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There's this thing that happens where people who don't read comics occasionally all decide to read a random "serious" comic, and then decide it's great because it doesn't have Batman in it.

I fall for this every time, and read these dreadful books waiting for some event on the last page that redeems the rest of the book. It never happens.

Nominally a story about fake news in the aftermath of a grisly murder and it's effects on people who knew the victim. Actually the story of a guy who is going thru a divorce and for some reason decided to take in a person that he barely knows. He gets incorporated into an online conspiracy theory and thus experiences online harassment for his trouble.

None of the characters experience any growth, any new understanding, any catharsis, or any insight about fake news. For the most part they are passive recipients of fate. Teddy, addicted to listening to Alex Jones talk about his dead girlfriend, experiences no realization about Alex Jones. Instead, Alex Jones moves on to a new story, and Teddy loses interest. Calvin, conflicted between trying to put his family back together or pursue his career, has his decision made for him by his ex-wife, who wants nothing to do with him. And so he chooses his career for no other reason than that his family rejected him.

The ominous online harassment due to fake news never amounts to anything except for a few fake outs.

I expect the art is supposed to come off as workmanlike, but it's actually fairly incompetent. Perspective and proportions are all over the place. The art lacks contrast in basically any imaginable category resulting in a total lack of dynamism. It's difficult to tell the characters apart, particularly characters of the same gender. Even the lettering is incompetent, resulting in me squinting and straining my eyes despite having perfect vision.

The art is incredibly beautiful, and the basic idea of Snow White as a vampire is interesting.

However, the art and the narrative don't feel particularly well integrated as a comic. At the end of the day, this feels more like an illustrated story with comic style art. Literally 100% of the story is told thru narration bubbles. Looking at the art work is basically optional, and nothing is ever conveyed exclusively thru facial expression, body language, or dialog.

Also, while the premise is interesting, it doesn't quite seem to meet it's potential. It feels like there's just a bunch of short cuts in place which we aren't supposed to think about--like that the entire economy of this country apparently relies on the spring fair, or that men are apparently just willing to let Snow White kill them (her father, apparently the seven dwarfs, perhaps Prince Charming going forward).

There's a lot of sex and ableism in the comic which for the most part just feels gratuitous. The sex feels neither shocking nor titillating, so I could have done without it. Some scenes, meant to shock, caused me to laugh or cringe instead (Snow White vampire biting her dad's cock lol). I guess the ableism can be waved away that this is a medieval fantasy setting, but it comes from the mouth of the queen and thus works against the book's project of rehabilitating her.

I wouldn't say that I dislike the book despite this, but, the more I think about it the more flaws that I see.