Evil Eyes Sea

by Ozge Samanci

-The Best Graphic Novels of 2024, The Guardian
-Best Graphic Novels for Adults 2024, American Library Association
-Cartoonist Studio Prize, 2025

This fictional graphic novel narrates a mystery story set in Istanbul before the 1995-96 elections. The story takes place against a background of political propaganda; a conservative party is rising to power using religion to appeal to voters cynically.   The main protagonists, Ece and Meltem, are engineering students at Bosphorus University and in financial distress. Ece and Meltem fantasize about having the powerful gaze of Medusa and amuse themselves with efforts to move objects with their eyes. They also share a passion for scuba diving as members of the Student Diving Club.   While on a diving expedition in the Bosphorus Strait, they witness a freak accident underwater. Did Ece and Meltem’s evil eye cause the accident? Their investigation leads them to a search for truth and a treasure hidden under the Bosphorus. But their hopes of solving their financial troubles become entangled with political corruption, and they must make grim decisions while navigating a climate of chauvinism, patriarchy, religious pressure, and economic instability. The evolving events threaten their friendship, ethical values, and even their lives—as well as the future of their country.

-The Best Graphic Novels of 2024, The Guardian

-Best Graphic Novels for Adults 2024, American Library Association

“There’s less time for contemplation in Özge Samancı’s 90s-set Evil Eyes Sea (Uncivilized Books), which sees two Istanbul students investigate the death of a friend who plunged into the Bosphorus in a Cadillac. It’s a fine mix of Tintin-style adventure and social commentary, complete with smelly dorm rooms, puffed-up gangsters and Scuba diving.”—The Guardian

“It's a book that’s never quite what you expect, and its power as a narrative is not of a sudden explosion, but of a quiet storm.”—The Comics Journal

“Try as they might, Ece and Meltem, students in 1990s Istanbul, can’t get over the underwater accident they witnessed. Wrangling with the misogyny of college life a­nd the chain of an upcoming election, eventually, they realize that maybe they shouldn’t.”—The New York Times, Book Review

“In this rambunctious murder mystery set in 1990s Turkey, Samancı (Dare to Disappoint) contrasts a playful and vibrant visual style with deadly serious themes.”—Publishers Weekly

“As entertaining as it is exposing, Samanci’s sophomore title is an exquisite, multilayered showpiece confronting gender inequity, religious manipulations, political corruption, and the gray zones of morals and ethics—gray zones necessary for survival.”—Booklist, STARRED REVIEW

"Evil Eyes Sea is a work that turns its powerful, Medusa-like gaze on womanhood, corruption, and moral responsibility while still being an entertaining, fast-paced read. Taking the plunge into its watery depths is a rewarding experience.”—The Third Coast Review

“Scuba meets stone cold corruption in EVIL EYES SEA.”—The Beat

“As one might expect from Samanci, it is still really fun and funny, while treating its serious subjects with dignity.”—Women Write about Comics

“Despite the heavy themes, there’s humor in [Samanci’s] drawings and dialogue — moments of levity in otherwise dismal circumstances.” —Northwestern Magazine

“It’s a beautiful mix of humor, tragedy, and heart.”—Murder and Mayhem

Genres: Graphic Novels, Comics, Fiction, Mystery, Graphic Novels Comics, Middle East, Asia

270 pages, Paperback

First published June 16, 2024

About the author

Ozge Samanci is an artist and an associate professor at Northwestern University. She makes comics and interactive art installations. She keeps an online comics journal Ordinary Things since 2006.

Reviews

[Lily · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed the voice in this, the friendship portrayed here is charming amongst bleak conditions of waterless and pigeon-full student housing. I love that they are divers. It's funny while addressing very scary and dark political issues, femicide, rising religious fervor in Turkey, and quite a story!

[Elizabeth A · Rating 3 out of 5]

This graphic novel set in Istanbul around the 1995-96 elections covers a lot of ground. The story revolves around two engineering students and a potential murder they witness. I appreciated getting an inside look at the the dorm lives of these women and the challenges they faced. The art is colorful and I especially liked the diving scenes - there is serenity underwater that the women can't seem to find when on dry land. While I liked it, didn't love as much as her graphic memoir.

Dare to Disappoint: Growing Up in Turkey - 4 stars.
Evil Eyes Sea - 3 stars.

[Anna R · Rating 5 out of 5]

Exceptional storytelling fueled by charming and creative illustrations!

[Alastair · Rating 2 out of 5]

After reading Özge Samancı’s first graphic novel “Dare to Disappoint”, I was a fan and really looking forward to this book.
But unfortunately I was disappointed. The artwork didn’t do anything for me; the various stories were disjointed and confused. It felt like the author didn’t really know what to focus on and just threw everything in there. The main story (which seems pretty absurd) almost got lost in amongst all the other often irrelevant things going on, making it hard to stay interested.
It’s described as a feminist political mystery, but it doesn’t feel like one: the protagonist Ece comes across as an irresponsible lunatic rather than a feminist. The background to the story is the elections in Istanbul in 1995.

[Novi · Rating 3 out of 5]

reading graphic novels since i am concussed. ok book. didn’t really like the art or the story line. i didn’t feel too emotionally connected to any of the characters.

[Doreen · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a terrific murder mystery graphic novel! I read a lot of both, and know how difficult it can be to perfectly encapsulate a crime novel -- and one that involves not only a murder but political intrigue, as well -- into graphic format. Ozge Samanci has managed that in this compelling tale, that's rightfully been sweeping up awards.

Set in 1990s Turkey, Ece and Meltem are mechanical engineering students at Bosphorus University. Meltem is smart and beautiful, and has the men flocking to her. Ece is shorter and bolder, and often runs interference for the more reticent Meltem. The two women are best friends and scuba diving enthusiasts, aided by Meltem's boyfriend Omer, who supplies both gear and a psychological shield against a chauvinistic society that questions the presence of women in certain public spaces.

It's while on a dive in the Bosphorus that the unimaginable happens. Ece and Meltem are enjoying the underwater experience when what feels like a meteor crashes into the water beside them. The meteor is actually a fancy car, which has plunged in with lights ablaze. As it sinks further into the deep, the women see that there's someone trapped inside the vehicle. Worse, it's someone they know. Ece and Meltem do everything they can to rescue Selen, another woman who goes to school with them, but they're too late. By the time they bring her to the surface, she's already dead.

Unable to shake the memory of what happened, Ece wants to investigate. Meltem has no interest in digging deeper into Selen's death but circumstances prevail, pulling them into an orbit of lies and corruption that could very well have deadly consequences for them both.

The greatest accomplishment of this graphic novel is the way it not only packs a satisfying tale of friendship and crime into under 300 deftly illustrated pages, but also how it paints an entire portrait of what it feels like to be a young woman struggling to exist in a society that is, if not quite repressive, certainly stifling. Ms Samanci's experiences echo so many of my own from going to college in Malaysia. While my own roommate situations were never so crowded or drought-struck -- tho Westerners will likely clutch their pearls even at the fact that we were six to a two-bedroom apartment -- I certainly sympathized with how Ece is desperate for work and how much she hates studying something "practical". I also felt a weird nostalgia for how she and her friends partied on a budget, even as they ignored the strictures coming down on them from all sides as to how they "should" behave.

Parallel experiences aside, I was totally immersed not only in the underwater scenes but also in the depictions of national politics. I have read enough Turkish prose to be mostly confused about their history: Evil Eyes Sea, on the other hand, makes the circumstances much clearer, even as it uses fiction to disguise actual events and personages. The amount of off-the-cuff detail in this book made it feel intensely autobiographical. Even tho you know it's fiction, it reads so persuasively that you can't help but feel that all of it must be true, not just the parts inspired by the author's own life.

That's a remarkable achievement for any book, but especially for a graphic novel. Anything less than photorealism naturally places a barrier between the reader and author, yet Ms Samanci transcends that division with ease. Little wonder that this entertaining and astute volume has won so many well-deserved awards.

Evil Eyes Sea by Ozge Samanci was published June 18 2024 by Uncivilized Press and is available from all good booksellers, including Bookshop!

This review first appeared at TheFrumiousConsortium.net.

[AMP · Rating 5 out of 5]

Two friends, Ece and Meltem, evade the dullness and hardships of 1995 Istanbul life by going on adventures. On one scuba diving adventure, they witness the murder of a schoolmate who drowns in the Bosphorus Strait. They must navigate the murder, socio-political dangers, and university life as they try to help solve the girl's case.

***Spoilers below, and analysis***
Ece and Meltem go on several adventures as two young ladies in a male-centric society. They are empowered by Medusa, her gaze, underworld wonders of refuge, and their friendships.

One adventure includes going underground to the Basilica cistern, where they observe a pair of Medusa heads at varying angles seemingly holding up the cistern's mighty columns. When Ece asks why the faces are not at a normal orientation, Meltem responds for fear of the female gaze.

Gazes are a recurring theme, which manifests truth and empowers the book's characters in a culture and time where they are subject to the inefficiencies, inequalities, and corruptions of their society. Gazes from men penetrating women keep women from accessing the cooling waters of the Bosphorus. Gazes from victims display fear yet connect the victim to the observer(s) on a visceral level. Gazes spark connections like the gaze of understanding and acceptance between Ece and her pupil when he shares his sexual orientation, and she reinforces acceptance. Lastly, gazes seem to radiate hope like those from Ece and Meltem to will objects into saving them or favoring their needs in a seemingly indifferent society.

During an intense moment of the book, a friend of Meltem sends her a postcard with a beheaded Medusa. The next panel zoomed on Medusa's detached head with the words "Medusa was a powerful woman. And beheaded." The power from Medusa could only be stopped once she was murdered, her eyes shut forever more.

To emphasize the effectiveness of gazes, the evil eye symbol and the term "Maşallah" traditionally used to protect one from an evil gaze are ineffective. The symbol and phrase do not protect any of the characters that wear them in both consequential and inconsequential situations like the murder of the classmate and the circumcision of Ece's brother.

Underground wonders empower Ece and Meltem as they allow them to be people without the omnipresent male gaze of the above ground world. They travel to the Basilica Cistern and gain strength through the struggles of women from the times of Medusa and use Medusa's gaze as a symbol of hope in the aboveground world. This underworld tool is used to combat the male-centric gaze and create their own agency.

The world below the surface of Bosphorus also permits the women to have their own agency. They are able to lie to a sleazy politician who pays them large sums of money to find a safe that someone stole from him and threw into the strait about finding the safe. They create a language of shared experience and friendship under the crisp waters.

"Evil Eyes Sea" is a socio-political commentary of young women in Istanbul who must find ways to hold onto hope and combat injustices in unexpected ways and places. Their friendship to one another is the tie that bonds all their tools and refuges together as they rely on one another when all the other tools and places are unattainable and hope seems lost.

[Dave Schaafsma · Rating 4 out of 5]

“In this land, could we ever make a difference?”

I read Evil Eyes Sea (2024) because it showed up on a list of The Guardian’s best Graphic Novels of 2024. It was created by Chicago (Northwestern) cartoonist Ozge Samanci, whose Dare to Disappoint I had thought was good. This one is far more ambitious, and may hold some keys for us on the left in the US for how to confront a crazy and possibly dangerous administration. Her story is set in Turkey, where strongman autocrat Erdogan (admired by all the US incoming team, especially 45 and his dictator-loving pal Tulsi Gabbard) has been President since 2014.

The novel has at its heart several things: 1) the mystery of a (possibly) murdered woman, calling attention to the status of women in public life, and 2) the political landscape of 1995-96 in Turkey, when a right regime seeks power in part by pretending to embrace religion. Two main characters, engineering students Ece and Meltem, drive the plot. They find the dead woman’s body in a car while scuba diving. They believe in the Evil Eye. They think they can move objects by looking at things. Did they cause the accident?! They like to party and like many smart students, they like to laugh at the idiocy of the political scene, though it is also very dangerous, possibly evil: Patriarchy, religious pressure, the threat of violence, loss of freedoms especially for women.

So there’s a lot of fun and laughs in the midst of danger and potential social collapse. But it will take more than laughs to confront the problems they face. Did it need all these 18 chapter divisions in a 280-page book? The color palette is inviting, draws you in, lightly, brightly. The drawing is also making connections with us in an intimate, simple--not polished, glossy--way. The pages are often a little too busy for me, too filled with info, but this is a very good project.

[Esra Cimencioglu · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wholeheartedly recommend this book for its delightful sense of humor and witty, vibrant characters that drive the captivating narrative! The story evokes such a nostalgic pleasure and offers not only a unique glimpse into the social and political life in mid-90s Turkey but also the rich history and mythology that permeates the region. I also liked how the author visually stitches together each frame, creating clever connections between different layers of the story, past and present. Prepare to be captivated by the well-crafted drawings and images adorning every page and leaving you in awe as each chapter unfolds.

[Juuso · Rating 4 out of 5]

Özge Samanci's graphic novel Evil Eyes Sea takes place in Istanbul during the 1995-96 elections. This story is about Ece and Meltem, two engineering students at Bosporus University who enjoy diving. One day whilst diving, they witness a woman drowning and they end up in the middle of politics and propaganda.

This graphic novel tells an interesting story about political corruption in the context of Istanbul and it's wonderful views! The art is lovely and the characters quite interesting! I especially enjoyed the way one of the characters was implied to be queer without ever properly phrasing it!

[Defne Eliacik · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's the story of two college-age women navigating a male-centric culture. It's about friendship. It's about how friendship is different in a Middle Eastern culture. Humorous and poetic. It deals with heavy themes like corruption, and trauma and it is a page-turner. The plot has surprising twists and characters are relatable. With many ocean and underwater scenes (two of the main characters are scuba divers), with collages, and with Ozge Samanci's unique visual style, the narration evokes emotions and asks fundamental questions in a humanistic tone.

[Jason · Rating 5 out of 5]

Riveting! Exciting! Empowering! Educational! I devoured it in one sitting! I read Samanci's Dare to Disappoint awhile back and really enjoyed it; looks like she is adept at writing fiction as well. Her engaging characters provide a window into the daily lives and struggles of Turkish women in university in the mid-nineties, and that aspect alone makes this worth reading. But there's also a really exciting and well-crafted murder mystery as well as a cultural and political snapshot of Turkey during that time. I could honestly believe the whole thing was true if I didn't know any better...

[ladybugcharm27 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Enchanting - an impressive feat when the story is backdropped by the underfunding of public education and Istanbul's political unrest.

The characters are quite alive and I quite enjoyed the relationship between Ece and Cem.

The story was intriguing. It had perfect pacing and a lot of personality and unexpectedness!

There was so much that this book did. It poked at grief, survivors guilt, familial pain, friendship, politics/corruption, misogyny, women being the one to create safe spaces, forgiveness, mystery, impulse, and women protecting women.

Such a pleasure to read.

[Antoinette Van Beck · Rating 4 out of 5]

set in turkey, this graphic novel follows two college students as they eke their way through school and various jobs, and as they become entangled in the mystique/terror of another woman's murder and the man who seems to be the most dangerous person they could choose to deal with. i liked the illustration style (almost like collage with sketches) and the story was engaging! definitely a narrative examining the things that we can control, even when there are more powerful systems in place that we have no influence on (despite their impact on QOL for everyone).

[Glynnis · Rating 5 out of 5]

This unique and beautifully constructed story follows two roommates in a comically hellish dorm at a university in Istanbul. Their hectic existence is interrupted by a tragedy when they attempt to save a fellow dorm inmate from drowning. As they try to unravel the mystery of why her car plunged into the Bosporus, their friendship is tested, and they encounter a sleazy strongman and his sensitive teen son. They may not totally believe in it, but their gaze has medusa's power. Ozge's humor, spirited drawings, and how this story engages in the larger questions of how individuals, especially women, can make a difference, place this book among my absolute favorites of all time.

[Michael Norwitz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Samanci's thriller provides an interesting look at student life for women in Turkey - a sphere I've not seen much of in comics before. She's an adept cartoonist (despite some glitches, lettering which is sometimes hard to track, and I got a couple characters confused). Unfortunately the central conflict, involving an attempt to defraud a gangsterish politician, seemed so ill-advised to me that once the protagonists embarked on it, I found it difficult to sustain the same amount of interest.

[Ogi Ogas · Rating 3 out of 5]

My ratings of books on Goodreads are solely a crude ranking of their utility to me, and not an evaluation of literary merit, entertainment value, social importance, humor, insightfulness, scientific accuracy, creative vigor, suspensefulness of plot, depth of characters, vitality of theme, excitement of climax, satisfaction of ending, or any other combination of dimensions of value which we are expected to boil down through some fabulous alchemy into a single digit.

[Zay · Rating 2 out of 5]

279 pages , 18 chapters

Murder mystery including 2 young women trying to make a difference in there land turns political.
Realistic storytelling
2.5/5 I felt the author tried milk the story a little , could’ve been told in 14 chapters or less .
Couldn’t keep my interest throughout the story or didnt resonate with the main characters.

[Nancy Gisvold · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved everything about this book. The characters were quirky; the graphics very enjoyable with the words easy to read. The story was a fun light mystery. I received this book through the Goodreads give away and am so happy that I had a chance to read. I think one of my favorite characters were the seagulls.

[Ozge · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautifully written and illustrated story of mid-90s college life intertwined with political scandal, patriarchy and murder mystery. How a friendship survives the challenges of solving a crime and helping someone even in their death.

[Jerry Summers · Rating 4 out of 5]

We are going to Turkey next year. Our politics isn’t that dissimilar with political corruption and our education isn’t dissimilar with trying to survive while being educated. Interesting story and artwork.

[David Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

Eh. The story is OK. The writing, however, isn't amazing. I take it that English isn't the author's first language, as some of the wording seems a bit off, and I found a typo that made it into the final text. Also, the illustration is just middling.

[Zareen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this! Very imaginative and immersive in its setting and characters, and the drawings are delightful

[Esra Tasdelen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very enjoyable graphic novel with beautiful illustrations! Also a good glimpse into life in Turkey as a woman in the 90s.

[Anne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Best graphic novel of 2024 so far.

[Kay · Rating 5 out of 5]

Compelling story and great graphic art!

[Aydin Truong · Rating 4 out of 5]

TÜRKIYE 🇹🇷🇹🇷🇹🇷🇹🇷🇹🇷🇹🇷🇹🇷🇹🇷🇹🇷🇹🇷🇹🇷🇹🇷🇹🇷🇹🇷🇹🇷🇹🇷
An interesting snapshot of how cooked politics and the culture in Turkey was (and still is - me and my homies hate erdoğan).

[Richard Thornley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just beautiful. I loved it.

[Aurora]

Made it to chapter 5/page 80 before giving up. The story was moving too slowly for me and I couldn’t get invested.

[☺ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mostly 4/5 stars, occasionally 3.5/5 stars. Quality realistic storytelling, though the final sequences are simultaneously overdramatic and underwhelming.