Review Detail

Wow. Just wow. I thought I loved Ostertag's The Girl from the Sea, but this one easily became my favorites.

The Deep Dark by Molly Knox Ostertag is a YA graphic novel that focuses on family secrets and necessity of friendship. Everyone has secrets. Mags’s has teeth. Magdalena Herrera is about to graduate high school, but she already feels like an adult with serious responsibilities: caring for her ailing grandmother; working a part-time job; clandestine makeouts with a girl who has a boyfriend. And then there’s her secret, which pulls her into the basement each night, drains her of energy, and leaves her bleeding. A secret that could hurt and even kill if it ever got out -- like it did once before. So Mags keeps her head down, isolated in her small desert community. That is, until her childhood friend Nessa comes back to town, bringing vivid memories of the past, an intoxicating glimpse of the future, and a secret of her own. Mags won’t get attached, of course. She’s always been strong enough to survive without anyone’s help. But when the darkness starts to close in on them both, Mags will have to drag her secret into the daylight, and choose between risking everything... or having nothing left to lose.

First and foremost, I LOVED Ostertag's art style. I loved the way that the present was illustrated in black and white, while memories and flashbacks were done in full color. It really made the importance of these stand out. But even then, the art style was also just as perfect! The grittiness of the illustrations perfectly matched the darker undertones of the story. And I loved how Ostertag hid the monstrous secret from the reader until the very end.

Regardless, I feel like I didn't get to connect to very many characters beyond Mags. Since they kind of showed up and left the paper rather quickly. But I feel like this can be blamed on the rushed style of it being a graphic novel, and in such genres, there is little time to fully develop a character.

In closing, this is a gorgeous book with a phenomenal story that can be related to so many people. I would gladly recommend this graphic novel to anyone who dares to make eye contact with me.