“You’re never going to really know what happened, or why, and that’s going to drive you a little bit crazy, but at least kids will stop dying.”

*Trigger Warning: the title pretty much speaks for itself so if you’re uncomfortable with seeing blood/brutality/dead kids and even homophobia, keep that mind*

Something is Killing the Children Vol. 1

Written By: James Tynion IV

Aritst: Werther Dell’edera

Colorist: Miquel Muerto

Covers: Giovanna Niro

Genre: Graphic Novel/Horror/Paranormal

Premise: “When the children of Archer’s Peak begin to go missing, everything seems hopeless. Most children never return, but the ones that do have terrible stories—impossible stories of terrifying creatures that live in the shadows. Their only hope of finding and eliminating the threat is the arrival of a mysterious stranger, one who believes the children and claims to see what they can see. Her name is Erica Slaughter. She kills monsters. That is all she does, and she bears the cost because it MUST be done.“

Because You Can See Them

The story starts off with a sleepover and four boys playing truth and dare. One starts telling a story about seeing a monster and a couple of pages later, the other three are dead. It hits you right off the bat and sets the tone up quickly. There is gore, death, brutality, and monsters only kids can see.

Except Erica.

She works for/with a mysterious organization who hunts down these monsters.

I mean, I assume. You really don’t learn much about why Erica does what she does or why a stuffed octopus she carries around talks. She gets phone calls and whoever she talks to seems to know what is going on with her at all times. We just get images here and there so I assume we’ll learn more about them later.

She’s accompanied by James, the only survivor of the four boys who wants to get revenge on the thing that killed his friends, but he’s in way over his head and doesn’t realize what’s at stake.

Meanwhile the town has their own thoughts. Some believe James killed them himself because he liked one of the boys who didn’t reciprocate those feelings. Most think it’s a bear because of how grizzly (ha) the crime scenes are, but none can even begin to think that the thing that’s killing the children they can’t see.

Overall

Something is Killing the Children is a short, interesting introduction to a series. It sets up the world and characters while leaving plenty of room for answers to come. It’s a quick read, something you can easily get through in under an hour.

The art is pretty good. Sometimes it’s a bit blurry but I don’t mind the style. It’s also dark, which fits the tone of the book, but most of the time you can see everything clearly.

As I said, this graphic novel is gory and brutal. It gives off a darker, Stranger Things vibe but with a lot more death and monsters. There’s a lot to learn when it comes to the world and Erica and the monsters themselves which makes you want to find out more.

I also heard this is getting a Netflix adaptation and, oh boy. I wasn’t a fan of another graphic novel adaptation done by them (Locke & Key, which I reviewed) and how they took away a lot of that story’s brutality and seriousness, so I’m hoping they leave this one how it is, no matter how gruesome it gets.

With that said, I’m glad to have found a series I can see myself getting into. Paranormal/supernatural is one of my favorite genres and it makes it even better when something about the story stands out from the rest and Something is Killing the Children does just that.

It’s close to a 4.5.

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