From Sookie and her sizzling hot vampire crew in Bon Temps, to a young girl struggling with amnesia. I have read Charlaine Harris' first graphic novel.
The birth of Cemetery Girl
Behind Charlaine Harris' light brown curls a mass of entertaining plot ideas abode. This time the idea was also a first for Harris - her first ever collaboration project.
The ball started rolling when Charlaine conversed with Christopher Golden - known for, among others Buffy, Baltimore-serien, Hellboy & X-men - about an idea that she had. An idea the author felt had no format befitting it. Time went by and nothing happened with the embroy of an idea that Charlaine had. One day an email from Mr. Golden silently glided into Charlaine's inbox. Should they work together on Charlaine's idea?
The result is as you probably all have guessed by now; Cemetery Girl. The first in a graphic novel trilogy illustrated by Ben Kramer - known for Batman, JSA and a the Dr. Fate miniseries.
The story
As luck would have it an acquaintance of mine had this book in her possession. Some time ago we discovered our mutual passion for reading, and the love of the same genres, so she generously offered to Cemetery Girl to me.
The novel is a fairly new, published early in 2014. This time around Charlaine Harris is wooing to a younger audience than the one she normally caters too. In my opinion this novel is fitting for a lot younger crowed than just Harris' faithful fans.
This sounds familiar
The plot is perhaps not as original as many a reader might like when they pick a new read. If I was interested in originality I wouldn't have picked one of Harris' novels to read. When I read a Charlaine Harris I come for a light, entertaining read, and she usually provides(if one forgets about the last books in the Southern Vampire mysteries), Cemetery Girl is not an exception.
A girl, she calls herself Calexa Rose Dunhill, loosing her memory and settling down in a crypt on Dunhill cemetery. After a close encounter with death Calexa Rose can see the soul of humans recently passed. One of these poor souls need Calexa's help to find peace. This might sound like The Ghost Whisperer or Harris' own Harper Connelly series. Still, I was buying into it and I stuck around until the last page was turned. The writer duo even managed to squeeze a couple of tears from my eyes. It was definitely a nice 20 minutes break from the world as we know it. This graphic novel debut gets a stamp of approval from me.
The illustrations
Below you'll see one of the illustrations from the novel. What is shown is a piece of memory. If you look closely you will be able to see that Ben Kramer added the illusion of broken glass over the memories, to show us, I guess, that this is only a fragment. A nice touche. I really enjoyed the way Kramer used that kind of effect throughout the story.
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