Devour: A Graphic Novel

[cornerofmadness]

Devour: A Graphic Novel by Jazmine Joyner

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Rounded up from 3.5. I struggled with the twist at the end. Also this is rooted in gendered magic which is not my favorite trope (and the twist depends on it). The story is drawn from West African folklore which was cool.

CW - graphic violence at the end, racist bad guys, loss of family

The graphic novel opens with the story of Ansasi, the spider god and his pot of wisdom and how he harms a leopard family. It jumps to early/mid century Alabama with girls Patsy and Vassie and their friends that are never allowed over to their house because what the girls know is going on (magic).

The bulk of the story however is present day with Vassie being the last sister standing and is developing dementia (actually there's a cool twist on this that I don't want to spoil) Her son, his two sons, D(emetrius) and James and his daughter Patsy, moved back to Alabama from California (their mysterious mother doesn't come). Vassie latches on to Patsy as the last girl in the family and begins to teach her the story of Ansasi, their link to him and what their magic is good for.

Naturally Patsy is in a hurry to learn more than her grandmother is willing to teach at once. Her brother D. eventually is brought into the lore side of things because men can't work this magic (though D shockingly shows he miraculously has some ability). In the meantime, Patsy has made friends with Stu, a white boy in her class.

Stu doesn't like his very racist family (a bunch of dead beat Neo Nazis to boot) THey used to own the land Vassie's home is on and used to own Vassie's family until a turn of fortune back during the Civil War and they want everything they think Vassie's family stole from them.

Naturally bad things happen with both Ansasi and Stu's family. Without spoiling things, the end is violent, the gendered magic comes into play and either Stu was playing the long game and good at hiding his true feelings or Ansasi's magic turned him which was very disappointing.

Overall however the story was good. I particularly liked D (more than Patsy). The art is mostly very good but there are panels where bodies are foreshortened with big heads which was odd. It was certainly a book worth looking at.



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