Brontë

March 22, 2021
Santoni reimagines the lives of Charlotte, Emily, and Anne Brontë in an uneven fictionalized group biography that dramatizes snippets of the sisters’ writing careers and family struggles. As the siblings set about trying to save themselves from an impoverished future, they clash with one another—over matters of the heart and whether to publish their writing—and with brother Branwell, who has an alcohol and opium dependence. Their success, which Santoni inflects with feminist overtones, accelerates Branwell’s disintegration in this telling. Loose linework and a high-contrast b&w palette lend themselves well to the gothic subject matter, portraying dramatic scenes of crows and churchyards alongside the family’s tense exchanges. Exercising creative license with historical fact, Santoni (Jane Austen: Her Heart Did Whisper) portrays the family through a Wuthering Heights–leaning lens. Sudden transitions, uncontextualized sequences, and text that tells rather than shows (“She’s so secretive and proud”; “We are in the gutter”), meanwhile, undercut the melodrama, resulting in a graphic novel that is more highlight reel than full-length feature. Back matter includes a timeline of the Brontës’ lives and notes on character design. Ages 13–up. (May)■