Graphic Novel Review – The Green Woman by Peter Straub, Michael Easton, and John Bolton (3/5 stars)
Genre: Horror/Graphic Novel
Size: 160 pages
Publisher: Vertigo
Release Date: November 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-1401211011
Stand Alone or Series: Stand Alone
Source: Bought
Rating: 3/5 stars
I picked a copy of this graphic novel up in the used book store. It looked interesting and I was really drawn to the artwork. It was an okay read, but a bit hard to follow.
Fielding Bandolier, a villain in Straub’s other books (which I have not read), wants to stop his killing spree. Apparently he feels like this one last murder will finally sate the Green Woman that drives him. Meanwhile Bob Steele is a not so noble New York detective that is trying to solve these murders and stop Fielding
This was an okay graphic novel. The artwork is pretty cool, I enjoyed the darkness to it and the blend of realistic and abstract montages. The only downside to it is I had a hard time following what was going on because sometimes it is hard to see which character is which in the dark drawings.
This is an incredibly violent and adult themed graphic novel. There are serial killings, violence towards women, scenes with naked people, abuse of alcohol and drugs, you name it it’s in here. So, just a heads up.
I had a lot of trouble engaging with either of the characters. Fielding is an incredibly violent and disturbed man, we see some of his past and get some insight into where he learned some of his violence. Again this was a bit confusing because we jumped around in time as well as between two different characters. The graphic novel was fairly good about letting you know that you were going to a different time, it would have been nice to have a quick note about what character we were reading about as well.
Bob Steele is an all around jerk as well. He is an alcoholic, has a thing for whores, and all around pain in the butt to his colleagues. As I said between him and Fielding there really wasn’t a character I was pulling for here.
I believe the whole premise is that The Green Woman drove Fielding to do what he did. If I had read Straub’s previous books about this character I would probably have a better idea of what is going on.
Overall an okay graphic novel. I liked the style of the artwork but found it hard to follow. The story was gruesome and intriguing, but again a bit hard to follow what was going on because of the character and time frame changes. I would recommend this more to people who have read Straub’s Blue Rose trilogy; it sounds like this graphic novel features one of the characters that was first introduced in The Throat (the third book of that trilogy).
This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
– 100 Books in a Year Reading Challenge
– Graphic Novel Reading Challenge
– 150+ Reading Challenge
– Color Coded Reading Challenge
