Early Graphic Novel Review – The Watcher’s Test (DeadEndia, Book 1) by Hamish Steele (5/5 stars)
Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Graphic Novel/Fantasy
Length: 240 pages
Publisher: Nobrow
Release Date: August 7, 2018
ISBN-13: 978-1910620472
Stand Alone or Series: 1st book in DeadEndia series
Source: ARC through Amazon Vine
Rating: 5/5 stars
“Barney and his best friend Norma are just trying to get by and keep their jobs, but working at the Dead End theme park also means battling demonic forces, time traveling wizards, and scariest of all–their love lives!
Follow the lives of this diverse group of employees of a haunted house, which may or may not also serve as a portal to hell, in this hilarious and moving graphic novel, complete with talking pugs, vengeful ghosts and LBGTQIA love!”
This is the first graphic novel in the DeadEndia series, from the brief research I did it looks like this was a TV series first. I really enjoyed this graphic novel; I loved the illustration and the story was crazy, bizarre, and engaging. It’s quite different from other graphic novel series I have read and I loved every minute of it.
Barney and Norma both work at Dead End, a haunted house in the Pollywood theme park. It might sound kind of boring but Dead End also contains a dimensional gate that goes both to demonic and angelic realms (it’s complicated). So, aside from keeping Dead End ship shape and running haunted house tours…they also have to fight occasional demons.
This was an incredibly creative and engaging story about a group of diverse characters that constantly find themselves involved in bizarre supernatural situations. The illustration is amazing and I loved the coloring. The graphic novel is easy to follow (despite how bizarre the story gets) and I really ended up loving it.
While there are some LBGTQIA elements (one of the main characters is transgender) that really isn’t the focus of the story. The focus of the story is saving the world from DEMONS!!! The book does show how a unique and diverse group of people can work together successfully (and hilariously) to do this.
Overall I absolutely loved this graphic novel and plan on continuing the series. The storyline is bizarre, amazingly creative, and incredibly engaging. I don’t even really know who to recommend this to, just read it! This was a such a fun read and I loved the crazy supernatural elements to the story as well.
This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
– New Release Reading Challenge
– Goodreads Reading Challenge
– Graphic Novel Reading Challenge
