Rate this book

Roi Rose (2000)

by David B.(Favorite Author)

3.55 of 5 Votes: 4

ISBN

2070576434 (ISBN13: 9782070576432)

languge

English

genre

Horror

publisher

Gallimard

review 1: This is a slightly (ok, quite disturbingly) creepy graphic novel of a ship of dead skeletal pirates who plunder and wreak havoc on passing ships. One day, after the usual devastation, they find themselves in charge of an orphaned baby boy. They agree to rear him until his First Communion and then slay him to have a dead little cabin boy, but soon they find themselves taking care of him, playing with him, and after a crisis of conscience, deciding to return the boy to the land of the living. But the boy only knows death and dead pirates and does not want to part with the only family he knows. This story is not for the faint of heart or for young children.
review 2: Blast me timbers, but I did love this book! The illustrations are just as weird and magical and ... morebeautiful as anything I have seen in comic book illustration, and the story is sweet, dark, soulful and real. It is a book for wise children and weary adults. It is a leaping off point from the mundane into a nearworld where a tiny boy yearns to be "able to clickety-clack the bones in my hands." The pirate skeleton crew of the Flying Dutchman kidnap a living baby boy to ease the boredom of their cursed limbo, with the intention of having the boy join their undead crew when he is a little older. To their own amazement, the Captain and crew come to find that they love and treasure the living boy as he is, and want him to continue living his life in full. The boy, who has grown up amongst this bony crew(who love and adore him), only knows the life of an undead pirate. As one panel reads: "Life appeared to him(the boy)as a distant calamity. The boy says, with hope and pride:"One day I shall be dead like you..." This tale can be a bit grim, and parents should take measure before reading to very young children, but I do think that most kids would get the ultimate gist and sweetness of the story. The illustrations themselves are wonderful to look at, and even a pre-reader can spend time with the book, following the jolly skeleton pirates and exploring their rich, fishy-filled netherworld. The story does end a bit abruptly, and I do not know if there is another chapter to the tale, but even with the short ending it is a beauty of a book. We loved it. less

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