Review by Booklist Review
Nineteen-year-old Orsay lives in a small village in northeastern France. Several years ago, whols--sentient, tentacled beings resembling abstract sculptures--appeared. Orsay and his family, like most of society, take no issue with the whols, until an encounter with an aggressive whol leaves Orsay with whol-like hands. In order to remedy this, Orsay travels by train to Paris, where he meets whol sympathizers who take their defense of whols to the extreme. Orsay is a likable character, but readers may question the people he connects with in Paris for their lack of good judgment despite their motives. Ruppert and Mulot are regular collaborators, and readers familiar with their previous works will recognize the delicate artistic style, but many of the illustrative highlights come in the surrealistic sequences when the humans and whols interact. At times the plot is hard to grasp, and the origin of the whols remains a mystery, but since this story is marked as the first installment, there may be answers in future volumes. Hand to readers who like speculative fiction with ambiguity.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Ruppert and Mulot (The Perineum Technique) continue two decades of comics collaboration with this visually fabulous, if narratively stilted, exploration of identity and activism. Orsay lives a mundane life in the French countryside, coexisting with "whols"--massive, gentle creatures that randomly appeared in recent years. After being attacked by a whol and gaining expansive, malleable whol-like abilities in his hands, Orsay meets extreme pro-whol activist Vicento and human-whol hybrids Melek and Juliette, who battle against the anti-fantastical-creatures government. Orsay grapples with the brutal methods they employ for their cause and circles a central question: What lengths should one go to defend their own kind? Mulot's psychedelic renderings of the creatures and their interior spaces are captivating and uncanny, bringing striking contrast to an otherwise neutral color palette. But though the visuals astound, the narrative lacks depth. In its attempt to comment on pressing contemporary issues, the script relies on choppy dialogue and overly manufactured character development. This beautiful if unbalanced allegory is at its best when exploring the self through visual metaphor, slowing down the overt messaging. Still, it will appeal to fans of David B. and other inventive Euro cartoonists. (Feb.)
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Review by Library Journal Review
Mulot and Ruppert (Olympia) present the first chapter in a two-part science-fiction epic set in a world where humans live alongside large, luminous, amoeba-like creatures called whols. No one knows what they are or where they come from; they just appeared all of a sudden, all over the planet, a few years ago. The protagonist is Orsay, a 19-year-old landscaper in Northeast France. As whols tend to do little more than drift around, apparently aimlessly, people in Orsay's village ignore them. He's shocked when one suddenly turns vicious and attacks him without provocation. Even more shocking is that, in the aftermath of the attack, Orsay's arms are transformed into amorphous, shapeshifting tentacles. After learning of a specialist in Paris who may be able to reverse, or at least explain this bizarre mutation, Orsay heads to the city. Upon arriving, he discovers that many Parisians regard the whols as a nuisance and support a movement to have them exterminated. He falls in with an activist group determined to prevent that from happening. VERDICT A fast-paced, unpredictable, and utterly original story rendered in delicate linework and vibrant color.
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