Review by New York Times Review
This book is a fantasy inspired by a real image: the famous 1999 photograph of Luther and Johnny Htoo, the prepubescent, chain-smoking Burmese twins who led the guerrilla group God's Army. Boaz Lavie's story concerns an American explosives expert sent to the fictional country of Quanlom, where he falls afoul of a legion of children led by magical brothers, warring to protect a dragon they believe lives inside the mountain he's come to blow up. This graphic novel, though, is a too rare example of artists getting top billing - another pair of twins, illustrators Asaf and Tomer Hanuka, balance hair-thin contours with flat, solid swaths of color. Their sensitivity to shade and form makes even the story's quotidian images worth lingering over: mottled boar meat on a spit, shadows of leaves in a forest, the slashes of fluorescent light across a corporate washroom. There's a saturated magenta, far away from the earth tones that dominate the book, that the Hanukas reserve to imply the presence of magic and horror. By the story's climax, as the children's fantasies of revenge become real, it trickles like blood across page after page.
Copyright (c) The New York Times Company [October 18, 2015]
Review by Booklist Review
*Starred Review* This action thriller with horror overtones casts familiar elements into new shapes and offers an adult adventure like nothing else available. Mark is an explosives expert who, despite his better judgment, signs onto a freelance job with his amoral partner. In Quanlom, a fictional Southeast Asian country, the pair are assisting the military when Mark is lured in by a group of child soldiers intent on forcing a showdown between ancient magic and modern technology. The book's highly cinematic storytelling, pace, and visuals come as no surprise considering two of the three creators have a background in film. This lends wonder to the unique fantasy elements that burst onto the scene as the troubling climax careens ever closer. Lavie never allows the unreal to undermine the tale's gravity, though; he consistently grounds the story by emphasizing Mark's innate empathy and establishing believable human relationships. Serving both the reality and the fantasy of the proceedings are the Hanuka brothers' incredible crisp, candy-colored imagery, summoning both the humidity of the jungle war zone and the awe of divine powers at play, and always alive with the immediacy and dynamism of top-level animation. Stunning artwork and creeping dread weave together in this satisfying and moving page-turner.--Karp, Jesse Copyright 2010 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Heady, hellacious, and phantasmagoric, Israeli filmmaker Lavie's (The Lake) debut graphic novel-illustrated by veteran artists the Hanuka twins (Bi-Polar, The Realist)-feels like something Alex Garland would have come up with after bingeing on Apocalypse Now outtakes. Mark is an explosives expert whose economic anxieties are ratcheted up by his wife's pregnancy. When near-psychotic old pal Jason promises a weird gig for great pay-all they have to do is go down to the Southeast Asian nation of Quanlom and rig an entire mountain for controlled demolition-Mark jumps. Once in Quanlom the mood pivots from merely ominous to outright wartime nightmare, as Mark is taken prisoner by some particularly vicious preadolescent rebels. The story gets more and more violent and fantasy-like from there. The Hanukas' layered illustrations coat everything with a hyperreal glaze, accentuating the story's dreamlike aspects. The only off-key note comes at the very end, when a source of tragic real-life inspiration casts this otherwise gripping book in somewhat of a sour light. (July) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
