Beautiful Darkness

Locations
Call Number: Adult Graphic Novel / Pommepuy, Marie, Adult Book / Comics & Graphic Novels / Fantasy / Pommepuy, Marie
On Shelf At: Downtown Library, Malletts Creek Branch

Location & Checkout Length	Call Number	Checkout Length	Item Status
Downtown 1st Floor 4-week checkout	Adult Graphic Novel / Pommepuy, Marie	4-week checkout	On Shelf
Malletts Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Comics & Graphic Novels / Fantasy / Pommepuy, Marie	4-week checkout	On Shelf

Translation of: Jolies ténèbres.

REVIEWS & SUMMARIES

Library Journal Review
School Library Journal Review
Booklist Review
Publishers Weekly Review
Summary / Annotation
Fiction Profile
Author Notes

COMMUNITY REVIEWS

Be prepared to be charmed/disturbed submitted by andrewjmac on July 28, 2014, 3:34pm I don't know if I've ever read a book like Beautiful Darkness. It combines whimsy, humor, and the macabre in a way that should be very difficult to pull off, yet it does so effortlessly. The art style is a part of this, with a light, sketchy style juxtaposed against harder, more realistic painted pages. The characters at first seem to be one-dimensional fairy-tale-like creations and it is the realization that they are as complex as the people who create fairy tales that makes it all work. Many pages are funny, many pages are disturbing, many pages are both. It is the wonderful complexity in the guise of a child's creations that makes it all work so well. The heroine, Aurora, is a selfless leader and this rising to the occassion--as we all like to think we would--is what makes her so easy to identify with. So strong does this become that by the end of the book, her final act makes the reader proud at the same time as knowing they should be appalled. A great ending to a great book.

Anti-fairy tale submitted by PattySmith on June 12, 2015, 3:37pm I can’t write too much about this book without giving it away. I was drawn to the graphic novel by the beautiful illustrations. The cute, classic children's book illustrations had me expecting a fairy tale journey. Was I ever wrong! This was more like an anti-fairly tale! The graphic novel was filled with blood, gore, jealousy, greed and much much more! I had to be careful to not leave it out in the open for fear that my young children would get a hold of it. Without giving too much away it is the story of a mass exodus of a civilization into a new and dangerous world. In addition to being cautious of their new world, the characters also find themselves having to protect themselves against each other! Did I like it? You bet!

Beautiful and morbid submitted by eknapp on August 26, 2020, 9:12am A surreal, extended fairy tale of the Grimm variety. A community of tiny people is expelled from the corpse of a dead girl (why? how??) and struggles to survive in a dangerous woods. Their numbers are thinned by owl and cat, innocent accident and pointless treachery. One tiny woman sets herself up as princess, at the expense of another tiny woman who had worked tirelessly for months to feed, shelter, and reassure her fellow Lilliputians.

It is beautiful to look at, more so because the gentle watercolors belie the violence, perfidy, and morbidity pervading the pages. The illustrative contrast between the pretty little doll-like people and the death and decay that constantly stalk them mirrors the story's tone.

I wasn't sure whether I liked or disliked Beautiful Darkness until it ended. It is born of nothing and feels aimless. I struggled to wrest a plot from all the tiny tragedies, but most of the depicted events don't matter in any narrative sense. For the most part this is just a bunch of gorgeous, loosely connected bummers.

But the conclusion is as perfect as the title. In the end I'm glad to have found this book.