Vicious Creatures

by Sarah Gordon

Nine tales of woe and misadventure.

Genres: Graphic Novels

243 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2020

Reviews

[Alex Sarll]

'Nine tales of woe and misfortune', taking full advantage of Sarah Gordon's sinister, seductive fairytale line, like a less gonzo Dame Darcy. The difference to classic fairytale, or at least the tidied versions with which we're now most familiar, coming in the absolute unfairness of it all. With two arguable exceptions, these are stories from a Sadeian moral universe where cheats prosper, the helpful suffer (and then blame themselves for not doing more), and the innocent come to grief. A story about two artists who first meet when young could easily have ended with the neglected, industrious one as posterity's darling, but Gordon is far too wise to peddle such empty solace: the artist who takes their work more seriously has a worse life, less popularity, less critical respect, and no compensatory benefit whatsoever, because the world isn't fair. Although of all the nine stories, I think it may be the automata of Sweetness who for me represent the most perfect encapsulation of the mood, like Angela Carter if she'd lived to see how little good unleashing the beast within generally does.

Because I love a ridiculous crowdfunding reward, I sent something to be ritualistically burned in a giant wicker owl, whose ashes have been mixed into the ink with which the art was rendered. This was back in what we can now recognise as the good times of early 2019, but fool that I was, I nurtured a hope that the process might prove cathartic and the book come to us in a time less vicious. Well, we can all see how that worked out. To give the last word to one of the characters here: "It's a rotten world, yes. You poor motherless little thing. You don't know the worst of it yet. It only gets meaner. Dirtier. Not a place you want anything to do with, I promise."

[Renn Harper · Rating 4 out of 5]

Spooky 🦉

[David Monteith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredibly atmospheric art with haunting and long reaching story telling that stays with you. Seductive and unfair yet enthralling. Yep

[Tracey P · Rating 4 out of 5]

I backed this project on Kickstarter. Always a risky proposition with the quality of art and writing so uneven across projects.

This book is wonderful. The stories are dark and unburdened by the desire for happy endings. The art is beautiful. I highly recommend this graphic novel. The tales are unique and the writing is solid.

[Cherish · Rating 5 out of 5]

I backed this book on kickstarter and I was very pleased to recieve this book.

I visualise this book as gothic fables and it has kept me thinking a lot of most of the characters in each of the chapters.

I was quite fond of story from chapter two. It definitely left me thinking. Not only of the story itself but of life in general.

[Phaelexa · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

[Holly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolute. Perfection. Full of the type of horror that sits in your heart. I immediately wanted more.

[Lowthor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fabulous art coupled with nice twisty turny shorts. Got it from her Kickstarter, but if there are still copies it's worth tracking down.

[Huguet Ascencio · Rating 1 out of 5]

Blatantly and obviously copied half the book from Emily Carrol’s Through the Woods (which is significantly better written and illustrated).

spoilers:
The writing was so unclear that one of the stories came off to me as pro-life, when the author is pro-choice. She is incapable of expressing her ideas effectively: because some aspects which seem symbolic are literal. It can’t be about abortion, because it is literally about infanticide (which is the way pro-life believers understand abortion).

Every story had its female characters unnecessarily experience cartoonish and cliche sexism (“women can’t do x and y!”). I kept hoping that would influence the story in some way, that it would become feminist horror: some did (Rat Queen, Sweetness, Mud), but most stories disappointed.

Funnily enough, 2 of the 3 feminist horror stories I mentioned do not show harassment. Harassment mostly appears in the stories where it is irrelevant.

Women do experience sexism casually through their lives, but this was clearly not intended to convey that aspect of a woman’s life: it was simply sloppy and self-indulgent writing. If my memory serves me, it only once delved into what it feels like to receive harassment, finally allowing the woman’s perspective of that event to take over.

A large part of it lacked atmosphere, sometimes the angle just ended up being plainly unintentionally funny, like with the military owl conspiracy men.
The story with the most heart, about the raven, simply was not a horror story.
This book was difficult to engage with.

The art was the best aspect, the coloring especially. The stories picked up quality a bit at the end, but by then it was too late.