Beautiful Darkness

This book plays with the lines between innocence, ignorance and evil. In the opening pages, we see what is pretty clearly the lifeless body of a girl in the woods. Then the scene seems to shift to a cozy environment in which a fairy girl is entertaining her guest, Prince Hector. Her devoted servant Plim pours the tea, but before Hector can drink it, a drop of something nasty plops into it. Then more drops fall and pretty soon the homey façade melts away – the fairies are running for their lives – dozens of them frantically emerging from the dead girl’s mouth, nostrils and ears. We quickly figure out, if we hadn’t already made the connection, that these sweet, innocent fairies were actually living in the girl’s dead body. And apparently for long enough that none of them have ever known any differently.As the fairies emerge, bewildered, into their new world, we soon understand the aptness of their having lived in a putrefying corpse. These adorable fairies are not the sweet little things of our imaginations. They are, in their own way, innocent, but a dangerous kind of innocent – innocent of the knowledge of good and evil, innocent of any concept of “society” or a “greater good”.Left to fend for themselves, each fairy adapts in his or her own way. Many take to emptying the contents of the girl’s purse for their personal use (in the process of which we learn that both she and our main character are (were) named Aurora). Others forage for food. Still others forage for others’ food or otherwise resort to deception and deviousness. One just eats maggots.Aurora alone seems to be trying to hold things together while the rest go full-tilt Lord of the Flies. She tries to make sure the food is evenly distributed. She builds houses for others, comforts others, tries to make sure others’ needs are met. She even makes overtures to the animals in an attempt to work together.But animals are animals, fairies are fairies and neither can change their spots. We witness countless acts of both thoughtless and thoughtful cruelty – humiliation, maiming, murder and cannibalism. Every fairy turns against every other, or gets turned against. Even Hector. Even Plim. Even Aurora herself. And they don’t call it a graphic novel for nothing – when I say “witness”, I mean graphically. If the decaying hand on the front cover is not already enough of a clue, this is not a children’s book, no matter how cute the fairies are. But we needn’t feel sorry for our heroine (using that term lightly) for long. She is, of course, a fairy herself and all’s fair in love and war.I find it quite difficult to rate this book. I most certainly did not love or even like this book. In fact, I pretty much hated it, which, by Amazon’s system should mean a one-star rating. But hating the book is rather the point. One would certainly hope that you would be disturbed and offended and grossed out by this book. But the gruesomeness and cruelty are not gratuitous. This book isn’t, in fact, about fairies. It’s about us and our rotting “survival of the fittest”, dog-eat-dog competitive, every man for himself “society”. Or, as Margaret Thatcher famously said, “There is no society.” Our survival as a species in any meaningful way depends on the type of mutual cooperation and collective interest that Aurora tried to build. But none of the fairies, even ultimately, Aurora herself, could overcome self-interest, so the only “survival”, such as it is, is on cold, brutal, individual terms. Are we humans any better? Can we be?

(Spoilerless review) This graphic novel starts out with little explanation as to who the characters are, how they got there, or what they're doing. But the story telling is so involving that you'll ultimately not care, with both writing and art that is fast paced and engrossing enough that by the time you realize the beginning was not a dream sequence you're already off and running into the next surprise. When you reach the ending you'll realize nothing was explained along the way, but will be strangely OK with it.The story centers around what appear to be a bunch of small fairy-tale type folk who live in the woods. Or are they dolls come to life? And where did they come from, and how long have they been there? They almost feel as if they have just recently arrived, and at times you wonder if the small female lead is some manifestation of the real world body of a dead girl that is near their homes. As the only ethical person in the lot, she takes up the mantle of provider, trying to help others in this "lost boys" tribe of immature and bratty wee-folk, just as the decomposing dead body helps the nearby animals of the forest floor.Fans of Vertigo's "Fables" will like this, particularly those who think that long running series is now growing a little stale and could use a shot of creativity like what is on display here. The painted color artwork is often cartoony but still proficient, and works well with the little houses and their interiors for animals (think David Peterson's "Mouseguard" series, "Stuart Little" , "A Cricket in Times Square", "The Rescuers", etc.). It also provides a nice foil to this fairy tale like story that starts out sweet but quickly turns the darkest shade of black. A strangely satisfying book considering it seems like it is both missing a beginning and leaves you wanting more at the end.Originally published in France, this english hard bound version comes in at 94 pages. No information on the writers or artist is included, making who put this book together and what else they have worked on almost as much of a mystery as the story they wrote. If you're looking for something fresh and new this is a great way to go.