ISBN13
9781776572663
Review published
01/01/0001
By Reviewer
Dan
Star Rating
By Author / Illustrator
Jonathan King
Age range(s)
9+
Review
"This is how you have adventures. You find cool things and you do them." Bookworm Miro lives with his dad in the small but thriving fishing town of Aurora, New Zealand. When his dad leaves for work in the town museum, Miro sneaks into their attic and searches for forgotten treasures that he can pawn for cash in order to feed his habit - books! The local bullies see him coming out of the bookshop and decide that this warrants a taunting, but he is rescued by the photography-obsessed new girl Zia. Together, they witness something strange, frightening and inexplicable that will challenge everything they thought they knew about the town, and about nature itself! The Inkberg Enigma is a fun supernatural-adventure-horror-mystery graphic novel from New Zealand filmmaker and comic artist Jonathan King (have you seen Black Sheep? You should!). Its influences are broad - there are shades of Jaws, The Thing, Stranger Things and Lovecraft, as well as of Jules Verne, Tintin, The Three Investigators and Scooby Doo! The book celebrates and revels in the tropes of these influences, while just about managing to avoid succumbing to cliches. The book has a diverse and inclusive cast of characters, with two really likeable and believable leads - I really enjoyed hanging out and going on adventures with Miro and Zia! The artwork was great, with atmospheric landscapes, simple but expressive characters, muted colours, easy to follow action sequences and stunning flashback scenes. The horror elements are creepy without ever being gratuitous, and while there are a couple of deaths, they happen off-panel - I don't recall seeing any blood in the book. I can see The Inkberg Enigma having really broad appeal, combining many of the things that are really popular with students at the moment - a horror mystery graphic novel really does tick a lot of boxes! One for upper KS2 and KS3 readers. 128 pages / Ages 9+ / Reviewed by Dan Katz, school librarian
