Open the "Doors of Perception"

This book is a total trip. We start with Luc, a frail child who is afraid of everything, thanks to a grandmother who fills his head with terrifying tales of creatures, spiders, monsters, and especially Uomo Nero, the Italian version of the Bogeyman. The art in this opening section of the book is "scratchy" and jagged and sharp edged; the use of somber/burnt colors and heavy shadowing fills each panel with dark and perilous portent. "Sheesh!", you think, this book would scare any kid. And it would.

And then we go through the looking glass. One night the real Uomo Nero shows up in Luc's bedroom to torment Luc and Luc, in his surprise, accidentally knocks heads with Uomo. It turns out that a human should never be able to actually touch a Shadow like Uomo, and Uomo is so frightened by this development that he takes Luc back to the Shadowlands so that he and the other Shadows can figure out if Luc is a threat to them. Luc, of course, just wants to go home.

Here's where it gets really weird. Uomo turns out to be more a paranoid worrier, (and a bit of a dandy), than a bad guy. And Luc starts to gather his wits. Together, the two of them go on a strange journey to solve the mystery of Luc and, possibly, to get Luc home again. This gets very trippy as we wander through various culture's myth lands. Indeed, a Mexican shaman actually trolls Luc about the "Doors of Perception" after Luc accidentally takes a peyote hit. (And if the adventures of a kid taking a psychedelic trip on mescaline concerns you, well, yeah, this is when I decided this book might not necessarily be going on the "juvenile fiction" shelf.)

I won't do any more plot, because, hey, nobody likes to listen to recountings of other people's trips. Suffice to say that we visit a few other cultures and get a happy ending. What does require more comment is the drop dead gorgeous art. The Shadowlands is, of course, dark. But the drawings are done in more subtle shades of grey than I thought could exist, and all of that grey, black, white, and the hints of color around Luc, come together to completely sell the Shadowlands as an actual place. Once we go on our trip of discovery the colors and styles subtly change to match the stops on the trip; so we have a saffron yellow feel in the Hindu-ish location, and a full Day of the Dead palette with our shaman friend.

This book is clever, narratively strong, slyly funny, and engaging on many levels. I'm not sure what the reader demographic is, but fantasy fans and art fans should get a big kick out of it.

(Please note that I received a free advance will-self-destruct-in-x-days Adobe Digital copy of this book without a review requirement, or any influence regarding review content should I choose to post a review. Apart from that I have no connection at all to either the author or the publisher of this book.)

It was difficult to read as a download because the images would not stay as pages moved,and/or zoomed in. I quickly lost interest in the story. Art is nice.