The Daughters of Salem

Last year, my partner persuaded me to start appreciating the graphic novel. You see, Stephen King's The Dark Tower saga is his Bible, so the graphic novels of the series seemed to spring out of nowhere in my house. I still haven't read those but I found a new love for the genre and after a couple of really successful efforts, I was hooked. Now I try to find (and devour) quality graphic novels with a newly acquired confidence. This one seemed perfect. The Salem Trials is one of my favourite topics and Arthur Miller's The Crucible is one of my most beloved plays, the 1996 film version with Daniel Day-Lewis as John Proctor is one of the best films ever made and I had the fortune to watch the role revived by Richard Armitage at the Old Vic in 2014, a truly profound experience. So, my anticipation was immense.

What I found was an abomination in every sense of the word...

The ‘'writer'' creates an Author's Note to inform us that he has taken some ‘'liberties'' with the ‘'material'' (because according to him, History is ‘'material''). He goes on to compare himself to Arthur Miller and this continues for two paragraphs...So, imagine me reading this...Comparing yourself to Miller? We don't start well, dear ‘'writer''. In addition, the fact that you're warning me is worrying. Honest but worrying.

Sneak peek: (''Hey, Abigail. Wait up!'' If this isn't absolutely, totally faithful 1690's dialogue, I don't know what is...)

I won't tire you. Tell me if you had ever imagined that you would find the phrase ‘'it's so cute'' in the USA during the 1690s. No, I didn't think so. The illustrations are horrible. I mean, they are out of this world ugly, the depictions of the characters and the landscape are unnatural, tasteless. The violence approaches the boundaries of torture porn and there is an utterly absurd focus on sex. This is a violent adolescent's wet dream, not the story of the Salem Trials. With the pitiful excuse of bringing women's persecution over the centuries into focus, the ‘'writer'' creates a...thing that makes you wish you couldn't read. A horrible rendition, retelling, you name it, of a terrifying moment that produced a masterpiece.

Congratulations, ‘'writer''. You managed to turn a fascinating story into a bloodfest-ed, sex-crazed B-movie. You need some kind of a prize for this. NOT. It would be better if ignorants didn't touch what they cannot understand and respect. This was out of that man's (restricted) league and it showed. Horribly.

ARC from Europe Comics and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

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