The Low, Low Woods
Ratings21
Average rating4
4.5 stars.
I am a fan of small town settings in horror stories, so this graphic novel was right up my alley.
Perfectly illustrated, eerie and atmospheric, a story of friendship in the face of evil.
The story had a few high-impact moments, but despite the feminist themes and tone, the reliance on horror/fantasy tropes gave a sense of superficiality, and the pacing felt off. Art-wise, the illustrations often felt like drafts—scratchy dark ink blocked in with bold gradients—which made some of the action difficult to follow. I wanted to love this because I love Carmen, but it wasn't meant to be.
Very good “stuck in a shitty small town” where the shittyness is both people AND monsters and the solution involves returning agency and choice.
Thanks to DC Comics and Netgalley for providing me with an ARC for review.
Carmen Maria Machado always has permission to completely devastate me. In proper CMM fashion that is exactly how I felt after finishing this comic.
The Low, Low Woods is a story about El and Vee who one day wake up in the movie theater without any recollection of what had happened. Searching for answers they find much more than they had bargained for while looking deeper into the history of Shudder-to-Think.
CMM excels at any medium that she touches. This was so much a story about women reclaiming their agency on their own terms. The monsters may not be the creepy beings in the woods but instead your next-door neighbor.
If you are looking for another read about teenage girls disrupting the patriarchy, this one is for you.
Gold standard weird fiction with some of the most effective storytelling I've seen in horror comics.