Synopsis: After the death of their father, Emily and Navin move with their mother to an ancestral home so that they may begin anew, but on their first night in this strange home, their mother is abducted by some sort of octopus like creature. It is up to Emily and Navin to save their mother with a little help from an amulet and some new found robot friends.
Review: Okay, so for those of you who don't know, my husband is a graphic novel expert. He used to be the graphic novel buyer for Borders, and I have been exposed, whether I wanted to be or not, to this amazing visual world for many years now. I have learned a lot through him, and I was certainly excited to review my first graphic novel on my own site, but sadly I have to say the excitement has ebbed considerably after reading Amulet.
While some of the background art is nice and well-detailed, (the drawings of the house towards the end of the book) the character drawings are for the most part weak. Emily and her family look like potatoes with faces. They have no spark. Their eyes always look the same no matter what emotion they are experiencing. Moving the irises from left to right does not signify great feeling. Also, what's up with the much more detailed drawings of Great-grandfather Silas? He has age-spots, wrinkles, and bags under his milky, blue eyes. He actually has some character. Does he somehow deserve better art just because he's wise with age? Emily is the main character, and the art should allow the reader to somehow respond to her. Emily never smiles in the book after the death of her father. While it might be okay for the main character in a YA novel to be morose 100% of the time, it's not okay in a book with an 8 to 12 year old audience.
This, of course, leads me to my next point. The father's death scene is a bit harsh for this set of readers. Yes, yes, I know you're going to say that characters die in middle grade novels all the time. Look at Harry Potter for instance, but there is a great difference between reading about death in words versus seeing it on the page. I'm not saying that this scene should have been left out entirely, but the bottom half of page 10 and all of 11 could have been scrapped. The reader would have grasped what happened by just showing the one panel on page 12. Kids do understand subtlety.
The one saving grace to this novel is the relationship Emily and Navin have with their mother. For instance, when she tells them the house will have to be cleaned from top to bottom, they don't argue. They tackle the task with energy. They seem to understand that their Mom is doing the best she can. Hopefully, Book 2 will allow us to see more of this bond, as well as a happier, more likable Emily. She may be brave and strong, but she also needs to show some joy in her successes so that the reader may take some pleasure from reading the novel.
