LOW

REMENDER | TOCCHINI

I'll be the first to say it, fuck this week.  Fuck it six times to Wednesday and then continue with that pattern through Friday evening.  Let this week know the pain and exhaustion our two comforting days of the weekend will have to deal with.  It's up to them to sort that shit out because this week did NOTHING, NOTHING in any way of creating comfort or happiness.  I hate you, you stupid week.

So riding into this weekend I'm feeling pretty happy to start reading a new first volume, the beginning of a chillaxing session so intense and absolute, I will begin to lose my own form and take on that of a mass of blankets.  I was attracted to LOW by the underwater imagery.  I am a sucker for anything that takes place underwater, as I have long dreamed it to be the setting of my own life. 

My main issue is that I didn't buy it.  I wasn't sucked in, didn't feel the moral struggle of the main character, didn't want them to succeed or fail.  I would have been perfectly fine had all of the main characters taken up farming, realizing kelp was an underrated source of nourishment.  We could have all gone home satisfied and a little more appreciative of agriculture.  But alas, this did not happen.

I have picked up this particular volume several times, each time reading the first several pages and then putting it back down again so I was no longer subject to learning more about these characters.  The father character has an ego the size of my disappointment in this book.  The main character, the mother, has a blinding optimism which has no reasoning or humanity.  She doesn't not have any character development, not that she needs any since she is barely a character.  Although, I do somehow feel she would be a great at kelp farming.  There's actually very little character building overall.  Towards the end, a few characters show a small amount of inner struggle but the humanity eked out of those situations is undermined by the motivating force: that main 'character' with the form of a human and the voice of a less-than-convincing motivational speaker.  

The art really showcases the real main characters in this or any underwater situation: motherflipping sea monsters.  This artist is incredibly good at sea creatures, every single one of them is exactly what I would expect to get eaten by if I lived underwater.  The artist obviously had a lot of fun with these creatures.  I would be proud to get digested by and be the fuel for their continued majesty.  The humans...not so much.  I am hesitant to criticize the artist behind the motherflipping sea monsters but the drawing and coloring of the humans was just lazy.  People were different shapes, there was hardly any facial expressions, and zero subtlety.  Maybe, I said to myself, this is just a style, but after staring at those kickass sea creatures for several more joyous hours, I realized that it's just an inconsistency in style.  You got a style? Great! Stick to it.  The second you break up your style in a way that does not add to or reflect the story, you're alienating your reader.

If you like the occasional motherflipping sea monster, I suggest you glance through this book just maybe don't read it.