In 2017, Ella has just moved into a home next to a former all-girls orphanage called Thornhill, and her slow discovery of its mysterious inhabitant is told solely through images. These images alternate with Mary’s unhappy diary entries from when she suffered through living at Thornhill in 1982. This diary chronicles targeted, repeated bullying as well as her continuing struggle to communicate, as Mary reports that others describe her as “selectively mute.” Ella’s and Mary’s stories converge in an unlikely way with an ending that is both shocking and provocative.
Smy expertly balances showing and telling in these parallel narratives that build and sustain two thoroughly engaging, suspenseful mysteries. The gradual reveals about Ella’s and Mary’s circumstances are paced perfectly throughout the storyline, resulting in a page-turner that is made especially exciting by its cleverly detailed black-and-white pictures; peppered within seemingly straightforward images are smaller subtle ones and hidden, haunting details that make lingering over them satisfying and necessary. Instead of individual panels, artwork spread across entire pages, adding weight and fullness to the lush and precise gradations of black and white. Ella’s portions have no dialogue, with the exception of some hand-written notes, which parallels smartly with Mary’s own self-chosen silence to create a radiating sense of loneliness. This deeply psychological story about abuse, neglect, and human connection across several generations is haunting yet entirely satisfying.
Call # Fiction Sm91th
Review by Vicki
Posted by Pietrus Victoria at 1:43 pm