Water Memory: Because the ocean is redundantly frightening and super scary

If I were given the choice, between drowning in the ocean and decompressing in the vacuum of space, I would select space. Both are essentially the same, the removal of breathable material. They are different in how they are experienced and the details of timing or physical effects, but in space, my corpse would not be nibbled at by creatures. I have never been able to pinpoint why this creeps me out so much as worms and land creatures do not bother me.

The ocean contains monsters we have never even seen, monsters that hold grudges.
(Can you tell I grew up in a landlocked area? Is it that obvious?)

Water Memory (Mathieu Reynes, Valerie Vernay)
Translated by Jeremy Melloul
108 pages
Lion Forge
ISBN-10: 1941302432
ISBN-13: 978-1941302439

Marion and her mother Caroline move to a small coastal town, reviving the inherited house of Marion's deceased grandmother. The house sits in a beautiful location, set atop a hill overlooking the quaint town and the ocean.

While happy to be with her mother, Marion is disjointed. Supporting her mother, she left her friends behind and moves. With only her mother available to speak to, she is surrounded by strangers. Her cast aside father left to his new trophy wife. Marion never met her grandmother, only knowing her mother has a resemblance because the townsfolk all take a second glance and comment about her appearance. Her grandfather is dead, drowned at sea like so many other townsfolk in this fishing community.

Marion feels very alone.

Marion explores her new home. She goes swimming in the cold sea, hiking on the cliff side and country, and wanders the town. Carved on rocks overlooking the bay, Marion begins to identify strange carvings of ominous looking faces. Each carving includes cryptic initials and a calendar year. When she finds the same artwork on the town fountain, she begins to question the intent of these markers.

The community feels warm and welcoming, with no malice or ill will in the air. The exception being some strange vibes coming off the mysterious lighthouse keeper and carvings found strewn about which are vaguely reminiscent of Cthulu (insert ominous music to match). Through reading, I would take Marion to be about nine years old. She is inquisitive and resourceful.

Marion doesn't focus solely on occult-ish looking inscriptions. She has a tie to the past in her grand parents that she is also investigating. She is anxious for a connection with these well-loved individuals, filling a gap where no relationship has existed. While all she needs is her mom, she needs to explore more than just the landscape of her new home. Marion is trying to redefine herself in this new world where she resides both physically and emotionally.

This graphic novel was outstanding. I would say it is the best of the year, but anyone who reads Europe comics would blow smoke in my face and laugh at the delay my late arrival to the party.

Originally released under the Europe comics title 'la Mémoire l’eau' this graphic novel, translated from French, is both heartfelt and engaging. While the original French edition was released in 2014, it was not until this month that the English translation through Lion Forge became available.

The story by Reynes and the graphics by Vernay are beautifully crafted and you can tell by the content that this was a labor of love to bring to life. Each cell is precise in presentation and has a specific purpose. This wastes no time and leaves the reader engages in all ways.

At the end of the graphic novel, there is an author/artist section with some notations dictating their love of the work. They were careful to leave the mystery of the ocean intact and focus more on the entity of water than on any entity inside the water. I think this is wise as the ocean is a frightening beast in its own right and the unknown can serve an artist well.

The 2017 translation crafted by Jeremy Melloul is excellent, leaving no iffy descriptions or phrasing which feels incomplete. I trust that it stays true to the original text as it appeared flawless from the English perspective.

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Disclosure: This graphic novel was provided to me for review purposes by the publisher. While I thank them for the access to such a fine product, I must also criticize them for failing to do so via telepathy. I expect that all organizations on the planet are secretly working towards teleportation and telepathy. If this is not the case, I will one day, using someone else's great achievements, teleport the publisher's offices and telepathically lambast them for failing to work on these marvelous breakthrough actions alongside the rest of us. Between now and then, I shall continue to review their work honestly as this is the only way my feelings can be dictated.

I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

I really liked this but if you are looking for a story with concrete answers and a big reveal at the end then this probably isn't for you. I felt like the art style and the meandering plot really worked well together to set up a mildly creepy seaside mood throughout the story. I think this would be a fun adventure story for younger readers, but there isn't necessarily a 'satisfying' resolution at the end so I know some people won't like this. This story is definitely more about the mood and the journey than the ending and I enjoyed it because of that.

Interesting story, nice art! There's a bit at the end where one of the creators talks about the places and things that inspired this story, and he mentions Miyazaki, which is a fairly accurate comparison. It does have sort of a "Ponyo" feel, though it's definitely darker in tone, what with the curse of some mysterious sea monsters/ocean spirits causing people to die at sea. But, there is a young, plucky female lead who is smart, resourceful, and curious, which is pretty Miyazaki-esque, as is the hint of the magic underlying the 'local legend' that she learns about.

That said, the only reason this doesn't get more stars is...it doesn't feel fully "complete." The curse isn't broken...and the sea monster/spirits clearly aren't going to be satisfied forever...so where does that leave us? I want to think of it as a hopeful ending, but...I'm not convinced. I'm worried for Marion and her mother both, so unless there's a sequel where things are ACTUALLY settled, this is gonna have to stay at three stars for me.

Beautiful illustrations and characters. My only complaint is that I wanted more.

4.5

The Ghibli/Coraline/sea curse mashup of my dreams.

'Water Memory' by Mathieu Reynes with art by Valerie Vernay is about a young girl living in a strange new place and the secrets she finds.

Marion and her mother move in to an old family house that her mother has inherited. It seems like a new start of sorts, and there are lots of things to explore. Marion finds weird carvings on the cliffs and in the caves by the sea. There is a lighthouse, but the lighthouse keeper is kind of a loner. When Marion gets stuck at the lighthouse when the tide comes in, the keeper saves her, but is gruff. What is the secret he holds and why are the townspeople not talking to him?

I liked this kind of slow moving tale. The characters were interesting, and even though I kind of knew where the story was going, I still enjoyed the journey. The art is very nice and in an afterword the creators talk about how they modeled things on real places.

I received a review copy of this graphic novel from Lion Forge, Diamond Book Distributor, and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this graphic novel.

// Ich habe den deutschen Sammelband mit beiden Ausgaben gelesen. //

Sachen, die mich an Graphic Novels nerven:
1. Zu große Formate. Das Buch ist A4 und dadurch unhandlich.
2. Glänzende Seiten/gestrichenes Papier. Es blendet einfach ständig irgendwo aus jedem Winkel mindestens ein Panel und das ist super anstrengend. Ständig muss ich das Buch hin und her wenden und das macht mit so einem großen Format besonders viel Freude.
3. Zu viel Text. Vor allem, wenn er nicht groß genug gedruckt ist. Das ist natürlich Geschmackssache und braucht für das Buch auch keine Lupe, aber in Kombination mit Punkt 1 und 2 nervt's.

Außer Punkt 3 hat die Kritik natürlich nichts mit der Geschichte und den Zeichnungen zu tun, aber das hat meinen Lesespaß auf jeden Fall getrügt. Die Zeichnungen waren sehr schön. Wegen des Covers dachte ich erst das Buch spiele auf Hawaii (Marion sieht irgendwie so hawaiianisch aus mit ihrer breiten Nase und den dunklen Haaren), es spielt aber alles in Frankreich. Nicht weiter schlimm. Die Story war ganz nett, aber hat mir nicht viel gegeben. Sie war halt da und okay und nächste Woche werde ich sie nicht mehr ganz zusammenbekommen.

I received a free e-copy via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review

This was such a great read and I'm so sad it was so short!

I ended up picking up this book because the cover looked interesting and I wanted something new to read. Once I actually started reading, I found myself really immersed in the characters, their relationship to each other, and the art. Oh my goodness the art was so beautiful, especially when you could see the chalky texture! It was very expressive and the colors really set the tone. The story is rather simple but it's written in a way where you get invested in the whole world of fantasy. I especially loved seeing all the research that went into the making of this book. As someone who has worked with charcoal before, I know it can get rather messy but all of them looked amazing