Gray Horses

by Hope Larson

Noémie has left her home in France to study abroad. In Onion City there are new friends, new environments, and new loves. There are also new dreams. And not ordinary dreams. Vivid visions of life in a different time and in a different place, but more than that, of a different existence. In Noemie's sleep she's not a woman, but a horse. A noble creature aiding a sick little girl. But how does this affect Noemie's own journey?

Genres: Graphic Novels, Comics, Fiction, Young Adult, Graphic Novels Comics, Fantasy, Teen

112 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2006

About the author

Hope Larson is an American illustrator and comics artist. Hope Larson is the author of Salamander Dream, Gray Horses, Chiggers, and Mercury. She won a 2007 Eisner Award. She lives in Los Angeles, California.

Reviews

[Jon Nakapalau · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful and dreamlike - unusual yet very compelling tale. Makes you wonder if you really live another life in your dreams; and if that life is, on some level, truly more real. A quick read that will stay with you for a long time - and perhaps even add to your own dreams.

[Dave Schaafsma · Rating 3 out of 5]

Maybe the seventh graphic novel or comics series volume I have read from Hope Larson. This is a kind of whimsical and elliptical story of a young woman, Noémie, who studies abroad and meets a friend who sculpts bread. And Noemie dreams, and in those dreams she's a horse, one who aids an ailing girl. There's not much plot, but the drawing is among the best I have seen from her, swirling and hope-ful and dream-like. And the notion that dreams can shape your life, your future, that's cool here.

[Sesana · Rating 2 out of 5]

It isn't badly written or drawn, it just didn't hit the right notes with me. I didn't really feel connected with Noemie or her story. And the strange guy who takes pictures of her from a distance and runs away when she notices him? That's creepy.

[Susie · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story left something to be desired, but the art more than made up for it.

[Cathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is another unique and special comic by Hope Larson, who also created Salamander Dreams. Just as in Salamander Dreams, Larson continues to draw dreamlike simple line illustrations. This time her colors of choice are a light peach and black, which she seems to use in order to differentiate between the items that she wants you to focus on and everything else.

In this book, the main character is a French foreign exchange student named Noemie. The book is peppered with French lines, repeated in English. This is done in a superb way. Whichever language she is speaking (or thinking) in is in the word bubble and the other language gently flows around it.

Noemie is shy and cautious about the United States, however she befriends a girl across the street from her apartment who’s family owns a bread shop. Her new friend makes the most wonderful animals out of bread, and although she seems happy in her situation, she longs to move back to her native country, Mexico.
Throughout the story, someone follows Noemie around and takes pictures of her. In the beginning, she is disturbed by it, but once she understands the circumstances, she starts to reconsider.

There is also a subplot with a reoccurring dream about grey horses that Noemie tries to understand and determine the meaning of.

All this adds up to a truly original and special graphic novel. This is a definite must for all libraries trying to start a collection. There isn’t anything suggestive or anything you need to worry about with your “gentler” teens (or their parents). While I wouldn’t say this is geared to kids, you don’t have to worry if they happen to pick it up.

[jess · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is the story of a girl from France who comes to the US to study abroad. Hope Larson captures the character's sense of foreign-ness and outsider status -- without depending solely on the language barrier for her sense of alienation. Noemi moves to Onion City from Dijon, France. She has a small furnished apartment. She has her studies. She rides the train. She makes a friend. She handles post-break up feelings from a distance. She sees a cute boy around the neighborhood. It is sort of creepy how he photographs her (sleeping, walking around, etc) and runs away. Tangled into this story, there is a metaphorical child/horse/fire/travel storyline.

I enjoyed reading this book. I like the way Hope Larson expresses movement, words and thoughts. It just looks and feels different when Hope's horse gallops or when Hope's train moves down the tracks or Hope's words tumble out of a characters mouth. I wish the book were longer and the plot more developed, but the storytelling is delightful.

[Kaethe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cool exploration of how travel can change a person in expected ways and also in unexpected ways, too. Canada, right?

Library copy

[Melissa Chung · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hmmm. 2.5 stars! I'm afraid I'm not cool enough to understand this very short graphic novel.

Noémie is from Dijon, France. She is going to school in America. She has weird dreams at night about a girl named Marcy and a talking horse. The horse speaks in French. Marcy is sick and her parents must get rid of her things because germs are really bad for her.

During the day Noémie goes to Art History class with a neighbor friend. There is a boy that is always taking her picture.

At the end of the book Noémie has the same photo that Marcy in her dream had. Is she Marcy? Why is horses a symbol for her? What does it all mean?

[kait zinnecker · Rating 2 out of 5]

this wasn’t bad…there just wasn’t uh much to it. nothing to really connect to and the boy that takes pictures of her while she’s sleeping shouldn’t be a love interest?? fucking weird. i picked this up because i love horses and there was definitely a horse in this? fine

[Lacy · Rating 3 out of 5]

A French foreign exchange student in the US. Very dreamlike and lyrical.

[Chili Public · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is another unique and special comic by Hope Larson, who also created Salamander Dreams. Just as in Salamander Dreams, Larson continues to draw dreamlike simple line illustrations. This time her colors of choice are a light peach and black, which she seems to use in order to differentiate between the items that she wants you to focus on and everything else.

In this book, the main character is a French foreign exchange student named Noemie. The book is peppered with French lines, repeated in English. This is done in a superb way. Whichever language she is speaking (or thinking) in is in the word bubble and the other language gently flows around it.

Noemie is shy and cautious about the United States, however she befriends a girl across the street from her apartment who’s family owns a bread shop. Her new friend makes the most wonderful animals out of bread, and although she seems happy in her situation, she longs to move back to her native country, Mexico.
Throughout the story, someone follows Noemie around and takes pictures of her. In the beginning, she is disturbed by it, but once she understands the circumstances, she starts to reconsider.

There is also a subplot with a reoccurring dream about grey horses that Noemie tries to understand and determine the meaning of.

All this adds up to a truly original and special graphic novel. This is a definite must for all libraries trying to start a collection. There isn’t anything suggestive or anything you need to worry about with your “gentler” teens (or their parents). While I wouldn’t say this is geared to kids, you don’t have to worry if they happen to pick it up.

[Lindsey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Simply wonderful. I love Hope Larson's vision and style. The "gray horses" appear throughout the story in several forms, but it doesn't ever feel forced - it feels like that authentic eeriness you experience when coincidences converge, paired in perfect pitch with the elation and terror of discovering a new city. The continuing reappearance of the horses not only worked as a design theme but also as a subtly symbolic one. Larson creates wholly endearing characters and places them in a setting that is fully fleshed, describing sounds and object motion in swirly text surrounding the subjects, and she plays with the placement of panels and speech in a way that is smart instead of distracting. Add to all this the charm of snippets of translated French, and you've got the absolute magic so readily apparent in this graphic novel. An instant favorite.

[Panoramaisland · Rating 5 out of 5]

A lovely visual narrative poem that nurtures dreaminess by gentle strokes without becoming overbearing or mawkish. Don't go into this expecting a "novel;" instead, pay attention to the visual grammar, the color, the brushwork, the sense of light in the thing. There's a lot of reward in it.

There are more and more of these well-crafted, technically and aesthetically conscious, small short pieces coming out now. I know a lot of people find them too short, but I think perhaps they're meant to be something analogous to poetry: small, craft-conscious, concentrated, meant to savor and re-read when one is caught in a mood. It may not be The Way Forward for comics, but I do hope the format will continue to be mined, expanded and explored.

Books like this give me something of a taste of the vast untapped potential grammar of comics that I sometimes have to work to convince myself is there.

[Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a lovely, precious little book about a French emigre who comes to the US to enroll in art school.

Larson's got a great ability to tell a story and advance characters without using dialogue, but when she does choose to use dialogue, she does it rather effectively (and bilingually, which was a nice surprise!)

I tried not to make comparisons to Brian Lee O'Malley's work when reading this, but there are some similarities - they both are good at telling stories that seem like 'slice-of-life' type stories at first, but with small fantasy nuggets underneath that; by the time, however, that you've fully digested those nuggets, you realize that those nuggets aren't the important parts, the character bits are.

[Hillary · Rating 4 out of 5]

There's so little to it, but the art and the visual storytelling make it really worthwhile. It's dreamy without being annoyingly so, and it really shows off Larson's interest in dialogue and thought balloons (they can be used to convey much more than they usually are), as well as sensory experiences like heat and smell, which are harder to convey in a two-dimensional visual format. The narrative could be a little clearer--I'm not sure that's what she wants--but the structure of each page and the way Larson manages to do it all with a minimum of words are impressive. I'd say Chiggers is better, but this points the way.

[Leila · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great graphic novel. The style is a lot Craig Thompson, as well as the themes--which is to say, it's pretty excellent. While a lot of the uses of French were interesting, I also found them a bit distracting. That, and the fact that a review I read said Noemie was a foreign exchange student studying in Paris. Did that person even read this? Boo. It took me many pages to figure out what was actually going on because of that, though I suppose that's my own fault and has nothing to do with the goodness of this book. It's sweet and lighthearted, and a little bit sad--you find yourself seriously worrying about Noemie sometimes, even though she's perfectly fine.

[Kirsten · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another lovely waking dream from Hope Larson. Noemie, an exchange student from France, finds Onion City both disorienting and thrilling. There are new friends to be made, and there is the strange, handsome boy who seems to be following her... And at night, there are her dreams of a brave horse and a girl, fleeing mysterious danger. Larson's images flow together, and it is the pictures that truly tell this delicate story, rather than the sparse dialog.

[Raina · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love Larson's illustration style: she incorporates words in her illustrations to demonstrate nonverbal sounds, smells, tastes, feelings. And I love her spare drawing. The plot of this is kind of nonexistant, but it's a nice portrait of a moment in a young woman's life. Nice relaxing 30 minute read.

[Lisamarie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was very pretty and unusual and I love the ways she draws emotions, and facial expressions. I loved all the little household mysteries. I still don't understand why the character reacted the way she did to her stalker, and I still can't figure out what the dream was all about. Maybe I'll read it again, it's short.

[Nick Fagerlund · Rating 3 out of 5]

I can see myself re-reading this fairly often. It’s… meditative. And textured. Yes, I think those are the words I’m looking for.

Also, the emotional and temporal spaces it’s about are ones I seem to inhabit more often than not. Shelf with Kiki’s Delivery Service, I think.

[Lauren Salisbury · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think this was too liminal for me. The story missed some key elements for me in terms of development. I wasn't quite sure what to make of the two paired narratives and I was definitely not on board with making a stalker "cute."

[MechaComicReviews · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gray Horses by Hope Larson is an intriguing book because many of the moods and conversations are directed by both silence and subtle lettering of sounds and actions like a simple “woosh” or “gulp.” Therefore, subtlety is what creates the world around the main character, Noémie, which is pretty appropriate because she is a foreign exchange student from France experiencing the USA for the first time.

The artwork itself is quite effortless: curving lines that are both weighted and delicate as they create forms that are simple but effective. You can feel the world by the art and the cursive sound effects as they guide you from everyday life to dream sequence. The lead character’s world breathes and exists off the page making you feel immersed.

The downside of the silent panels and the subtle sound effects and actions is that the book reads incredibly fast like an ephemeral but deep experience. Plus, not much happens in the book even though there’s a recurring dream and new friends. It’s like these are snapshots of life and montages of Noémie finding herself. The plot is basic, but the execution is fantastic. I’ve had this book on my shelf for years, but I think it’s about time that I give it to someone else.

[Alicia · Rating 3 out of 5]

A niche read the book incorporates French as the main character moves to the United States from France and is making her way in the world living near a bakery that smells sweet. She's going to school. She's learning how to live after a heartbreak. She dreams of horses and sees them everywhere. This dreamy set of sequences with the horses provide the escapism and magical thinking she needs to remain positive and moving forward and I loved it for that reason- it reminds me of how I read Nina LaCour.

It's got a beauty more in the art than the story, but highlights the importance of our dreaming as much as our waking.

[Steven R. McEvoy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This story blew me away completely. I never knew so much could be said without words. It is the first graphic novel I have read that had more panes without words than with them. Also the words themselves are done in an interesting way. This book is the story of Noemie, a French exchange student. She is in Onion City and on her own for the first time. She soon becomes friends with Anna the daughter of the local baker. She is being photographed by a mysterious boy and she is struggling with nightmares from her past. One of the really unique things about this book is that almost all of Noemie's dialogue and thoughts are in both French and English. The first night I read the book I read it through three times, once reading both, once just reading the French and once just the English. This story conveys so much and most of it without the use of words. It is wonderfully done, and I know I will read it again and again and get more from it each time.

Hope Larson seems to write a different graphic novel in each town she lives in. She is currently working on a graphic novel of Madeleine L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time. To be honest, I cannot wait.

[NereaNickFan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Irse a vivir a una nueva ciudad es una EXPERIENCIA. Hay gente a la que le sienta mejor que a otra pero muchas veces se necesita de un proceso de adaptación largo. Esta propuesta de Hope Larson desarrolla este concepto de una manera interesante, poniendo el foco en los sueños de la protagonista. Es una obra bastante curiosa. Me acerqué a ella porque la encontré en una tienda de segunda mano y quería leer más de la autora y me he llevado una gran sorpresa.

[Caleb caley · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this up without knowing anything about it. I find that sentiment can sometimes make reading something feel like a bit of a chore because you don’t have that surge to push past something you don’t understand or connect with instantly, but it can also lead to such wondrous feelings of excitement and satisfaction. That is what I found in this small book.

[Sara Elyse · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's nothing mind blowing, a girl from France goes to an American university and has several self discoveries, largely through her dreams. It was a cute and easy read--it's told in both French and English, which I really liked---there's an English translation for every French phase.

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gray Horses is a cute, short read about friendship and the dreaminess of being an international student in a foreign country. Larson crafts engaging characters and beautiful settings to backdrop their adventures.

[Kelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pleasant art style conveying what I would guess is a sort of metaphorical memoir for the author. There's enough here to echo the emotion of catharsis, at least for the fantastical part of the story, but I would've liked more development of the themes and symbolism.

[Cindy · Rating 1 out of 5]

I normally like Hope Larson but this book was not up to par with the rest of her works. This one and Chiggers are definitely not the best.