Review: A Glance Backward by Tony Sandoval and Pierre Paquet

[Aeriko @ The Reading Armchair]

Read full review at: http://thereadingarmchair.blogspot.gr/2015/05/review-glance-backwar...

Disclaimer: I received an advanced copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

A Glance Backward is a bizarre mixture of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and some twisted nightmare. Looking at the summary I never expected it to be this dark and violent, as it turned out to be. It's really short, so it's easy to read it in one sitting, but it's disturbing enough to think about it for quite some time after you've finished it.

Joseph, or Joel as is his nickname, is an 11 year old child with a great imagination. One day he gets sucked into a world, inside the walls of his home, from where he cannot escape. He tries to smash the bricks in order to get out of there, but each broken brick lead him to a totally different and surreal world. This journey makes Joel realise what it is to be an adult. Until the end of his adventures the young boy, who he is in the very first page, has taken his first steps towards adulthood.

The story is intriguing. I've always liked adventures like that, where the young protagonist learns what is life, sometimes the hard way. When at first Joel was taken into this mysterious world, everything seemed really weird, without any indication as to what purpose they served, or even if there was a way out. I was drawn to this bizarreness and I was curious to see how many different realities there were and where Joel would end up. In most of the worlds, he met various people, from which nobody seemed willing to help him find a way back into his home. Towards the end though I felt that the story had turned into a lot of violence, which was unnecessary. I also didn't really understand how Joel managed to return into his place. I felt that the end of the journey was a little rushed. The ending tried to make up for it, and give an explanation for why his imagination had prisoned him in that weird world, but it was also rushed. The story would have worked better if it was a little longer.

Joel was a likeable child. I liked the fact that he tried to overcome every new obstacle that came his way and he was really fixed on his goal, to return to his home. It's only natural that he had times when his fear and dispair overcame him, but there was always something that made him even more determined than defore. I can't really talk about the other characters that appear on the graphic novel. We never really get to know them, since Joel only meets them for a while and then he goes to the next world. What I can say is that each one of them depicts a different aspect of an adults life, the responsibility, the love, the consequence, the way to survive.

A Glance Backward is a graphic novel that is weird and dark. It didn't take long to read it, but it disturbed me, especially the images towards the end. I can understand why many who will read it, won't enjoy much, that's why I recommend it with caution.