Review Detail

FROSTBITE is a horror graphic novel that takes vampires and turns them into something new and horrifying. Two influencers, their unfortunate camerawoman, and two locals find themselves chasing a man into forbidden territory when someone steals prototype snowboards. When the sun goes down, sinister frost vampires emerge from the snow drawn to the teens and desperate to feed.

FROSTBITE has a really fun art style that makes the creatures look creepy and sick! The art is almost grotesque, highlighting the creepiness of these creatures and allowing it to shine through. The art also lends itself really well to a snow-covered setting. It can be easy for things to be lost in the snow and the 3-color style, but thankfully the art helps prevent that. While there is a lack of color, the settings and characters still manage to stand out from the snow.

The characters in this book are fairly simple. It’s a graphic novel that barely passes 200 pages and has a handful of different characters, so it can be easy to get them confused at times. Especially when the book seems more focused on the horror elements rather than character development. Bev is easily my favorite character; her humor manages to lighten up scenes!

The tension in this book is solid. For a horror novel, you want a sense of foreboding and fear, but it can be difficult to get across at times. FROSTBITE manages it fairly well, especially at the very beginning when readers really have no idea of what to expect from this book. The book also sets up a few different problems that arise that cause the tension to ratchet up a few more levels. Not all of them are developed a whole lot, but they do add to the overall experience and make it quite enjoyable.

The biggest thing that didn’t sit well with me when reading this book was the constant sense of back-and-forth that was happening. Scenes that would last only a couple of pages and didn’t feel like they added anything to the story. Information that characters didn’t know and then suddenly did or vice versa. It did negatively affect my opinion of this book, though not severely.

FROSTBITE is an interesting and creepy graphic novel that leans into the horrifying idea of being surrounded by frost vampires.