The Year of the Beasts

April 9, 2012
Castellucci (First Day on Earth) and comics artist Powell (The Silence of Our Friends) mix narrative and graphic storytelling to produce an innovative, moody story about jealousy and grief. Through Castellucci’s prose, readers learn about 15-year-old Tessa’s growing rivalry with her younger sister, Lulu, who starts dating Tessa’s crush, Charlie, and grabs the spotlight among Tessa’s friends (“Tessa was a smoldering coal ready to light up at any moment.... Tessa believed that Lulu was stealing her place”). Meanwhile, in alternating chapters, Powell’s skillful b&w panel art envisions Tessa’s life through the lens of myth and monsters, with Tessa cast as Medusa, outcast and terrified by her ability to turn others to stone; her best friend Celina a mermaid; Charlie a centaur; and Jasper, a loner Tessa dates in secret, a minotaur. The story builds toward a tragedy that leaves Tessa devastated and sheds light on the themes of the graphic interludes. Readers will appreciate their access to Tessa’s dark emotions throughout; this is a book teens will likely read and reread, gaining greater understanding as they piece together the two halves of this challenging coming-of-age story. Ages 12–up.

March 15, 2012
A tale of contemporary family and a comic that draws on Greek mythology unfold in alternating chapters, interweaving to tell of two sisters blighted by the sting of jealousy. When the boy who is the object of Tessa's crush chooses her younger sister, Lulu, a fissure develops between the two. Struggling against her feelings of increasing invisibility, Tessa finds solace in a secret relationship with awkward loner Jasper, but then she really falls for him. Meanwhile, Medusa is re-imagined as a marginalized high school student. She is first shown up by a lovely mermaid and then runs from a shadowy Minotaur in graphic-novel chapters, which unfurl in variously sized panels that sweep across the pages. A tragic turn of events finally makes clear the connection between the two dramas--a dovetail that many will struggle to understand throughout most of this short work. Tessa's third-person voice may leave readers feeling at a distance from her, but that suits the tone of her character just fine. Teens will feel sympathy for her, particularly in regard to her situation with Jasper, but they'll likely also be somewhat repelled by the ugliness of her raw envy. It won't be for everyone, but sophisticated readers will eat this melancholy, appealingly disjointed novel right up. (Graphic/fiction hybrid. 12-16)

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Starred review from June 1, 2012

Gr 7 Up-Fifteen-year-old Tessa has conflicting feeling toward her pretty, younger sister, Lulu. The simmering sibling rivalry erupts into jealousy one summer when Lulu begins to date Tessa's high school crush, Charlie, and develops a friendship with her best friend, Celina. Tessa's emotional turmoil is further complicated by her attraction to Jasper, a mysterious, quiet outcast. Her desire to be with him is at odds with her need to be accepted within her own circle of friends. The tension comes to a life-altering crisis when the sisters go swimming with their friends; both girls are pulled under the swirling water, but only Tessa survives. The narrative alternates between text chapters and graphic novel panels-a unique format that perfectly complements the story. The text sections chronicle the events of the summer, while the fantasy panels-where her friends are mythological creatures and Tessa is a Medusa-like figure with a head of hissing vipers-depict Tessa's pain-filled world after her sister's death. In the graphic illustrations, her terrifying snake hair can turn onlookers to stone, Lulu is a mermaid, and Jasper is a morose, Minotaur-like creature. Through this richly detailed window into her tortured existence, readers witness Tessa's struggles with her "beasts" of jealousy, shame, and grief. However, though "Tessa knew that she was made up of all kinds of darkness," the story offers a hopeful resolution.-Babara M. Moon, Suffolk Cooperative Library System, NY

Copyright 2012 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from March 1, 2012
Grades 9-12 *Starred Review* The hybrid book that alternates prose and comics chapters is nothing new, but it can be a tricky proposition to get right. There ought to be a reason to fuse the two mediums together, either emphasizing or playing off of the relative strengths of each, and most often there isn't. Castellucci and Powell make a powerful team, and smartly let the two different breeds breathe in different fashions. In Castellucci's narrative, teen Tessa is driven wild with jealousy when her younger sister starts dating Tessa's crush, Charlie. Though Tessa falls for another boy, an awkward loner, she can't let go of her anger. Powell's skillfully drawn counterpoint is steeped in mythological undertones, as a girl (presumably Tessa, but never named as such) with Medusa hair turns all who look upon her at home and at school to stone. Meanwhile, a bullheaded boy lurks at the periphery of the loosely framed, haunted panels. It's initially unclear just what, aside from a general feeling of angst, links the two narratives together, but a focal point of deep tragedy emerges to provide a clarifying effect upon how one relates to the other. Though the ending seems truncated, it gives readers a reason to give the whole thing another go, now that the scales have fallen from their eyes. What emerges is a map that leads into the maze of grief, and an elegant evocation of the monster crouched at its center.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)