Publishers Weekly
07/22/2019
Opening with an introduction from Almond describing the deaths of his sister when he was seven and his father when he 15, as well as his childhood interest in the occult, this sophisticated graphic novel is an exploration of life, death, and meaning. Davie is ready to brush off Joe Quinn’s claim that he’s “got a poltergeist,” considering that Joe and his mother are known for making up stories, but after visiting the Quinn house, he can’t deny the very real flying plates and shattered windows. Disturbed by the experience and his growing belief in the supernatural, Davie consults his mother and the new Irish priest, who doesn’t seem to believe in God. As he confronts his confusion, grief, and shifting worldview, Davie comes to accept that he and the poltergeist are inextricably linked. McKean’s frenetic, ever-shifting mixed-media illustrations dramatically convey Davie’s experiences and story’s vivid characters, evoking a distinct sense of disquiet, while Almond’s text propels the plot and provides deeper meaning. Gripping and philosophical, this collaboration will prompt discussion. Ages 12–up. (Sept.)
From the Publisher
The art amplifies the characteristically dark, rich tones of Almond's prose all the way to a final Dylan Thomas-style promise that "the world and all that's in it will continue to…hold us in its darkness and its light."... A keen collaboration moving seamlessly between worlds inner and outer, natural and supernatural.
—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
This throws Joe into an existential funk, expertly rendered in McKean’s dark, mixed-media illustrations, where overlapping, scribbled sketches embody confusion and conflict, jarring collages evoke an unsettled atmosphere, and negative space echoes absence and haunting memories. Joe navigates his inner turmoil, including grief and religious confusion, forming earnest revelations about life’s poltergeists (i.e., disruptions) and finding peace.
—Booklist
McKean restores a sense of compromised hope to complement Almond’s conclusion through a mix of dark greens with a smidge of yellow light above Davie’s head and the town itself, making this a marvelous lesson in visual metaphor as well as a thought-provoking horror story.
—Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books
McKean’s frenetic, ever-shifting mixed-media illustrations dramatically convey Davie’s experiences and story’s vivid characters, evoking a distinct sense of disquiet, while Almond’s text propels the plot and provides deeper meaning. Gripping and philosophical, this collaboration will prompt discussion.
—Publishers Weekly
School Library Journal
08/01/2019
Gr 6 Up—Almond and McKean's latest graphic collaboration, based on a previously published story by Almond, centers on Davie, a teenager living in a small English village, whose dull summer is disrupted when the obnoxious Joe Quinn claims to have a poltergeist at his house. Rumors about the Quinns abound—that Joe's father is a hit man and his mother is a Rolling Stones groupie. At the Quinn house, Davie witnesses dishes taking flight and breaking as he becomes involved in the family's domestic dramas. As Davie struggles to determine if the poltergeist is real, he must also come to terms with the death of his sister, his impending adulthood, and the realization that adults are often as clueless as children. The connection between adolescence and poltergeist activity is not new territory, but this book offers a fresh take on the subject, in large part thanks to McKean, whose mixed-media illustrations evoke the kinetic energy of supernatural activity and teenage angst. Most of the art is full page, but when McKean uses panels, they mirror Davie's confusion. Deftly exploring each sides of a seemingly supernatural scenario, Almond once again creates compelling characters torn between facts and beliefs in their search for the truth. VERDICT A visual delight and a witty approach to those adolescent moments that push past the boundaries of the rational world.—Jennie Law, Georgia State University, Atlanta
DECEMBER 2019 - AudioFile
Narrator Malcolm Hamilton adeptly matches his delivery to this graphic novel’s dark mood. Davie is a somber teen who is invited by the jocular Joe Quinn to experience the outbursts of the poltergeist that haunts his home. Listeners will need an ear tuned for this production’s accent and uncommon words from the north of England. In a soft but sardonic tenor, Hamilton conveys Davie's obvious dislike for Joe Quinn, his lingering grief over his sister's death, and his disdain for religion. When Father Kelly is invited to experience the spirit, the listener discovers his fondness for drink. Hamilton slurs his words as the priest confides his own religious misgivings. Hamilton reveals Davie's gentler nature when he converses affectionately with his mother. Davie ponders life, death, and the afterlife in this affecting story. L.T. © AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
★ 2019-05-27
A newly illustrated edition of Almond's psychologically acute tale of ghosts and grief in a small British town.
Originally published in the autobiographical Half a Creature From the Sea (2015), the atmospheric narrative is placed within equally shadowed, evocative scenes, sepia sketches alternating with painterly, often nightmarishly jumbled portraits or visions. Wounded souls battling tides of anger and loss abound: from inwardly focused narrator Davie, still hurting in the wake of his baby sister's death, to the people around him, notably Joe Quinn, a mercurial youth with a dad in jail, a giddy mum, and, he claims, a household poltergeist. In the end the author leaves it to readers to decide whether the "ghost" is real or just Joe, but after a vicious fight with Joe followed by a bit of shared moon-gazing, Davie's initial skepticism is transformed to a deeper feeling that has something of empathy to it: "I know the poltergeist is all of us, raging and wanting to scream and to fight and to start flinging stuff; to smash and to break." The art amplifies the characteristically dark, rich tones of Almond's prose all the way to a final Dylan Thomas-style promise that "the world and all that's in it will continue to…hold us in its darkness and its light." The cast is a presumed white one.
A keen collaboration moving seamlessly between worlds inner and outer, natural and supernatural. (Graphic novella. 12-16)
