Thorns And Roses (Sarah J. Maas). This book is actual trash. Don't buy it as a gift for a friend unless you hate them, and definitely don't buy it for yourself. If you want to read a good graphic novel set in a post-apocalyptic/dystopian world, check out the following: The Walking Dead (Robert Kirkman), The Wrenchies (Farel Dalrymple), Akira (Katsuhiro Otomo), Y: The Last Man (Brian K. Vaughn), or V For Vendetta (Alan Moore). Literally anything is better to spend your money and time on than this novel. $20 dollars is not worth the amount of hateful and poorly written tripe that is found in this book.