SunBurn - Graphic Novel goodness

 

Sunburn (Image Comics) was a good read, though it had some confusion and was a bit of a slow burn. 

Rachel Collingwood, a 16 year old Londoner, gets a very random invitation to spend the summer in Greece. The inviters are some folk that knew her family when she was a toddler. Peter and Diana Warner have an amazing home though, and it is too good an opportunity to skip. During a never ending circle of parties Rachel goes to wearing borrowed clothes, she is introduced to a boy named Ben and fed drinks and teenage freedom.

All together, the story is enjoyable. It has some gaps you have to fill in yourself, and while there is a general feeling of dismay that something is 'off', the people are genuine and fairly considerate to each other.

Artistically, the entire book is in blue and brown tones with an occasional pop of a red object. this was fine to experience on an ipad, but on my Kindle Colorsoft, it was just too bland and lacking vibrancy. On book like this which already is limiting it's colors to mainly browns and blues, it was lackluster on the color eink. I do not suggest it.

Another interesting bit from the artwork was a lack of character differentiation.
Rachel looks like she could be related to Diana. they could be mother daughter. On the same note,  Ben and Rachel could also be related.. same with Rachels mom and any of the characters. Their face and body structures are cookie cutter and while  well built and enjoyable, it added a level of red herring to the plot line, causing wonder if there was a genetic twist coming that i do not believe that author Andy Watson was relying on or intending.

Similarly the author Watson, did no favors for illustrator Simon Gane when the plot tap danced around the core of they mystery of Rachel in Greece. I am not sure why the author decided to never outright state the ploy at hand.

Great book. Worth every moment I spent reading it.