Kin (The Good Neighbors, Book 1) [Hardcover]

Holly Black (Author), Ted Naifeh (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 2008

From the amazing imagination of bestselling author Holly Black, a mysterious and wonderful teen graphic novel masterpiece.

Rue Silver's mother has disappeared . . . and her father has been arrested, suspected of killing her. But it's not as straightforward as that. Because Rue is a faerie, like her mother was. And her father didn't kill her mother -- instead, he broke a promise to Rue's faerie king grandfather, which caused Rue's mother to be flung back to the faerie world. Now Rue must go to save her -- and must also defeat a dark faerie that threatens our very mortal world.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 8 Up—After her mother suddenly disappears, Rue Silver finds out that the woman was a faerie. Rue's father, Thaddeus, a human, is suspected of murdering her, as well as one of his students. As Rue solves these two mysteries, she also finds out more about her parents' relationship, and her own relationship with them. Willowy, brooding Rue and her Goth punk friends don't look too different from the glamorous, aloof faeries, and this sophisticated tale is well served by Naifeh's stylish, angular illustrations. This book will appeal to readers of Holly Black's fiction and fans of intelligent, otherworldly stories such as Neil Gaiman's "Sandman" series (Vertigo).—Lisa Goldstein, Brooklyn Public Library, NY
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From Booklist

Rue Silver’s everyday life with her professor father and ethereal mother comes crashing to a surreal end when her mother one day simply disappears. As Rue starts noticing oddities in her little town—people with wings or animal faces, or vines that seem to sprout up over everything at night—she tries to tell herself that such things would be crazy. When her extended family appear and claim that she is part of a hidden faerie world, Rue finds herself embroiled in a magical fight for power. The first volume in a series, this book goes a long way in setting up a foreboding, darkly mysterious atmosphere while giving the reader quick details for characterization. Black, one of the authors of the Spiderwick Chronicles, does a wonderful job of weaving an alien faerie world through Rue’s urban landscape, and Naifeh’s art, rich with shadows, is expressive and angular and pulls the reader into the story with a solid sense of place. Urban-fantasy readers of Neil Gaiman, Charles de Lindt, and Terri Windling will be immediate fans of this title. Grades 10-12. --Tina Coleman

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 12 and up
  
• Hardcover: 144 pages
• Publisher: GRAPHIX (October 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0439855624
• ISBN-13: 978-0439855624
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,015,328 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Hi! I'm Holly Black, and I write contemporary fantasy of all different sorts. Some of my titles include TITHE, VALIANT (winner of the Andre Norton Award), IRONSIDE, the Spiderwick Chronicles (with Tony DiTerlizzi), the graphic novel series The Good Neighbors (with Ted Naifeh), and the new mobster fantasy series The Curse Workers, which includes WHITE CAT and the forthcoming RED GLOVE. I have also co-edited three anthologies, GEEKTASTIC, ZOMBIES VS. UNICORNS and WELCOME TO BORDERTOWN. I live in western Massachusetts with my husband, artist Theo Black, and several odd cats in a house with a secret library.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic, September 19, 2008

By 

Steven R. McEvoy "MCWPP" (Canada) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Kin (The Good Neighbors, Book 1) (Hardcover)

From the Publishers of Jeff Smith's Bone Volume 7: Ghost Circles comes a new series from one of the authors of the The Spiderwick Chronicles (Boxed Set): The Field Guide; The Seeing Stone; Lucinda's Secret; The Ironwood Tree; The Wrath of Mulgrath. The series called Kin debuts this fall with The Good Neighbors. This is a fantastic graphic novel. The story is strong and compelling, the characters are enticing and draw the readers in, and the artwork is excellent.

This is the beginning of the story of Rue Silver. Rue thought she was a typical student - she had good friends, hung out, went to class and broke into abandoned buildings to climb and explore in them. But now her mother has just disappeared, her father has been arrested, suspected of killing her and one of his grad students. However the story is not as direct as that. Because, unbeknownst to her, Rue is a faerie, like her mother. Rue embarks on a quest - a quest to save her father, a quest to find her mother and after discovering her fey roots, a quest to understand herself and her role in the world. For a battle is brewing between the faerie world and our world, and a dark faerie has plans to make mortals live in fear of the good neighbors once again.

This book reads like a cross between Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere: A Novel and Stardust but with a much darker edge than Stardust. Drawn completely in grayscale, it has an otherworldly feel yet strangely familiar. Black's story draws you in and compels you to read on and Naifeh's images powerfully complement the words. The only drawback is that the book leaves you hanging and desperate to find out what happens next, and yet I cannot find a release date for book two anywhere. So once you are hooked you might have to wait a while for the next installment. But even with that the book is more than worth the effort.

(First published in Imprint 2008-09-19.)

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good Neighbors, September 11, 2008

By 

Mary Sharp - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Kin (The Good Neighbors, Book 1) (Hardcover)

I have read all of Holly Black's work and it came as no suprise to me that I loved The Good Neighbrs. I was concerned that I would not enjoy a graphic novel as much as her other stories, but I loved it. I can not wait for the second one to come out!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars welcome to the neighborhood, September 10, 2009

By 

silver elves "silver elves" (honolulu, hi.) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Kin (The Good Neighbors, Book 1) (Hardcover)

a friend gave us this book...
dear lovers of faerie lore,
... and we didn't realize that it was going to be a graphic novel. We were expecting something like Black's novels Tithe: A Modern Faerie Tale, or Valiant: A Modern Tale of Faerie, or Ironside: A Modern Faery's Tale. About 15 years ago we had stopped reading graphic novels. Not intentionally, we had just bought a number but we never read them. We don't know why, we just stopped. So getting a graphic novel made us a bit hesitant. We were, however, pleasantly surprised. It is a good story about Rue Silver who begins seeing the Faerie all around her (we won't tell you the rest, you can get that from other reviews or better yet read the story yours'elf) and the art by Ted Naifeh is great. The only reason we're giving it four stars instead of five is because it is essentially just a rehashing of old lore, a well done rehash mind you, but there is nothing original here. Black doesn't innovate as far as we can see and we'd love to have her do so (perhaps in the future). Still, it was a lot of fun and we plan to get the next book in the series as well. Suddenly, just as abruptly as we gave it up, we're reading graphic novels again.
kyela,
the silver elves