Book Review
Title WaterSnakes
Author: Tony Sandoval
Genre: Graphic Novel
Rating: *****
Review: So, all I know about WaterSnakes comes from the synopsis: Mila is a solitary teenager ready to put another boring summer vacation behind her until she meets Agnes, an adventurous girl who turns out to be a ghost. And not just a regular ghost, but one carrying the essence of an ancient fallen king and a mouth full of teeth that used to be his guardian warriors.
Straight away the artwork has a dark and gritty feel to it and the opening page has an image that really reminded of the style of Japanese horror films like the Ring (リング Ringu). So we are introduced to Mila when she firsts meets Agnes who she thinks is just a normal girl living in a fantasy world, just a little crazy and it is one of the things she loves about Agnes and the main thing as well as her beauty that leads Mila to develop romantic feelings for her. However, after kissing Agnes she basically vomits out a monster scaring Mila off. When Agnes’ brother Julian tries to return her purse, she learns that Agnes died when she was 5 and Julian can hear her voice while Mila can see her.
While Mila has seen Agnes since the incident, she decides to go looking for her in all their favourite places and she comes across a girl that looks like Agnes but isn’t and she realises that Agnes was telling the truth about her teeth as she is now face to face with them and she learns that someone is coming to kill the King whoever that is. In the second half of this graphic novel, we are given a more in-depth story on the teeth and what their role is and how dreams and reality of overlapping and the role Mila is going to play in the wider story.
The action sequences in the story are gory and beautifully drawn while the other dream sequences are almost hypnotic in the dark yet sensual style they are drawn in and I can’t wait to read more from Tony Sandoval as soon as I can.
Buy it here:
Hardcover: amazon.co.uk amazon.com
I received this review copy from NetGalley
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