FAMILYFANS Books & Comics

THREE SHADOWS

by Cyril Pedrosa

(First Second)

Reader Appeal: Teens to adults

Genre: Graphic Novel / Fantasy

Every now and then you run across a book that is unique—one of a kind—that brings together story and art in a way that you’ve never quite seen before and creates something new out of it. Three Shadows is one of those books. I’ve never seen anything quite like it. It has a style, an atmosphere, a fairytale and mythic quality all of its own. It’s a grand experiment, but sometimes our imaginations outstrip our ability to carry through on our intentions.

Three Shadows is a weird book. The story is fairly cute and simple (in the beginning). A happy family lives together in the country, enjoying their idyllic life, until one day a trio of mysterious shadows appears to shatter their peace. The intent of the shadows is uncertain, but they certainly seem threatening and they have an unhealthy interest in Joachim, the young son of Louis and Lise. The earlier parts of the book mostly deal with the family’s growing fear of the shadows and their struggle to cope with their unwanted visitors.

The rest of the book becomes more convoluted and symbolic, seeming almost like some bizarre sort of Pilgrim’s Progress, as Louis takes Joachim with him on a long and dangerous sea voyage in an attempt to escape the shadows. At some point (spoilers ahead) there’s an uprising on the boat and the boat sinks, Louis trades his heart for invincible strength, and the three shadows help Louis get his heart back by playing a game of cards with an evil old fisherman (end spoilers). Don’t ask for more clarity—there isn’t much more to be had, beyond the realization that the whole story is a symbolic tale about how we deal with death.

The art is quite unusual, too. The pencil work is very good, and the world envisioned is very detailed and unique. The style bears an uncanny resemblance to Kim Possible, in my opinion, which is a little strange, since the author/artist chose to be pretty free about having his characters run around without their shirts or pants on. In the end, I wasn’t sure whether I found this odd mix of the style and the content to be creative and unique (at times it is quite lovely) or a little creepy.

In the end, I think this book suffered from the author having too many interesting ideas and not enough space to explore them in. The book is a standalone book, but you can’t help but feel, having finished it, that there must have been some other book you were supposed to have read first, or that maybe this is the abridged version and there’s a more complete version out there. Plot threads arise and then vanish without explanation, the story takes sudden hard turns one way or another without explanation, and at one point the whole artifice of the story as an illustration of dealing with death collapses into a bizarre montage of symbolism, as if the author needed to get where he was going faster and sped things up by skipping translating it into plot. Everything that’s in there is pretty interesting and well-done; it just doesn’t hang together that well. The story suffers from being forced to fit the illogic of the overall symbolic progression, and the symbolism suffers from having to express itself through an only semi-comprehensible story. 

There are definitely some neat things going on in this book, though. Louis in particular is an interesting character and is very likeable. The lengths to which he’ll go to try to save his son and the concern he shows for others along the way is admirable, and the struggles he goes through and what they do to him is very sad and moving and also (interestingly enough) understandable. Death is a hard thing to deal with, and sometimes we do some crazy and unfortunate things trying to deal with it (or escape it). At the least, there’s some interesting brain food here. But you might be too put off by the confusion and bafflement of the story and the strange art to want to think about it much. I was.

Even as I finish this review, I’m not quite sure what I think about this book. I liked a lot of things about it. I really liked the approach the author took with the story and with the art. I just don’t think it was executed very well. And did the characters really have to run outside naked (or sit around naked) so much? It just seemed weird. All in all, I would have to give this book a somewhat low rating. But it really is worth taking a look at, if you get a chance. It really is interesting and unusual, even if it doesn’t pay off what it promises. Some people will probably really enjoy what there is, and others can enjoy what it might have been.

FAMILYFANS RATING: C-

AFTER THE STORY

If your family members are interested in this book, then encourage discussion about it afterward. You can use these questions to get started:

• Louis goes through several stages in his reactions to and manner of dealing with the shadows. How do these equate to the different ways we respond to and try to deal with death?

• What do you think the Fates meant by saying that, by trying to escape himself, the Baron only hastened his fate?

• What do you think the final lesson of this book is?

--MV

Note: All book or comics-related graphics in this column are standard publicity/promotional shots and are owned by their respective publisher.