By: Naomi Nowak Publisher: ComicsLit Average Rating: Binding: Paperback Label: ComicsLit Number of Items: 1 Number of Pages: 148 Publication Date: 2007-11
Product Description: For a girl whose family used to be wealthy, starting work in a sweat shop turns out to be a life altering experience. Very soon, hard work is the least of her problems - she finds herself in the middle of a love tangle with no confidantes but a rude old card-reading lady with an eerily similar romantic past and a mute girl. The small seaside town offers nothing but a salty breeze to soothe her - or could it be that there is just a little bit of magic in the air, too? By the author of “Unholy Kinship.” "The art transcends what readers would normally expect to find in a graphic novel; any page in this book would not be out of place in a frame on the wall of an art gallery. This is a unique book for thoughtful, mature readers."-School Library Journal "For anyone reminiscing about Neil Gaiman’s sense of fantasy or looking for someone with a little “what if…” this is a comic book artist worth watching for." -Feminist Review "Gorgeously rendered. The surreal art is lovely." -The Onion "Romantic, Pre-Raphaelite color washes and poses mingle with modern fashions as well as concerns common to both styles’ eras. Nowak’s storytelling is sophisticated in its use of plot- and image-oriented symbolism, and readers who are Josephine’s peers, in particular, may appreciate this examination of their cares."-BOOKLIST
The most striking thing about House of Clay was the graphics. Every page is good. The style is similar to the cover illustration, like a watercolor with an art nouveau feel.
The story has a dreamy feel. It's hard to say what time period it's set in. The characters wear a mix of modern and old fashioned clothes, and some of the social things, like sending girls off to work as seamstresses, seem like something that would have happened more in the past (probably because that's when things were manufactured in the US where I live).
The story follows teenager Posy, who is off to work in a factory in a coastal city in order to raise money for nursing school. As she admits, it's not clear how that plan will work out, since she has a terrible fear of blood and faints if she sees even a little. The city she goes to is a fairly decrepit place. Girls her age work as hookers near where she lives, and there seems to be a lot of crime. Her roommate, Betsy, is mute and much more street smart than she. The two become friends and Posy begins to learn more about Betsy's colorful past. In the coastal city, Posy also meets an old lady occultist whose life eerily mirrors Posy's. Both came from wealthy families and ended up in the poor town. A photograph of the old lady as a girl looks almost exactly like Posy.
Overall, this was a worthwhile book. The illustrations are worth the time to find a copy.
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