School Library Journal Review
Gr 9 Up-What starts as a common fairy tale trope-Prince Hector and Princess Aurora are having tea the day after a ball-quickly turns dark and disturbing. The prince is charming but self-absorbed, and the princess is somewhat flighty and unprepared, when the ceiling appears to fall in, and they find themselves in a dark forest filled with other refugees, all Borrowers-small. While Aurora and her friend Plim adapt to their surroundings, taking charge and feeding the others they have found, Hector is only concerned with staring into space. None of the characters notice the dead body that they are playing on and living around (a human-sized girl, also named Aurora), and do not question where the items they are using are from (quite possibly the corpse's purse). The forest's animals do not speak, distancing this from other fairy tales. The end does not find our characters rescued but living in the shack of a hermitlike human man, referred to as a giant. The artwork is cartoonlike and colorful, in contrast with the morbid and macabre tone. All of the protagonists are wide-eyed, though the animals and bodies are drawn realistically. Purchase where teens like their graphic novels and fractured fairy tales on the dark side.-Suanne B. Roush, formerly at Osceola High School, Seminole, FL (c) Copyright 2014. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
A whimsical tea-party in bright pastels turns bitter in the first pages of this macabre graphic novel for grownups. Pretty, cheery faerie Aurora and her band of tiny companions crawl out of a young girl's corpse in the woods and quickly find themselves in a strange new world, starving as well as besieged and brutalized by insects, birds, and mice. Some of her companions are clueless, others are cruel, and their arboreal paradise quickly becomes a Lord of the Flies-style horror. Kerascoet's lush illustrations of the tiny little fantasy people are highlighted against realistic natural scenes of the wood's rich flora and fauna. This blend of imaginative characters in the physical world inspires gasps and shudders when nature overcomes them: the little people are savaged and preyed on not only by the animals but also by each other. A midbook full-page illustration of nature engulfing the long-dead girl in the woods is both heartbreaking and shocking. Aurora's attempts to manage this society of self-obsessed little persons drive her into a brutal, feral state-her horrific retaliation against nature pushes her away from her fellow faeries, even when they invade her new safe place. This unforgettable graphic novel hovers on the edge of your daydreams and nightmares. (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Booklist Review
When Princess Aurora's world implodes, she puts her courtship with the handsome prince aside to help make a life for herself and the other fairylike folk of her kingdom who inhabit this gorgeous, brutal book by award-winning French writer Vehlmann (Isle of 100,000 Graves, 2011). In scenes that mirror the worst of human behavior, the more Aurora blithely goes about putting things in order, the more those around her scheme, betray, belittle, and disregard everything our morality tells us the characters should care about. The delicate, haunting, and beautiful watercolor artwork by Kerascoet helps to enhance the fairy-tale setting, juxtaposing the small, petty characters perfectly against the lush blues, greens, and purples used to create the huge forest that surrounds them. The result is a story that shocks as it entertains and is predictably unpredictable. As the seasons turn and wide-eyed Aurora loses her amiable innocence, the reader is left not knowing whether to cry or cheer when Aurora finally decides she's had enough.--Volin, Eva Copyright 2014 Booklist
Library Journal Review
Beautiful Darkness opens on an adorable, doe-eyed elfin girl flirting with an equally darling elfin boy, a sure sign that we're in for a sweet little love story in miniature. But things start to go wrong almost immediately, and just a few pages in a rainstorm reveals that these creatures are effectively living on, in, and around the decaying body of a little girl lost in the woods. It's horrifying and eerie but also extremely well executed. The juxtaposition between the pixyish cast and the harsh realities of nature, in which they live alongside, and sometimes in bloody conflict with, mice, bugs, birds, and flies, is striking. In addition, a slightly sociopathic tale of romantic and political intrigue is woven through the story and builds slowly to a satisfying and shudder-worthy conclusion. The story and setting are just a bit Brothers Grimm-like in their melding of human and sylvan darkness, and the soft, soothing tones of husband-and-wife team Kerascoet's (Miss Don't Touch Me) watercolors make the mood that much more uneasy and sinister. Verdict A subtly scary watercolor wonderland that explores the darkness of human nature, Beautiful Darkness at once celebrates and transcends the conventions of both the graphic novel and fairy-tale media.-Emilia Packard, Austin, TX (c) Copyright 2014. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
