AUTHOR: Scott Snyder
PUBLISHER: Image Comics
PUBLISHING DATE: June 24, 2015
FROM GOODREADS: Everything you thought you knew about witches is wrong. They are much darker, and they are much more horrifying. Wytches takes the mythology of witches to a far creepier, bone-chilling place than readers have dared venture before. When the Rooks family moves to the remote town of Litchfield, NH to escape a haunting trauma, they're hopeful about starting over. But something evil is waiting for them in the woods just beyond town. Watching from the trees. Ancient...and hungry.
MY THOUGHTS:
I've been wanting to read this for ages so I was thrilled when I finally found a copy at my local library. "Wytches" tells the story of Sailor and her family. There was some trauma in their previous town regarding Sailor and the disappearance of a classmate so the family moves to make a fresh start. Her father clearly has some issues of his own going on and her mother had a bad accident which left her wheelchair-bound. Strange things start happening and Sailor is kidnapped by evil "wytches" who live in the forest. Apparently people can "pledge" children to these entities in return for favors. Sailor's father sets out to save Sailor and uncovers a lot of secrets along the way.
I really liked the premise of this graphic novel. I think the idea would be great played out in a movie or more lengthy novel. It was definitely terrifying and scary in all the right places and the ending provided enough twists and turns to keep the reader on their toes. While the artwork was good, in places, it was also messy. Basically some of the pages were intentionally done in a haphazard fashion, I suppose to heighten the darkness of the plot. but I found those visually annoying. There was too much going on with those pages for my brain to sift through what it was supposed to be seeing (this might have been complicated by the fact that I read it while on cold medicine too - perhaps not the greatest choice).
There is some narrative at the end of the book which I enjoyed reading and which shows this project really was a labor of love for Snyder. I'm glad I was finally able to make time for "Wytches" and if you are a fan of horror tales and graphic novels, I would definitely recommend picking it up.
RATING: 4 PAWS
