Graphic Novel: Estranged
Short version: After a royal coup in the Faerie court, human changeling Childe goes back to Earth to reclaim his family. The Fey boy taking his place objects, but agrees to trade places back when it becomes apparent the coup has put his human family in danger. Together, they travel through the underground kingdom to overthrow the usurper.
What I thought: Because I found this in the kid’s section, I didn’t know what to think going in. Kid’s graphics are getting gradually darker these days as it becomes more apparent that not only can kids handle dark stuff, they eat it up. Now we have Estranged, and there’s some wonderfully heavy stuff in there right alongside the dragons, fairies, goat people and rat-making jewelry.
For a start, let’s talk about Edmund, the Fey boy that has been raised by humans and suddenly is told to give up everything he knows in favor of someone with his face, who technically has more right to be there than he does. There’s a lot of running motif of “found family > birth family,” which honestly is for the best because neither kid had a great childhood under the care of their respective guardians. But how messed up is that? First get thrown away by your biological family (which he remembers), then spend eleven years never really fitting in and being very aware that he’s not human, then out of nowhere someone shows up and decides that even that crappy existence isn’t yours to have. Also, his presence is now attracting evil wolves in armor.
Then there’s Childe, who also never really fits in at the Fey court because he’s the only human, but also he’s treated like a decoration or status symbol. They never regard him as a person at all, to the point of never even giving him a name. That’s not a great life, and when a rival fairy takes over and turns his “parents” into rats, he finally gets an opportunity to see what he should have had. Only then, he discovers that another fairy has already taken that as well, and his face, and his name. Messed up, yo.
The plot is pretty solid stuff, a classic journey through a magical land that is full of colorful folks and strange customs, none of which fall into the old fairy tale cliches and instead stick to the old school of actual fairy stories. Another fun trope subversion: the Chekov gets lost almost immediately, and is never heard from again. This is an intentional, plot-relevant loss, btw. It’s not bad writing, it’s a feature.
Also worth mentioning is that there’s a nonbinary character, Whick, a wax golem who serves as Childe’s bodyguard. I liked that Whick uses they/them pronouns and absolutely nobody questions it, they get addressed as Them one time and everyone who hears it never misgenders them ever. That was very cool, and very neat that it’s in a kid’s story, which means the next generation will have more of this sort of thing normalised. Yay!
A great read for everyone who likes high fantasy but not Enchanted Swords and Destiny.
Read if you liked: Stardust by Neil Gaiman, Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman. The Replacement by Brenna Yovanoff, Monstress by Sana Takeda.
