Bone Orchard Mythos: Ten Thousand Black Feathers

The Bone Orchard Mythos #2

by Jeff Lemire, Andrea Sorrentino (Artist)

From the acclaimed creative team behind GIDEON FALLS, PRIMORDIAL, and THE PASSAGEWAY comes a new story in the bold and ambitious shared horror universe of THE BONE ORCHARD MYTHOS. Trish and Jackie are best friends and avid gamers. But when the line between reality and their fantasy world is blurred by an evil darkness, can they be the heroes of their own story? TEN THOUSAND BLACK FEATHERS is the newest entry into THE BONE ORCHARD MYTHOS from LEMIRE & SORRENTINO! A universe that features self-contained graphic novels and limited series about all the horrors waiting to be discovered within the Bone Orchard.

WHAT IS THE BONE ORCHARD MYTHOS?
The Bone Orchard Mythos is a shared horror universe of titles (all different formats) by bestselling duo Jeff Lemire & Andrea Sorrentino.

Collects THE BONE ORCHARD MYTHOS: TEN THOUSAND BLACK FEATHERS #1-5

Genres: Comics, Horror, Graphic Novels, Fantasy, Graphic Novels Comics, Fiction, Mystery

160 pages, Hardcover

First published September 14, 2022

About the author

Librarian note:
There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name

Jeff Lemire is a New York Times bestselling and award winning author, and creator of the acclaimed graphic novels Sweet Tooth, Essex County, The Underwater Welder, Trillium, Plutona, Black Hammer, Descender, Royal City, and Gideon Falls. His upcoming projects include a host of series and original graphic novels, including the fantasy series Ascender with Dustin Nguyen.

Reviews

[Drew Canole · Rating 3 out of 5]

Two girls create a fantasy world together, brainstorming in one of their mom's basements about creating a novel together. Eventually one of the girls would rather go out partying instead of being a nerd. Somehow the lines between the fantasy world and the real world become blurred and the party-going girl goes missing.

It's sort of a mystery I guess. I'm not sure. Not a heck of a lot happens in this book.

The artwork is nice and does set a dark mood.

[Alexander Peterhans · Rating 2 out of 5]

Lemire going through the horror motions, nothing here particularly frightening or even startling. His horror imagery is derivative at best. No real idea what the 'mythos' here is yet, and not very interested to find out.

I appreciate Sorrentino using two distinct styles to show the difference between the unblemished world of children, and the blighted world of adults (although there is a weirdly moralising thing to it).

[António · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing story and art. Even better than the first one.

[Scott Rhee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Trish is a best-selling writer who has come back to her small hometown to investigate the disappearance of her childhood best friend, Jackie. When they were younger, the two girls created a fantasy world where they could escape to from the often confusing vicissitudes of life. In that realm, they fought an evil entity named Corvus, whose minions were crows. Trish, in trying to find out what happened to Jackie (everyone, including her mother, believes that she was murdered) begins to realize that their childhood fantasy realm has slowly bled into the real world.

This is the plot of Jeff Lemire/Andrea Sorrentino/Dave Stewart's graphic novel "Ten Thousand Black Feathers", which is the second book in their over-arching Bone Orchard Mythos series. It's another well-written, creepy entry in the series, although very little is actually explained in this one. Still, one can't go wrong with this collaboration in terms of great visuals and an unsettling examination of awkward teen life.

[OmniBen · Rating 2 out of 5]

(Zero spoiler review)
Cue the clip of Aaron Paul screaming 'How does he keep getting away with this"? Answer? I don't know. For Jeff Lemire has to be one of the most overrated, hack writers in the entire comics industry. Sure, there are definitely worse writers out there than him, but few who have somehow cobbled together the befuddlingly decent reputation that he has.
I told myself I was done with him after reading the first Boneyard whatever book. I told myself that and yet here I am. I blame myself for this, but I also blame Jeff Lemire. Actually, I should probably blame Andrea Sorrentino, whose artwork lured me in, despite me being old and ugly enough to know better. And Sorrentino delivers, of course, even if drawing half of this book was probably about as artistically appealing as flaying yourself alive to make a collage of your own skin.
There are no characters here whatsoever, just the most awful and redundant of cliches. The story is bog standard, D grade horror fare. The plot, the premise, everything has been done better ten thousand times before. It's bland, boring and barely worth wasting five minutes to review it. I repeat, 'how does he keep getting away with this'? 2/5


OmniBen.

[Aline · Rating 5 out of 5]

J'ai adoré ! L'histoire dans l'histoire. La réalité dans la fiction. La douceur dans la violence. C'est très très bien !

[Seb · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked the first book better. It was eerie, atmospheric, aerial. There wasn't much text. You had to create your own reading.

This second book comes with much more information and builds the mythos properly. It is fine, but I liked being an active reader and expected that to continue.

3.5 stars rounded down

[Rick Ray · Rating 3 out of 5]

Still just as obscure in it's storytelling as The Passageway was. The next addition in the Sorrentino and Lemire horror shared universe continues the trajectory of vibes over narrative. There are some genuinely strong horror moments peppered into Ten Thousand Black Feathers that really kept me engaged reading this in single issues. Sorrentino continues to really push his creativity further and the results are here. But the pacing of this series sucked. Very little happens across issues #2-4, with the final issue having to do all the legwork in terms of landing some kind of an ending. It's not a horror series I'd consider remotely memorable, and two entries into the Bone Orchard Mythos still have me scratching my head as to what they're trying to achieve. Not sure if I'll continue picking up subsequent entries in single issues or whether I'll just wait for these to appear in a much larger collected edition one day and read it all at once, since the satisfaction of the serialized approach is not there for me.

[Shaun Stanley · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Bone Orchard Mythos: Ten Thousand Black Feathers collects issues 1-5 of the Image Comics series written by Jeff Lemire, illustrations by Andrea Sorrentino, and colors by Dave Stewart.

Two teenage girls bond over their love of fantasy novels and creating their own fantasy world. As the two grow older, one girl disappears which haunts the other into adulthood. She believes she may still be alive and returns to her hometown to seek out answers.

Like Passageways, the book starts off pretty good until it just goes off the wall with an incoherent ending. I don’t know what the hell happened in the conclusion of this book. Are the ending to these books “real” or some type of metaphor? I don’t know. I’m not sure the creators know either. I’m skeptical to continue this series but I really enjoyed the FCBD issue and Lemire is one of my favorite comic writers but these books but have not been that good. The redeeming factor is Sorrentino’s art. He has really got the chance to illustrate some creative pieces in these books.

[James DeSantis · Rating 4 out of 5]

I actually like this one more than the first. You get a better sense of what the characters are doing. Two friends growing up together, one gone missing, the other coming back ten years later to find her. Through their time together they created a world of stories, dark ones, and now they must face them. Maybe even together. A lot of nice creepy moments, a really screwed up ending, and interesting characters. A 4 out of 5.

[Etienne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good! I like the story and the artwork. The darkness and despair that surround everything in it. Worth reading!

[Dan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not sure if book 2 was supposed to tie into book 1 or not....

[Lashaan Balasingam · Rating 3 out of 5]

The artwork is fantastic, but that story couldn't have conveyed a more “déjà vu” vibe. I'm not even sure how this is even a follow-up to the previous volume anymore…

[Valéria. · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think there was too much going on, and most of the stuff kinda bored me. Horror scenes and that kind of stuff was cool.

[Jakub Kvíz · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was kind of avoiding the Bone Orchard Mythos books as I wasn’t really happy with how Gideon Falls turned out.

Ten Thousand Black Feathers is not bad, it had very good moments, and very well written and relatable characters.

I am not sure if Lemire plans to return to this story sometime in the future, but the second part of the felt like it’s missing some pieces to make the plot twist more impactful. So instead of “Oh, how clever!” I went “So, that’s it?!”

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cool art. Another inscrutable ending. I think I'll stop trying with this one.

[Alex · Rating 3 out of 5]

Art and concept is good but story and characters are way under developed.. too bad, feels like a wasted chance :/

[Dakota Morgan · Rating 3 out of 5]

An improvement on the first book in the Mythos, but still a confusing mish-mash of horror ideas and spooky Andrea Sorrentino art.

Two lost young women bond over a fantasy world. They grow apart with age, though, and then one is lost in a potential kidnapping. Years later, the other (now author of a fantasy book series) returns to solve the mystery. But the real mystery: is the fantasy series actually a fantasy? Or is it real?

Other books have played with this idea in a much more coherent fashion. After finishing Ten Thousand Black Feathers I could not answer my own question. Still, the book is supremely engaging as it rumbles along through dark scenes juxtaposed with childhood creativity. I guess I'll read the next book in the Mythos.

[Matthew Ward · Rating 2 out of 5]

As much as I wanted to enjoy this, I just didn’t. There was too much going on with this for me to really care or feel like I knew what was going on. I still have hope for the Black Orchard Mythos line though and the art was still incredible.

[Sonic · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this creative team!

[Jeff · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m a bit of a Lemire fanboy. I love everything I’ve read by him. I guess that’s why I like this series that everybody else seems to hate.

This volume of Bone Orchard only seems tangentially related to the previous volume. In this one, two girls become friends and create a fantasy world. The line between fantasy and reality is blurred. The story is difficult to understand not so much because it is complicated but because Lemire purposely leaves out critical details. This is maddening for others, but it works for me.

While the story is pretty good, the art is excellent.

[Štěpán · Rating 3 out of 5]

Black feathers, skulls, murders and blood, oh and ancient eldritch entities. Metaphors for growing up, and old friendships make for an interesting story. But one, that is pulled by the art and not by clarity, horror and consequences. Maybe I just do not get it, or maybe the atmosphere is just all there is to it.

[Steven · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75 stars. An improvement from the first entry in the series. If it had been a little longer, I think they could really have fleshed out the story, rather than the kind of ambiguous ending.

[tim · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5

[Bertazzo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty sure I am being a victim of a pyramid scheme at this point, but purposely ignoring it and enjoying the artwork and atmosphere of The Bone Orchard Mythos.

[Sophie · Rating 3 out of 5]

J'ai beaucoup aimé la prémisse et les illustrations, mais la fin m'a semblé un peu trop forcée

[Jim Maxwell-Campagna · Rating 3 out of 5]

As the second entry into the Bone Orchard Mythos, nothing is landing as strong as Gideon Falls, or Joker: Killer Smile. The art is always great, but the ending, much like The Passageway, feels clunky. Here is hoping Tenement which is being released as a series helps expands the mythos and recontextualizes these first two books.

[Grace · Rating 3 out of 5]

This reminded me of the well from “The Colour Out of Space”. I think that works because the horror is abstract and ambiguous, when it is more physical like it is here and in a visual medium I found it a lot less effective. The skull heads on the people are literally just knonshu too.

[Matty Dub · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is dangerously close to a 5/5 and probably the best collaboration between Lemire and Sorrentino so far. Great horror!

[Mark · Rating 2 out of 5]

3 stars for Sorrentino's art
Featuring another circular passage, much like in The Passageway, except this one is a horizontal tunnel hidden in a suburban basement. The 'tsk' by the mother of the missing girl Jack, at the very end of the collection, left me perplexed to say the least.
I found this even more disappointing than the aforesaid 'The Passageway' - it truly is atmosphere over anything else, borrowing from D&D, Stephen King's The Dark Tower mythology with a hint of 'It' thrown in for more extra measure. I wasn't bored, but I'm pretty damn sure that in a few days I won't remember much about this...