Bottled

Starred review from December 4, 2017
Friendship is a weapon in this tense exploration of resentment. Jane and Natalie were close once. Then Natalie became a successful model and Jane languished behind, trapped in a tangle of family crack-up and romantic rot. When Natalie returns home with an explosive secret, the tables turn. This is a murky story in every sense: corridors are shadowy, morals are twisted, and turmoil bubbles beneath the surface. The book’s refusal to be explicit about much of anything makes it more unsettling than most outright horror stories. Gooch lingers over camera lenses, the arc of a knife through space, the pause before someone makes a fateful decision, and other liminal moments in a life hurtling towards destruction. Jane and Natalie are, separately and together, uneasy exemplars of millennial alienation, and this book is their devastating duet.

Starred review from February 1, 2018

Jane is bored. Her boyfriend is self-absorbed, her mother and philandering stepfather bicker endlessly. She wishes she had a more exciting, bohemian lifestyle, far from the suburbs. When her college friend Natalie, now a successful fashion model living in Japan, comes home to visit, Jane can barely muster the energy to pick her up from the airport. In his debut graphic novel, Australian cartoonist and author Gooch presents what seems like a standard tale of millennial disaffection, until a night out with Natalie ends with a confession of betrayal that leads to Jane making a shocking decision that veers the story into noir territory. Readers might be stunned to discover that this is Gooch's first book, as he demonstrates a masterly sense of storytelling and character development, as well as a fantastic knack for color and pacing. In many scenes, notes of alienation or dread radiate from the smallest gesture. VERDICT Thriller and crime fiction fans are sure to embrace this unnervingly dark, expertly crafted volume that announces Gooch as a creator to watch.--TB

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