Unholy Kinship

By Naomi Nowak

Luca thinks she knows her sister, her history and her friends - but very few things are what they seem. What to do if your world falls apart when your only living relatives are mentally unstable and you're a disaster in relationships? A story of confusion, love and the past. An exciting debut by an artist inspired by, but providing a next step from, manga.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1561634824
• ISBN13: 9781561634828
• Release Date: November 2006
• Publisher: NBM Publishing
• Length: 114 Pages
• Weight: 0.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 7.5" x 0.2" x 5.0"

Customer Reviews

An outstanding focus on family relationships and change.

Luca thinks she knows her sister and her history - but she soon finds her family is mentally unstable just at a time when she needs them most. Here's a debut by an artist inspired by manga - whose color graphic panels go beyond traditional manga in an outstanding focus on family relationships and change. Diane C. Donovan California Bookwatch

Realistic characters and situations with fantastic elements, beautifully drawn

Naomi Nowak is a new talent from Sweden who illustrated and scripted this whole graphic novel. As a debut work this is really quite impressive. The characters have realistic personalities and act as you'd expect people really would in situations like those that occur in the story. The gritty realism and isolation of the main character enhances the sense of wonder when fantastic elements occur. The dreams and possible hallucinations (or is there something more going on?) have an internal logic and fairy tale style charm that draws you in. As far as negatives go, the lettering could be more readable (the unfortunate space to the right of every instance of the letter F is the most noticeable problem). Occasionally some of the illustrations lack polish (the nurse character to me never seemed quite right, but then perhaps that was done purposefully to show her menacing qualities). But overall the detailing and coloring is quite well handled, with little things tucked in various frames here and there that, if spotted, tie various parts of the story and visuals together. This title is certainly well worth the money, and I look forward to seeing what else this artist comes out with in the future.