Monsters

Joe Kelly's I Kill Giants just blew me away.  I read it in an hour and a half (comics are like that), and I could not put it down.  I'm sure I'd heard of it, but when I read this review at Things Mean A Lot, I put in my library request.  I'm not sure why, really, except that I desperately want to read pretty much everything she reviews, even if, objectively, I know that I will never end up reading it.  She's that kind of reviewer.

Anyway, I got it, and flipped through it, and read the first few pages, and was sucked in completely and didn't put it down till I was done.  I loved Barbara, and how tough and vulnerable and strong and really young she is.  I loved how information was doled out, so that things were mysterious, but you were never actually confused.  I loved the line between reality and imagination and madness, and the fact that there's a psychologist and witnesses, and elves (maybe?).  I thought the balance between capturing the character's experience and the objective experience was just spot on. 

I think I loved Barbara's tough, knowing, mystical alter ego most of all.  The giants are very real and very serious, and she takes them seriously in what is NOT a little kid way.  This is no metaphor; this is horror at her door.  And this was a really beautiful book that I'm so happy to have found.