Briony Hatch by Ginny Skinner and Penelope Skinner
| Briony Hatch by Ginny Skinner and Penelope Skinner | |
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| Category: Graphic Novels | |
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Reviewer: John Lloyd
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| Summary: A very charming and winsome story of a teenage girl's personal growth, sparked by her mourning the completion of her favourite fantasy novel series. | |
| Buy? Yes | Borrow? Yes |
| Pages: 128 | Date: September 2013 |
| Publisher: Limehouse Books | |
| External links: [www.skinnersisters.co.uk Author's website] | |
| ISBN: 9781907536144 | |
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Meet Briony Hatch. She's a fourteen year old schoolgirl, with a few too many curves for the trendy set, and want-away hair, who is fixated on the ghost who acts as romantic male lead in her favourite series of fantasy books, about a beautiful, feisty female, swashbuckling exorcist. But when the books finish, just at the same time as her parents divorce, it looks like the beginning of the end. Mum and Briony settle into the abandoned bungalow belonging to the latter's great-uncle and aunt, only for the girl to find a horrid malaise come over her. Has the books' conclusion done so much damage as to leave her wishing to retire from life, or can she find the ghost of a hope somewhere?
This is such a finely-balanced look at modern-day life I can only hope the few ingredients from the fantasy world of the books within don't put people off; this generally is one of the more literary and non-genre graphic novels, even if it does feature actual ghosts. The mundanity of the world is aided by Briony being such an instantly recognisable character – like many girls her age she has a nice line in pessimistic diary entries, hence the narration here, to which is added 'her own' chapter heading pages, and lists detailing how sad and single her life appears to her to be.
The actual illustrations, provided by Ginny Skinner, don't at first appear to be terribly grown-up, with little in the way of shading or realist detail – often it's just a character in a plain white panel. But she does have a deceptively light touch with her characters, and from the unflattering pictures of Briony re-enacting her fantasy exorcisms in housecoat, bra and pants, to the very eloquent full-page multi-image panels, she offers a very nice and ultimately quite polished look.
I think the sterling work comes with the script. The story at times doesn't seem too complex either, as per the artwork, but there's a lot here. It is a charming blend of the unusual and fantastical with the everyday and instantly recognisable. Briony is a girl on the cusp – of ending the books and seeing real life for what it might actually be, of grasping the future courtesy of the past – and even if any of that seems clichéd, rest assured it is not. I very seldom take to 'reader, in that moment, he/she/I became an adult' stories, but I think there is a depth and richness to this that if anything that blunt summary is a redundant one. I really enjoyed this, and I think when you do too you'll agree that the Skinners are two young ladies who show no signs of having their pineal glands hardening.
I must thank the publishers for my review copy.
For a further great look at a young woman in the making, we loved Flutter by Jennie Wood and Jeff McComsey.
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You can read more book reviews or buy Briony Hatch by Ginny Skinner and Penelope Skinner at Amazon.co.uk Amazon currently charges £2.99 for standard delivery for orders under £20, over which delivery is free.
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