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The Murder Next Door (2025)

The Murder Next Door (2025) by Hugh D'Andrade. A 162 page graphic memoir for adult readers.

The Murder Next Door is a heavy read, a book well deserving of its adult rating. It isn’t shocking or gory, and it’s not an upbeat story of healing. It is a heartbreakingly honest, almost clinical, review of trauma.

I need to find an upbeat memoir to read one of these days. Not that this isn’t a phenomenal book, arguably the best I’ve reviewed so far, but I’m beginning to fall into a “tortured artist” cliche.

Luckily for us, today wasn’t that day.

The Story: The Murder Next Door is the (sort of) true memoir of Hugh D’Andrade, an illustrator and storyteller who as a child discovered the body of his murdered neighbor. Though affected by what happened all his life, he didn’t seek therapy for it until his late 40s.

As he worked though his experiences and shared them with others, he found more and more that he wasn’t alone, he wasn’t the only person who’d gone though something horrible and tried to face it alone. So, Hugh committed to using his talents to tell his story.

The book takes the form of a single long therapy session, as Hugh sits with his therapist and talks through his life from the day of the murder until the present day; cutting between the therapy session and flashbacks of his life. Hugh was scared by what happened that day; he was shown a scary and violent part of life at an early age and has carried the fear and anxiety it caused his whole life.

We follow his story as he’s forced to live in the shadow of an unsolved murder, wondering when the killer will come back for him. How he’s pressured by his peers to not talk about it anymore, and how his parents can’t find the right words to make the world feel safe again. The murderer, a faceless example of the worst of men, shapes his views on masculinity; how do you be a man strong enough to protect people, without being a man strong enough to kill?

It’s a strange and beautiful story, told simultaneously by the adult and child Hughs. By someone who’s spent 40 years trying to move on and someone still angry it happened. A story of anger, fear, and pain, but most of all a story about empathy and understanding.

The Art: Finally something easy to talk about! The book is beautiful! I suppose I owe you more than that…

The Murder Next Door reminds me a lot of another book, Flamer by Mike Curato (which is another one for the list), another book that limited itself primarily to red and grey. The art is on a whole ‘nother level though, it’s gaunt almost sickly. With bold splashes of red to convey fear and violence.

D’Andrade’s art is creative and full of motion, characters burst out of the panels or cower in their corners, panels twist and bend or are abandoned entirely for beautiful splash pages. One thing that really stood out to me was the choice to have the adult Hugh replaced with the child one in moments of intense emotion, it really shows how it all connects back. The book is a joy to behold even as your heart breaks for him.

Final Thoughts and Extras: As I said at the start The Murder Next Door is one of the best books I’ve reviewed so far, a culmination of beautiful art and a painful story well told. If you want to workout your empathy muscle, grab yourself a copy today.

And thank you for the signature Hugh, your book has a well deserved place of honor on my shelf.

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Planetfall (2015)

Planetfall (2015) by Emma Newman. A 320-page sci-fi character piece about an engineer with a secret.

Set 40 years after a group of 1000 people fled Earth to follow a prophet’s visions into space in search of God, Planetfall is the story of the secrets and lies that hold together the supposedly idyllic religious community built at the foot of the City of God.

Renta Gali, Our Character: Planetfall is functionally a single character story. Renta “Ren” Gali, an engineer, bio-chemist, and close friend to the prophet that led them all to this alien world, is our only point of view for the entire book. We only know what she knows, see what she sees, and her interpretations (or misinterpretations) are presented unquestioningly as what happened.

Ren has been a bit “weird” since she was a child, but she’s unquestionably a genius, one of the greats in her field. It’s her designs that built the ship that brought them here and her designs that built the colony that they all now live in; so what if she’s a little distant and cold, is still single after 20 years in the colony, never invites people over, and doesn’t join any clubs? She’s been that way as long as anyone can remember and there’s no need to pry.

The Plot… sort of: Ostensibly Planetfall does have a plot; it’s about a stranger arriving at the colony, a sole survivor from a landing craft that veered off-course the day they arrived, and the buried secrets his appearance stirs up in Ren. And it is a compelling hook, a stranger staggering half-dead out of the wilderness to the front gates of an idyllic community, our protagonist staring at them with horror as the rest of the community celebrates their miraculous survival. Only two chapters in and I was already writing a gushing review in the back of my head.

But the book doesn’t really commit to the mystery aspect and the WHAT of what happened is obvious pretty quickly and you’re pretty much just counting down to the reveal of why in the final act.

Now that’s not necessarily a bad thing, as I said this is a character piece. The real meat of the story is the slow unpacking of how badly damaged Ren is by her life on dystopian Earth and the secrets she’s been keeping since the day they landed on the planet. (the titular Planetfall) It’s a good journey, the story lulls you in with a quirky engineer and her guilty conscience, 150 pages later you start to realize you can’t trust what the pages are telling you.

The (Good) Writing: Newman has created a tragically damaged character in a wonderfully thought out universe. The glimpses at dystopian Earth ruled by “Gov-Corps”, staggering wealth inequality, riots, a world stripped bare for resources; it beautifully sets the stage for our frankly cult-ish group of scientists to follow their prophet into space. On the sci-fi side the technology is in that sweet spot of futuristic but believable, everything being a logical extension of what we’re using today. There’s even a non-religious explanation for the prophet’s visions and the invention of space flight.

The (Bad) Writing: Implied Spoilers Ahead. This book has two issues: The pacing and the ending. Obviously one is a lot more subjective than the other.

In terms of pacing Planetfall is extremely unbalance; right away we establish who all the characters are and that Ren guilt of some horrible betrays to the lost colonists, then 90% of the book is a slow deep dive into her damaged psyche, then all the reveals and the entire rest of the plot are squeezed into the last 5% of the book.

And then there’s the ending. Rarely do I ask a book to have less things happen in it, but I’d gotten really invested in the drama of Ren’s mental health and the collapse of her coping mechanisms as new stresses got added on and people started picking at her lies. I was really enjoying it. But Newman wanted or maybe felt she needed something BIG to happen, a massive breaking of the status quo that will change the future of the colony forever! It’s so big and dramatic and out of place… I don’t mind how Ren’s story ended, but a lot of the other parts of the ending just felt tacked on.

Overall: Kind of a different book with some really deep character work, definitely a break from my usual sci-fi and fantasy novels, but some pacing issues and an ending that might not work for everyone. Also a fun fact, Emma did the reading for the audiobook.

PS (yes I’m allowed to do that) - On the Sequels: I did enjoy Planetfall enough to take a quick peek at what else Emma Newman has written, and in some good news it does have four sequels. But this comes with the caveat that none of the books take place after the events of Planetfall and the series appears to be done. So if you like the character work and general vibe of the universe you’re golden, but if you’re the kind of person who needs to know how all the drama shakes out this might be a series to pass on.

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Tsunami (2025)

Tsunami (2025) by Ned Wenlock. A 278 page graphic novel for readers 15+.

“Why don’t I just try and shake off the humour, turn everything off.” - Ned Wenlock

Show, Don’t Tell.

I think we’ve all heard that old adage repeated in English class since the dawn of the creative writing assignment (blame Anton Chekhov). It was a simple thing when I was taught it, “don’t say the character is smart, show them doing smart things” “don’t say the monster is scary, describe what makes it scary”. It was just a reminder that the reader is supposed to be experiencing things, not being fed information.

But what if you never tell the reader a thing?

I mentioned I was reading this back in my Simon Sort of Says review, and coming from that book was some whiplash. Simon was an emotionally intelligent kid, who’d been to therapy, and you had a seat right there in his brain. Tsunami leaves you a fly on the wall instead.

Not a thought bubble in sight for 278 pages as you’re left to wonder what’s going on beneath the surface.

The Story: There are a lot of quintessential coming-of-age story beats you’d recognize in Tsunami: the bully, the new girl, a troubled home life. But don’t let that deter you, Tsunami shines in what it does with these elements.

Peter is 12-years-old and in the closing days of elementary school, he’s awkward and lonely, quiet and thoughtful. An easy kid to ignore at home and school. The only person who pays him any attention to him is his bully Gus, a violent kid a head taller than Peter who regularly beats him up and who’s idea of a joke is to threaten to drown Peter or push him under a truck.

At the start of the book Peter tries to (for what doesn’t feel like the first time) get his teacher to intervene; he's publicly told it can wait until after class, then later privately told that bringing bullying up in class will just annoy his bullies and that he should stop. The same teacher later catches Peter window shopping at a sports store and asks if he’s looking at the knives, Peter says he was looking at a fishing rod and the matter is quietly dropped.

She’s a pretty awful teacher.

This might all have come to nothing; they’re headed to high school in a few months, they probably won't be in the same class, Peter might have grown a few inches over summer, Gus might get bored or realize that most girls don’t want to date violent bullies who joke about killing animals… But life (and the plot) isn’t always so kind and fate drives them together.

Peter catches Gus stealing from a local store, and Charlie moves to town.

As if the threat of being handed over to the cops by his favorite victim wasn’t enough of a reason for Gus to hate Peter, he is instantly smitten by Charlie and watches as she makes fast friends with Peter. It turns out they are the only two kids in class who can’t swim and spend the day talking in the bleachers when the class goes on a field trip to the local pool.

A crisis has become inevitable.

The Plot: Tsunami is masterfully written, suspense in broad daylight, red flags waving everywhere. You turn each page watching Peter’s plight be ignored by those around him, as despite that he makes a new friend who thinks him being weird is cool and calls him a badass. He figures out Gus has been lying about all the dangerous stuff he did and calls him out on it.

Except the bully doesn’t back down, things do get worse. And Charlie doesn’t seem to mind Gus so much after all, maybe they’re even becoming friends.

I get why the book is called Tsunami, the quiet tension before a sudden violent rush. But while reading I had a different bit of watery danger in mind: Drowning. Peter is a kid doing everything “right”, he’s himself, he’s honest, he stands up to his bully, he goes to adults for help, and it never gets better. Peter is a kid quietly slipping beneath the waves and we’re the only one who’s noticed. (metaphor bonus points because he canonically can’t swim.)

If I had to nitpick… I didn’t like the resolution on Charlie’s character. It conflicted with earlier dialog without explanation and didn’t seem to connect to her character in the rest of the story. I felt like she wasn’t needed for Peter’s story anymore, so she wasn’t needed for the book anymore.

The Art: I loved the art in this book, a simple style polished to perfection; these little thumb people just oozed expression and emotion off the page. It’s snappy where it needs to be snappy, still where it needs to be still, and most of all Ned Wenlock trusts the art to do its job. There are multiple extended scenes with little or no dialog, and I wouldn’t change a single one.

The Ambiguity: I would literally be ruining the fun of the book if I went too deep into this, but let’s talk about two examples. The cover of this book is a boy running, the rear of the book recontextualizes this: He’s a boy being chased. Simple, beautiful. (And easy to find images of in the promotional material.)

And then there’s this page, not even 30 pages into the story. A character we just met and whose thoughts we never see. Do you believe him when he said he was at the hunting goods store to buy a fishing rod?

Bonus Points and Final Thoughts: It was nice meeting you Ned, thanks for signing my book. Everybody should read it. Twice!

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The Third Scour (2025)

The Third Scour (2025) by Edward W. Robertson, book four of The Cycle of the Scour. A 428 page epic fantasy novel.

Maybe it’s unfair to expect too much originality from the 17th book set in this fantasy universe. But when we’re standing on the shoulders of stories where cities explode, protagonists get dragged into the plot kicking and screaming, and that one time the good guys robbed heaven… I probably shouldn’t have been able to guess every single plot point from the third or fourth chapter.

The Plot: Following up 2022’s The Last Tomb, our protagonist Cally has retrieved the long lost magical weapon of legends from said lost (now found) tomb and used it to drive out the forces of the evil empire. But the Mallish won’t stand for defeat and promise to return with an even larger army and crush Collen city once and for all; an army too powerful to be defeated by one weapon no matter how magical or macguffin.

So at the advice of the (extremely elderly and never allowed to get married) high priestess, Cally sets off with his bride-to-be (the extremely talented and very much wants to get married) Myla to complete a series of tasks that will make the (made from a bound demon) weapon more powerful! (Even though the last person who tried to do this abandoned the quest and refused to speak of it ever again. And then died.)

All in all a great plan with nothing that could go wrong.

The Prequel Problem: This book is the 17th set in the world of Rale and it really suffers for it. I’m great at suspension of disbelief, if the author wants to do something cliche or insane, I’m game! But there is no one reading this book who hasn’t read the other series, and we know where this is going.

We know Cally doesn’t get married, we even met an older and single Myla in an earlier book.

We know Collen city falls, we already watched future protagonists free it back in 2015.

The Third Scour, could have done some big subversion where Cally and Myla were secretly married and what we saw was some manipulation of the next generation of heroes. Or they had to let the city fall because of some larger goal. But it chose to play the story straight, stick to style, and let the events play out exactly how the reader expected, which isn’t necessarily bad but…

Journey before Destination: To steal a famous phrase. This book was a foregone conclusion, which meant it completely relied on how entertaining the march to defeat was; And it was just ok.

A perfectly acceptable series of challenges for the heroes to overcome and some reasonably interesting lore drops about the world. I think this was the last book in the prequel series and butting up against the original series and it didn’t leave the author the creative space they needed to work.

As someone who’s read the whole series, loves the world and its magic, this book is only worth reading for the sake of completion.

Ps: No “If I had to nitpick…” this time, because *gestures at the whole review.*

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The Field (2024)

The Field (2024) by Dave Lapp. A 557 page graphic memoir for no age group in particular, as far as I could find.

As the saying goes: “Truth is Stranger Than Fiction”, and nothing quite reminds you of that like a good biography. They suck you in and lull you into a false sense of security; the pages, bound between covers, make you think a story should have a beginning, middle, and end.

I made a joke last time about the story being one where “nothing happens”, but that was because the story was about the emotional journey and the day-to-day plot wasn’t really the point. Well, this book decided to call me out on that joke…

The Story: The Field is the story of a summer in the 1970s, disconnected memories told in a hundred or so vignettes. David Lapp (the character, not the author) is 12-years-old and hasn’t really figured out independence yet. He’s a follower, he’s not even completely in frame on the cover of his own book, it’s his friend Ed who decides what games they play, who they play with, and if something is cool or not.

Unfortunately Ed’s idea of cool usually lies somewhere between dickish and dangerous. He plays with matches, starts fights, steals toys, and knows where his dad hides the gun. Ed is the exact kind of kid your mom would tell you not to play with, and then you would anyway because it was the 70s and children were basically feral.

Not that David isn’t a bit of a jerk himself (what 12-years-old isn’t?) and he thinks Ed is a lot of fun, at least when he isn’t the victim. 

But it’s a summer of change. The field they play in is being developed, David’s parents are fighting, girls are starting to have crushes, and worst of all Ed makes another friend. Jack’s time on screen is limited, but his impact is immense. His sense of humor is as mean spirited as Ed’s and the two boys instantly click, David quickly finding himself the third wheel and a frequent victim of the new pair.

Where the story does shine, is its nostalgia-free honesty about childhood. The children aren’t monsters even at their worst or saints at their best. They are as cruel as they are innocent; they do what they do, good or bad, in the moment for fun or out of pettiness. Consequences are a nebulous and far away thing, and what matters is the now.

The Art: At 2.5 pounds Dave Lapp (the creator, not the character) had a beast of a book to draw. Most of the book is drawn in a traditional 6 panel style, but with enough flexibility (splash pages, full page vertical panels, and similar variations) to keep things interesting. There are some well done quiet moments, or more experimental cut-aways like an extended shot of a door where we only hear what happens on the other side.

But I find myself struggling to say much more about it. The style, while not without detail, was simple and stiff; I rarely felt any motion from the characters even while running or jumping. Without colour or even shading, the book felt stark. Lacking the warmth you’d expect from a book about summer days. It’s of course a bit unfair to compare the book's art to what I’ve seen in books a third the length, it was obviously quite the endeavor, but it looks how it looks.

I did take a chance to browse some of Dave Lapp’s other work and they’re a bit more artistically adventurous. Still a simple style at their core, but more vibrant and varied. Expect to see his books on my list again.

Overall: I enjoyed The Field, but I don’t know if I’d recommend it. The lack of a strong connective story and vignette approach to story telling, it made it feel more like I was reading a collection of newspaper comics.

A hundred little stories that usually boil down to: That Ed kid is kind of a dick.

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Simon Sort of Says (2023)

Simon Sort of Says (2023) by Erin Bow. A 320 page novel for readers 8-12.

Every now and then I read a book that’s Important. Maybe it helps someone find the words they didn’t know they needed, or it will launch an artistic passion that will last a lifetime, or maybe just that things can be ok again. Simon Sort of Says is one of these books.

The Story: Simon O’Keeffe, he’s 12-years-old and famous for something horrible. It’s something he can’t talk about, or maybe it’s more accurate to say he’s sick of everyone trying to force him to talk about it. So, Simon and his family move to the only place in the world where he won’t be recognized; the National Quiet Zone—the only place in America where the internet is banned. A place where you can tell people you left your last town because you were chased out by a herd of holy alpacas and not because of The Event.

Here Simon doesn’t need to be defined by what happened to him. Yet, what happened, happened. And the memory of it holds him hostage with every breath and every twitch.

Every moment away from that truth is a moment to heal. But will Simon be ready when the truth, inevitably, comes out?

The Plot: Simon Sort of Says is a “nothing happens” kind of book. There is no alien invasion to thwart or ring to throw into a volcano, Simon’s journey is entirely an emotional one as he continues to work through the trauma he suffered two years before the first page.

Of course there are things he does, this isn’t 300 pages of a character sitting in his room contemplatively: He goes to class, meets a flirty bird, steals a microwave, and commits a minor felony or two. But these aren’t what makes the story compelling, there are a million different ways Simon could have passed his school year and they all would have been equally interesting in the context of what he’s going through.

The real draw of this book, what kept me reading page after page (and made me miss my bus stop), is Simon. Simon is a funny, well written, and tragic character. Which is probably ironic, because calling him “tragic” would probably make Simon want to bop me in the nose; he is justifiably sick of being defined by The Event that happened to him and wants to move on. It’s the driving force of the book.

I dithered on revealing The Event to you in this review. You may have already guessed exactly what trauma a student might face that would be so bad, they’d move to another city and still be working through it years later. And unfortunately it’s not hard to figure out these days. But for the sake of spoilers and because the reveal is part of the narrative, I will not.

What I will do is applaud this book’s choice to cover the trauma and not the traumatizing. Erin Bow could have written a story about The Event, the violence, the fear, the immediate aftermath, a heartbreaking moment in therapy, and the tearjerking first time Simon felt normal again. I’m not saying that would be easy to write (all writing is hard), but that would be… obvious? Or maybe too simple?

Simon’s trauma is present from start to finish, as are his tools (good and bad) for processing it. Sometimes it’s subtle and sometimes it screams at you from the page. Multiple therapy techniques are discussed and at no point is what he’s going through dismissed or downplayed as something he’ll grow out of. What happened to him caused real lasting harm, and it will take hard work and support to heal.

If I had to nitpick… I’m still not sure the book stuck the landing. I know why stories do this, but fading to black after the emotional journey is complete, but before the main character “does the thing” can be frustrating. I know intellectually that nothing Simon was going to say in that moment would be as good as we imagine or as good as his journey to be ready to face his trauma head on; but I also really wanted to see him face the people who’d caused him so much pain. I got my emotional journey euphoria, but where’s my petty victory dopamine hit?

Overall: I’m reading another book as I write this review, Tsunami by Ned Wenlock, and the phrase “down hill” has been stuck in my head; Every page is a little darker, and I can’t see a way out anymore. Simon Sort of Says is the opposite, an uphill climb. It’s hard work, it’s exhausting, and sometimes you don’t feel like you’re making progress, but you can see the summit.

Simon Sort of Says is a book about hope and healing. It approaches mental health and trauma with a respectful and well researched hand, and has some excellent commentary on how people going through that deserve to be treated. It’s also extremely accessible, carefully balancing its heavy moments with humor.

I suppose I didn’t talk about the funny parts. It’s a funny book. Simon is a funny and relatable kid, a classic middle-grade slightly-snarky tweenage protagonist. The comedy is well timed to provide emotional breaks and keep the book from being an exhausting read, especially for a younger audience.

A book for an unfortunately modern reality.

I highly recommend it.

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Brain Camp (2010)

Brain Camp (2010) by Susan Kim, Laurence Klavan, and Faith Erin Hicks. A 160 page graphic novel for readers 11 - 14.

This is a weird one, not even accounting for it somehow making me decide to start writing reviews of what I’m reading. I almost put it off because I wanted to start with something I “got” a little more, best foot forward and all, but that didn’t feel like the right way to do it.

The Story: Brain Camp is an Invasion of the Body Snatchers styled horror/suspense story set in the fictional educational summer camp, Camp Fielding. After the gross (but not particularly gruesome) demise of two campers in the opening scene, we are introduced to our protagonist: Jenna, youngest daughter from an overachieving middle-class family, more interested in the arts than the academic. Lucas, a juvenile delinquent from a broken home. So different you might call them opposites.

After a late night visit to their parents by the camp director the two teens are ferried to camp at the crack of dawn, two spots having suddenly opened up at camp.

It’s there our adventure unfolds. Jenna and Lucas arrive a few days after the rest of the campers, and quickly realize something is wrong. Campers change day by day their personalities completely rewritten, and they’re the only ones who seem to notice or care. Knowing the same might happen to them at any moment they search for answers and a way out…

Art: Brain Camp is a graphic novel, with a cover sufficiently creepy to at least grab my attention. The art is pretty standard for a middle-grade/YA story, not exceptional, but solid. The flat coloring is similarly solid; bright and summery at the camp, dark and claustrophobic when the danger mounts. If I had to nitpick… there were a few times when the characters felt a bit flat compared to the emotions the writing was trying to sell. 

The book was a bit more gruesome than I expected, and for plenty of readers that will be a huge draw. (No judgement kids, let your freak flag fly.) While the first deaths are done with a G-rated “cough and fall over”, it doesn’t stay that way. Hands are shoved down people’s throats, dead animals are stepped on, blood is vomited and just get everywhere. It was enough to make me question what age group the book was for.

Plot: The plot is original and does a solid job building the suspense of it all. A few twists, a few turns, a betrayal or three. I think it’s a solid choice for a younger reader with an interest in horror fiction.

I had some issues with the details of the big evil scheme, and it hurt the book for me. The book couldn’t seem to decide exactly what the signs of being replaced were, or the long term effects. Jenna has friends who’ve been to the camp and through the process, but are apparently fine. This isn’t helped by the main antagonist lying to the kids about what the side-effects are. All together it makes for a confusing mess that made it hard to get invested at times, because I was too busy trying to figure out how their evil plan was supposed to work.

You might have noticed my little quip about them being opposites, if you did the romance between Jenna and Lucas won’t be a surprise to you. I thought this was one of the book's stronger parts; the romance forms naturally as events force the characters together and they really do have some chemistry (trust me that’s funny) once they get past their initial dislike for each other.

Overall: I enjoyed Brain Camp, even if it couldn’t decide what it wanted to be. It has wacky lawnmower races, wet-dreams and periods, an evil ostrich, and more blood than one person should probably bleed. It’s a creepy, suspenseful story, with a sometimes confusing plot, and an ending that tried to be a comedy punchline and serious sequel hook at the same time.

It wasn’t not worth my time.