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A review by iffer
Eartha by Cathy Malkasian
3.0
Overall, I enjoyed this, especially the whimiscal premise of an island refuge that learns about the world, and helps the world, by tending to others' dreams. However, the execution did not live up to the potential. This seemed like another case of Fantagraphics trying to be "literary" and succeeding, at least in marketing to snooty people (e.g. people who find graphic novels from bestseller and book award lists) but overall seeming just okay to me.
I enjoyed the landscape art, but I'm not a huge fan of the sometimes-grotesque appearance of the humanoid character. I am also not a fan of the unnecessary, and repeated, groping of the main character who is portrayed as a physically fully-grown female with an intellectual disability. The book's pacing is uneven. It is understandably slower at the beginning to communicate a sense of wonder, and provide background for how the fantasy setting works, but the story then sags in the middle and then reveals all the "twists" in short order at the end in an unsatisfying manner.
I enjoyed the landscape art, but I'm not a huge fan of the sometimes-grotesque appearance of the humanoid character. I am also not a fan of the unnecessary, and repeated, groping of the main character who is portrayed as a physically fully-grown female with an intellectual disability. The book's pacing is uneven. It is understandably slower at the beginning to communicate a sense of wonder, and provide background for how the fantasy setting works, but the story then sags in the middle and then reveals all the "twists" in short order at the end in an unsatisfying manner.