The foreword to Adora and the Distance by Damon Lindelof talks about how this YA graphic novel breaks away from the "typical hero's journey" in amazing new ways, and that marketing was the reason I picked it up at the library. I was immediately drawn in by Ariela Kristantina's gorgeous artwork. The story revolves around a young girl named Adora who has to leave her home when she learns her terrifying dreams presage a destructive force coming for her, ready to destroy anything in its path. I appreciated the merging of diverse fantasy and historical tropes and liked the characters well enough, but found some of the transitions between scenes and panels confusing and rushed. It was a short book that easily could've been built out to clarify and add depth to the fantasy world.

The final twist is what makes the book really controversial. I didn't see it coming, and I wasn't totally cool with it.

Spoiler

At the end of the book we learn that Adora is an autistic child who is slowly starting to connect with the world that neurotypical people live in, after long-term therapy. The nightmares in her fantasy were her parents reaching out to her. In the afterword, Bernardin writes about his own experience parenting a daughter with autism. While he does stress that his is only one experience and that children on the autism spectrum can be very different, I can see how this depiction could be interpreted as depicting autism as a problem to be inspirationally overcome. Even if not, it's unquestionably treated as a plot twist, and I was bothered by the implication that the experiences and behaviour of someone like Adora are more valid if they fit into a relatable allegory for neurotypical people.