Book Description Mila is a solitary teenager ready to put another boring summer vacation behind her until she meets Agnes, an adventurous girl who turns out to be a ghost. And not just a regular ghost, but one carrying the essence of an ancient fallen king and a mouth full of teeth that used to be his guardian warriors. Three-time Eisner Award-nominated writer/artist Tony Sandoval presents a wondrous world of secret places and dreamlike magic hidden in the everyday corners of our sleeping imagination. Customers Review: That was one of the most bizarre, surreal, and unsettling graphic novels I’ve ever read… and I loved it so much I don’t even know how to explain why. Let me start with the artwork: this is some of the most unique and quietly disturbing art I’ve ever seen in a graphic novel, and it works SO WELL for Watersnakes. The story starts off with Mila, a young woman who meets another girl and is immediately captivated by her presence, her looks, her… teeth? She begins to form a seemingly unhealthy obsession over the other girl, but meanwhile, strange dreams begin to plague her about a deep underwater cave full of spirits. There’s nothing else I can say without spoiling the entire odd little plot, but let me just say that the artwork and story make this one well worth your time if you enjoy strange fantasy/horror crossover work.
I read “Watersnakes” last night and my soul is singing, my heart is distracted by the beauty of dreams and my brain is ticking away in some communicative language with the universe. This narrative is GORGEOUS, the story is surreal and wondrous, and my whole being is inspired. And the book itself is also delicious – the matte hardcover has a unique smooth skin-like feel and there are shiny bits in the letters.Afterward, I decided to buy more of his books. This is a rare thing for me. But it is done and I am happy.This book is great for those minds searching for surreal, weird, beauty and unusual characters.
I loved the artwork in this book. The story confused me. I bought this for my daughter, who was already following this artist online and she adores it. Beautiful and weird and wonderful.
I loved everything about this. Will be reading again it made me :)))))
Nice story!
I’ve read Sandoval’s “Doomboy” and “A Glance Backward”, so I had an idea of what I was getting into with this latest offering. That said, this book is creepier, darker, and more melancholy than Sandoval’s other books, but it also follows a crisper narrative line and delivers even more than it promises.As to the story, this may be the first book I’ve read where the two sentence publisher’s blurb is essential reading. Here it is (MAJOR TOTAL SPOILER) — “Mila is a quiet, solitary teenager ready to put another boring summer vacation behind her until she meets Agnes, an intriguing adventurous girl who turns out to be a ghost. And not just a regular ghost, but one carrying the essence of a fallen king, and a mouth full of teeth that used to be guardian warriors.” That’s the book. If you don’t read those two sentences you will spend a lot of time going in circles around your own navel trying to find the meaning and sense in the narrative. And I only want to ask myself questions like “what does the octopus represent?” so many times before I move on.So, if we already know the entire story, what’s left? Well, everything. The story is always the least interesting part of a Sandoval project, and this is no exception. It’s the journey, not the destination, and so on. Actually, I used that old canard for a reason. This book is Sandoval’s neatest and tightest journey, and its structure is fascinating. This time I won’t spoil anything, but merely say this — the tale starts slowly as we follow Mila, meet Agnes, toy with girlish sexual attraction, and dance around the repulsion/attraction that binds the two girls.The story gets creepier and creepier, although nothing explicitly horrible happens. It’s all threat and imminence, and the tension keeps winding up even though nothing explicitly bad is happening. Then we have an alarming development, a pause, more alarms, longer pauses, some monologuing to clean up the debris after the metaphorical storm, and then, amazingly, at about the halfway mark, the rest of the book, (the fairy tale magical adventure part), finally starts. Wow.Lots of bizarro, postmodern, and experimental writers play around with this stuff, and I consume a steady diet of it with gusto. But almost no one can pull that off in a graphic novel. Sure, you have the occasional “Sandman” and the like, but most of the time you get pompous incomprehensibility. And bad penciling and inking. Not so here. Sandoval’s gorgeous watercolors are innocent and poisonous. It’s all pastels and button noses and awkward girlishness. But underneath that the effect is similar to those old experimental German stop action short films that turned innocent everyday objects, (pins, kitchenware, doll heads, scissors), into fearful animated creatures.So, how do you fully describe a book that is both whimsical and horrible, gentle and grotesque, playful and deadly serious? I guess you just say – that’s Sandoval.(Please note that I received a free advance will-self-destruct-in-x-days Adobe Digital copy of this book without a review requirement, or any influence regarding review content should I choose to post a review. Apart from that I have no connection at all to either the author or the publisher of this book.)
“Watersnakes” is about a girl named Mila, who rides down to the river one day and meets Agnes. The two girls become fast friends. Mila is intrigued by Agnes’ teeth and all of her wild stories. After an incident occurs between them, Mila finds out from Agnes’ brother, Julien, that Agnes has actually been dead for 11 years.I’ll be honest – I picked up this graphic novel because I loved the cover artwork. I wasn’t sure what to expect from Tony Sandoval as I’ve never read his previous work, but I was incredibly impressed with his artwork. This is a beautiful book. The characters have large heads with thin bodies and spindly arms and legs. The color palette is often black and white with other neutral tones, then you’ll be shocked with a bright spot of color. The style emphasizes the idea that sometimes it can be difficult to distinguish between dreams and reality. Some of the scenes are quite visceral and disconcerting.I would give this book a solid 4 stars. I found some parts of the story to be confusing and lacking in development, but overall, I found the concept eerie, unexpected, and magical, and the artwork was mesmerizing.I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. |
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