Customer Reviews

A Sickness in the Family (Vertigo Crime)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Reason for Reading: I love that the pure mystery/thriller/crime genre is so much more easily found in the graphic novel format now. I'll always take a look when I see one and the plot had me on this book.

They could be your typical family: Ted and Biddy Usher, Biddy's mom Martha, and the three grown children, with the youngest in his last year of his school, William, Amy and Sam. But they are not, typical that is. It is Christmas and in the basement flat they rent out a horrendous murder takes place. Ted quickly makes plans to incorporate that portion back into the house as he'd been wanting to for years. Then family members start to die. One by one. Is it because of the wrath of a witch who was burnt at the stake there in the 1500s? Or has one of the remaining family members decided to get rid of the rest, each of whom has a surprisingly good reason for wanting the others dead?

An incredibly creepy murder mystery. Well-written with a plot that picks up suspense as it goes along and is quite difficult to solve since suspects keep getting killed themselves and the pool of possible suspects to pick from gets smaller and smaller. A delightfully tense and surprise ending with a final shocker on the last page. This is Mina's first graphic novel. She has previously written mystery novels and one series of comics. I am quite interested in reading something else by this author if this is an example of her technique. The artwork is done in black and white with a lot of shadows which I think is particularly suitable to this story (and others of its sort) as it captures the noir feeling that wold be missing if the gruesome scenes were shown in full colour.

Just the sort of thing I like in a murder mystery, gruesome, creepy and a shocker at the end.

After a solid run on Hellblazer, novelist Denise Mina returns to Vertigo to script this entry in the Vertigo Crime lineup. A Sickness in the Family finds her channeling The Fall of the House of Usher as she presents a tale of a bickering, hateful British family, which is all well and good until they start dying one by one. There's more to the story than that of course, but revealing any more would ruin the genuine surprises and twists that Mina manages to conjure up here. Antonio Fuso's stark artwork is wonderful, and so awesomely illustrates the grim proceedings that transpire as things race towards their climax. It's ending may be a little too abrupt, but a nice red herring and some great characterizations more than make up for that. One of the best in the Vertigo Crime lineup.

Let me state up front that I am new to reading graphic novels, and so far I'm wowed by the genre. Of the ones I've read so far A SICKNESS IN THE FAMILY stood out because of the nuanced characters. These are very real people struggling through desperate lives, and the black-and-white artwork highlights their disappointments and frustrations. The horror is subtle and chillingly plausible. You can easily laugh off fantasmagorical creatures and zombies eating people's brains in other books, but the drab reality portrayed here grabbed me and made me think stuff like this could actually happen. Just one small complaint: Naming the family Usher. The Edgar Allan Poe poke in the ribs wasn't necessary. It's a scary story. We get it.

This is a solid addition to the Vertigo Crime series. At first, the family seems relatively normal. However, as the homicide detective notes midway through the book: dig deeply enough and all families are strange. This family ultimately proves to be no exception.

Each character brings forth his or her own problems and resentments throughout the pages, and the story unfolds slowly, and then suddenly, towards a surprising finish. The dark illustration work compliments the storytelling. Overall, this is a creepy tale that engages a reader.

This is 1 of 4 Vertigo Crime titles I own. And none of them have been a disappointment so far. This sinister tale of murder(possibly supernatural in nature) and mystery will take you on a deeply disturbing ride of which you will never forget. This is psychological terror and brutally gruesome horror at its best. All of the Vertigo Crime graphic novels say "A Graphic Mystery" on the spine of the book. And all 4 of the ones I've read have been mysteries. They have also all dealt with crimes. But there is more to them than that. One might think by the self-categorization of crime/mystery that these books are like graphic novels of CSI or something. That is so untrue. While those elements are definitely there, I would label this story, for example, as a suspense/horror/mystery. The crime drama factor exists, but it doesn't drive the story the same way the aforementioned categories do; and therefore I wouldn't include "crime" as part of the classification.

Denise Mina spins one helluva eerie story, and the stylish artwork of Antonio Fusa sings with menacing beauty.

Bottom line: this is one creepy, dark and twisted read that will keep you guessing all the way up to the spine-chilling end. It's demented and scary. It's worth the price of admission.

Proof once again that you can't judge a book by its cover, this graphic novel disappoints more with every page turned; the deeper you go, the less you care.

Despite the creepy cover art and the black and white illustrations by Antonio Fuso, the narrative stutters forward, crashing into one dysfunctional family cliché after another. Author Denise Mina introduces each character with such a heavy hand that you half expect the family to be dressed in sandwich boards. There's the angry husband, the despondent wife, the spoiled son, the ignored daughter and the adopted son. Oh, and there's a grandmother lurking about, too.

Mina is unsure of her audience or thinks them so naïve that she chose "Usher" as the family surname. Not ten pages into the graphic novel, the adopted son, serving as narrator, is sitting in an interrogation room, where he dubs himself "Sam, the outsider." More subtlety can be found in pop-up books.

The story's setting is Glasgow but the dialogue too often reminded me of New York or Chicago or Los Angeles. Oh, there's an occasional `bloody' or `arse' mixed in but the cadence and tone reflect an American voice. For a story so deeply dependent on setting, this one failed to transport me to the steps of the House of Usher.

One additional, albeit minor, complaint was the awkward hyphenation used throughout the story. I realize the effort was intentional but it fails to deliver the desired effect (assuming that was suspense). For example, a character says, [I] [-ll ring an] [ambulance.] Each bracket represents its own speech balloon. The practice is annoying, not suspenseful.

In summary, Antonio Fuso's artwork is the lone reason I'd recommend flipping through this graphic novel. Better stories can be found in the collected volumes of House of Secrets and The Witching Hour. If you can't spare the time, I suggest a rerun of Law & Order Criminal Intent, which better managed to flesh out sinister characters and deliver surprise endings.

Rating: Two stars.