Stathis tells a thoroughly personal story about grief and growing up here. It's not terribly difficult to see something of ourselves in Phoebe, even if we haven't through the same sort of life-altering trauma she has. We've all felt completely overwhelmed by the world around us, by our responsibilities and by our own shortcomings. And that's what this book is about: dealing with those challenges. It's about making that awkward transition from teen to adult, but in the midst of what must seem like emotional torture.
Phoebe isn't a happy person. She hates her job as an apartment building super, and she lashes out at those around her for little reason but to try and make herself feel superior in some way. But what's really got her down is the recent death of her mother. She dreams of being free, and of her mother being alive, but when she wakes, the pain returns. It threatens to swallow her whole... until one afternoon, when something altogether weird actually does envelop her and carries her away.
The artwork tells the story clearly, and Stathis uses darkness to establish an atmosphere that successfully indicates there's more than Phoebe's depression at work here. There's a slight, creepy edge at times. Stathis's style is a little rough, to be honest, though. His approach is a simple one, but it seems as though he's striving for a more realistic tone that just doesn't come. He may do well to embrace an even simpler tone and add even more darkness. I did enjoy the dream sequences; Stathis's work is much stronger in those warped sequences. Unusual points of view and a more streaming quality in the visuals bring out his strengths.
There's a rather vague quality to the book, leaving the reader guessing if this is just a dark, psychological, slice-of-life story or if something supernatural is actually lurking at the periphery. I think the answer lies somewhere in between, and the mix of psychological and supernatural horror is enticing.
The one problem with this first issue is that aside from the main character, Phoebe, we don't get much of a sense of the other characters. The others... well, they're not characters, really, but caricatures. Aside from Phoebe and a dream vision of her mother, we meet only a group of gamers. They're stereotypical geek characters, and their presence here serves little purposes but to paint Phoebe in an unnecessarily harsh light. Mind you, Stathis is making his way into the story at a slow, methodical pace, and it's one that I appreciate.
Note: Some of the comments in this review were reproduced from a previous feature on the website.
