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Temperance (2010)

by Cathy Malkasian(Favorite Author)

3.68 of 5 Votes: 5

ISBN

1606993232 (ISBN13: 9781606993231)

languge

English

genre

Fantasy

publisher

Fantagraphics

review 1: Temperance, a great graphic novel written and drawn by Cathy Malkasian delivers a sense of weirdness and surrealism to the readers through her unique style of drawing and the bizarre storyline. I had to go through the story a couple times to understand what was going on in this nameless world filled with lies and rumors. In the story, a cunning dictator called- Pa established his empire step by step with his “step-daughters”. They went towns after towns to spread the rumor that their “enemy” is coming, which was nothing but a lie made up by Pa. As the rumor spread through out the country, people started to gather at a walled city called “Blessbowl” built by Pa. People thought that they would be safe from the enemy outside by staying inside this “boat”. H... moreowever, it was really just a walled city, an isolated cage which later on trapped the people inside for years, deceiving them by lies. Minerva, one of Pa’s step daughters, chose to stay in the bowl to maintain the order inside and to keep the rumors going on. Everyday, she would make up a lie, a fake report from the frontline. People believed them with no doubt, thinking that Pa was a brave warrior with absolute power. On the other hand Lester, Minerva’s husband, who once fought Pa and got seriously injured by him which caused amnesia, was able to slowly recall the memories pieces by pieces, like a puzzle. The story may seem really simple and boring at the first sight, but as you go deeper into it. You would realize that it is not actually a typical graphic novels for children to read. There are violent elements, displaying the conflict Pa once had with Lester. Cathy Malkasian put a gloomy tone on this book with her personal art style. To me, its seems like water color or color pencils. The color schemes she chose were mostly dark and light. There wasn’t really any strong colors or bold images in this book. However, the storyline of it still grabbed my attention with it’s depressing atmosphere. I wouldn’t recommend this book to children because there are several fighting scenes in the story and the depth of this book is really deep which might be enigmatic for them.
review 2: This Graphic Novel by Cathy Malkasian is a surreal exploration of war, conflict, and freedom. The novel is beautifully illustrated, the final image of the book is one that is especially powerful (won't say what it is for spoilers.) However the book hits some problems midway through. The flow becomes extremely difficult to follow, and though this may have been done on purpose by the author, it also detracted from my ability to understand anything. I was lost between what was real, and what was not. Malkasian seamlessly swaps between reality and surrealism, by the end of the book I was doubting whether anything in the book was real at all.Overall I would only recommend this book to people either interested in the art style, or with a superhuman ability to understand veiled meaning. less

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