Review: Inheritance (Hopeless, Maine #2)



Inheritance (Hopeless, Maine #2)

by Nimue Brown, Tom Brown


Genre: Graphic Novel, Fantasy, Horror, Magic

Expected publication: November 12th 2013 by Archaia Entertainment

add-to-goodreads-button3

Continue with the adventures of young Salamandra, the orphaned, mysterious, witch-in-training on the haunted island of Hopeless, Maine! When Sal discovers she might have a grandfather living on the island, she seeks him out, only to find him full of even more mystery than the rest of her past. Before she can unravel the secrets of her family's past, however, her best friend, Owen, is thrust into a family trauma of his own. Salamandra must choose between helping Owen and finding the home and family she has always longed for.

vanilla-rating-3-stars






There are dead ones who walk. Restless. And others who sleep. There are the oblivious living and those who pause to think. There are the missing. The might-be-dead. Walking. And not walking.
(...)Once upon a time, we fought demons together. Now we are older, wiser. We give our demons different names. And no names at all.
This is not a story about growing up.
This is a story about thinking you had grown up already.
And finding it wasn't simple after all.


"Inheritance" continues Salamandra's adventures in the same style as its predecessor, in the shape of beautifully drawn gothic illustrations.

Sal discovers she actually has a relative - her grandfather, who is living on the island and is thought to be mad. However, she seeks him out to get some answers about herself and her past, but his answers are vague. They may or may not have much sense, and Owen thinks the rumours are true and her grandfather is actually crazy. But is he?

A mysterious disease is taking down  Hopeless' inhabitants one by one, and Owen thinks the doctor is responsible in some way. But, as you would expect, his priest-father doesn't believe him. Nobody does, for that matter, except for Salamandra.

Compared to the first book in the series, I found this one slightly worse. I was expecting a somewhat longer sequel after reading "Personal Demons" and instead of getting the answers I was seeking, I got even more mysteries I want solved. And with the rate at which these graphic novels seem to be published, I probably won't be getting them any sooner than next year.

I was a little confused by the transition between different scenes - which was rather absent in my opinion. It felt as if there were missing pages, but my tablet clearly indicated I didn't skip any - the page numbers were in order. Unfortunately, by the time the third novel comes out, I will probably forget some of what happened in these first two and I won't be able to enjoy them as I should - like it was the case with this one.

I can't really tell exactly what the problem was with this book. I liked it, of course, but it wasn't as good as the first one. It had a good plot, but everything felt a little bit chaotic - as if you couldn't really make any sense of how what previously happened a page before was connected to what you were currently reading. I can't really explain it that well. The way I phrased it just now makes it sound so much worse than it actually was. The mystery of it all is definitely the series' charm, but in this installment, it felt a little bit too much.

I still loved the story and the characters and still want to know why everything is so strange in Hopeless and whether the rest of the world in this series is as full of ghost and monsters and mysterious events. With the first book in the series, I felt it was too short and that was the reason I only gave it 4 vanilla flowers out of 5. Now this second novel is even shorter - with 20 pages or so.

A welcome addition was the detailed descriptions of Hopeless' founding families' history, habits and their current surviving members. I hope in the next book, some explaining about the monsters and ghosts will be made. I look forward to it and recommend giving this series a try, especially if you like books that raise a lot of questions.

P.S.: I found out that these two authors and found out they were (or still are) living on a narrowboat and had to generate their own electricity. Drawing and writing in these conditions - wow! The two of them gained my respect. :)

semnatura

You Might Also Like

2 comentarii

  1. I've never heard of this series before but it looks like one that I'll have to try out sometime. Great review, :)
    -Kimberly @ Turning the Pages

    RăspundețiȘtergere
  2. Alright, this book looks pretty good, even you say it's a confusing one. I might read it as well, i'd really like to try something like this.

    RăspundețiȘtergere

Comments