Today’s books are about magic: incantations and spells, demons and demon-hunters, light and darkness.
Lightfall: Shadow of the Bird and Lightfall: The Dark Times by Tim Probert
I mentioned a couple weeks ago that I’d finally read the first Lightfall book, and I was pleased to see that there was already a second book out and a third on the way. Harper Alley graciously sent me the next two books, and my daughter and I devoured them this week! If you haven’t read the first one yet, I’d suggest skipping over this section for now, but I’ll at least let you know that the next two books did not disappoint, and it’s clear from the ending that there is still more to come!
In the first book, we caught glimpses of a giant bird-like creature, leading minions that attacked the village and stole Bea’s jar of flame. In Book Two, we learn a little more about this bird: Kest Ke Belenus, who has awakened and appears to be on a mission to devour the lights. There is no sun in the land of Irpa—instead, the cities have lights suspended above them, fire once taken from the sun and enclosed in vast globes. Outside of the reach of the lights, shadow monsters roam. But when Bea and Cad encounter Kest, she feels a strange connection to him—the dark swirls that surround her when she feels overwhelmed and anxious allow her to see a vision of the past, and she starts to wonder whether the old myths are accurate.
I won’t say too much more about what exactly happens in the second book, but as you can see from the title of the third book, Irpa has fallen into darkness. The people of Irpa have banded together as much as they can, headed for the capital city of Baihle in hopes that they’ll find safety there. Meanwhile, Bea and Cad are in search of answers—they hope to find a way to bring back the light, but in order to do so they really need to understand what happened way back when Kest was first imprisoned. One of the things I liked especially about this latest volume was the number of different styles that are used when somebody is relating a story or when we get a glimpse of the past. Probert switches to varied color palettes and even ways of framing the panels, changing the tone and texture of the stories, and it really helps to create the impression of different voices.
As in the Amulet series (I’m almost done with my series re-read!), one of the themes in Lightfall is that at first it introduces a world where it seems like things are simple and obvious: there are good guys and bad guys, light and dark. But then as the characters experience the world around them, they start to realize things are more complicated than that, and there are nuances that they didn’t understand at first. Cad represents more of the simple view: he’s ready to charge in, attack the Bird, always sure that he’s on the right side. Bea is less sure of herself, but because of that is more ready to listen to others and really work on figuring out what’s really true. Even in the first three books, both of them are growing and learning from each other, though, and I look forward to seeing more of their journey in the books to come! In the meantime, you’ll be able to pick up Book Three in April!
Nothing Special Volume 1: Through the Elder Woods by Katie Cook
Callie lives a life somewhat adjacent to the magical world. Her dad runs a magic shop that has a portal into into the magical realm, but although Callie is allowed to visit the realm, he has given her very strict instructions never to step outside the village boundaries. There’s a lot Callie doesn’t know—like why she can see these little sprites around her all the time, or anything about her mom—her dad says he’ll tell her “when she’s older.”
But when she turns 17—the age her dad says he’ll spill the beans—she finds the shop ransacked and her dad gone. Her new friend Declan agrees to help: he recently started seeing sprites as well, which means he is some sort of magical being as well, but he doesn’t really know what. The two of them are joined by Radish, a particularly enthusiastic and overprotective sprite, as Callie finally steps outside the village and into this unfamiliar world. She’ll encounter a lot of colorful characters, and finally get some of those answers her dad promised, though she won’t be pleased by some of them. There’s romance, action, magic, and a strangely jealous vegetable ghost! (One specific content warning: a big plot point is finding out who Callie’s mother is, and the revelation is not very pleasant, so if your kids want to read it, it’s worth checking over first.)
Nothing Special was originally published as a webcomic, and this volume collects the first 29 “episodes.” (Online, the comic is well into season 3, with nearly 160 episodes total!) The episodes vary in length, up to several pages each, and aren’t formatted like a typical comic strip, so they really have more of a graphic novel feel, with varied panels from page to page and even full page bleeds. The comic is formatted to be scrolled through, so on occasions there are sections that would be too tall vertically for a book, but it has been adapted well for the print version into a lovely, large hardcover that looks great.
I remember reading Katie Cook’s comic “Gronk” years ago and seen some of her work for Star Wars, but I’d lost track of what she had been doing in the past several years, so it was fun to see this collection (which spans roughly two years of webcomics from 2017 to 2019). The illustrations are full of energy, and Cook switches freely into a more chibi style often, and there are always lots of little details sprinkled throughout or characters making funny asides in the background. My daughter and I have both been reading more of the story online, and I hope the next two volumes will eventually get their own printed editions as well.
Youth Group by Bowen McCurdy and Jordan Morris
Youth Group is set in the ’90s, and we meet our protagonist Kay getting sent off to the church youth group while her recently divorced mom tries to find a new community. As somebody who grew up in an evangelical church and was attending youth groups in the early ’90s, I have to admit that I found these scenes a weird mixture of nostalgic and embarrassing, from the faith-related puns to the pop music rewritten into praise songs. Kay is not really interested in this scene at all and bristles at the activities suggested by the leaders, but she’s willing to give it a try so that maybe her mom will let her apply to colleges across the country.
But then it turns out that when the dorky Christians talk about “spiritual warfare,” they’re talking about something a bit more literal. Pretty soon, Kay witnesses an actual exorcism and gets drawn into their inner circle, training to fight demons—and finds out that for some reason the demons have picked her as a special target. I remember reading books like This Present Darkness, which portrayed New Age mysticism as a doorway into something demonic; Youth Group does something similar, though it’s more tongue-in-cheek and a lot snarkier. It really feels like Morris has a love-hate relationship with his own experiences of church youth group—at least, the depictions feel authentic even as a parody or exaggeration. (McCurdy was a baby in the ’90s, so presumably she doesn’t have firsthand knowledge.) Kay’s relationship with the youth group is complicated: even though she learns to battle demons and understands that they’re real, she’s still not sure she’s on board with the whole Jesus thing. We also learn that it’s not an entirely unheard-of position, either: there are other groups doing their own demon-hunting, from Catholics to Wiccans, each with their own approaches.
I really enjoyed this one—it’s a bit of comedy, a bit of horror, and still manages to throw in some of your usual young-adult concerns about making friends and worrying about the future and figuring out your relationship with your parents. Although Kay’s mom isn’t present in most of the scenes, I liked the way that she and Kay relate to each other, because it felt authentic and you could tell how much they care about each other, but that they’re also figuring things out together. Youth Group isn’t out until July, but it’s worth putting it on your list now.
Saint John by Dan Schkade and Brennan Wagner
This comic is a little closer to home for me: it takes place in Portland, Oregon, and is filled with familiar places—the Steel Bridge, the “Keep Portland Weird” sign on the side of Dante’s. Tori Slate is a writer for NYC-based Poach Magazine, and she’s visiting Portland, Oregon, to track down a mysterious man who’s gone viral for doing random good deeds around town. People have taken to calling him “Saint John” because of his first appearance on the St. John’s Bridge. Tori’s first encounter with him is when he bursts onto the MAX Red Line train to give the Heimlich maneuver to a guy choking on a Voodoo Doughnut, before greeting her and then vanishing out the door again. It’s funny to see this take on Portland: it’s a Portlander’s view of a New Yorker’s view of Portland, so it has a strange blend of cynicism and earnestness. I like that it includes some of the quirkiness of Portland without resorting to mocking it.
Saint John—we aren’t given another name for him—is a tall Black man, wearing a domino mask over his eyes and decked out in a sweatshirt and backpack from Portland Gear (and a long raincoat which does not appear to be part of their collection). Why, yes, this comic is actually presented by a local apparel company (my wife owns one of their backpacks and loves it), and published by Dark Horse Comics, which is also located in the Portland area. But other than the “Portland Gear Presents:” on the cover, the comic is largely pitch-free. If weren’t already familiar with the brand, you could miss the product placement entirely.
Okay, but back to the man: he has an unusual way of being in the right place at the right time, and he explains to Tori that he’s just “listening” to the city, shrugging off questions about who he is under that mask. He doesn’t appear to have super-powers (other than that mystical connection to the city), and instead of battling supervillains he’s helping neighbors resolve a dispute or doing his best to dig people out during a freak snowstorm. There are hints that there may be a nemesis in the future, though: a tech company named Templ shows up a few times throughout the first two issues, and there’s a brief snippet of an interview with the founder, who has big dreams for his hometown. You get the sense that Saint John isn’t too fond of the idea.
Maybe the series is just a gimmick to sell hoodies and backpacks, but I’m a bit of a sucker for stories that take place in my city, so I’ll be following along to see where this goes. I have to admit that it is sort of a rose-colored vision of Portland; our city isn’t on fire the way it’s been portrayed in a lot of media in the past couple years, but there is conflict and not everything is unicorns and rainbows, either. There is some irony in this hero of Portland being Black, given our history of redlining and current demographics. If anything, this is Portland as it wants to be seen, even it doesn’t quite live up to that ideal. So far, there are two issues—you can buy them at the Portland Gear website, of course—but there’s apparently a collected volume of the first four issues coming this July.
Disclosure: I received review copies or digital galleys for the books covered in this column. Affiliate links to Bookshop.org help support my writing and independent booksellers!
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