Tony Sandoval

-- Art --
I thought it was cute! The art style is a mix of scraggly, color-pencil outlines and water colors. The style fit perfectly with the temperate coastal environment and theme of storms.

-- Story (Spoiler) --
The story follows a girl who loves to be in nature. She goes outside often because she wants to be alone. Her mother died, her grandmother's strict, her father's distant, and she feels ousted by children her age. She collects rocks and bones. One day, she goes into another world, and finds a large, ominous skull affixed to a stone surface. She collects its teeth, only for the story to uncover that she had stolen the teeth of a ferocious demon. The demon sends his army into the real world to find her, his teeth, and steal all the children in the village. It's during this time that the girl goes through puberty, falls in love, and discovers that her mother made a pact with the devil and that she is both angel and demon. She defends her village in a raging storm with the aid of her father. And, with a new boyfriend, moving to a new town, and a major in music, she had controlled her destiny.

-- Analysis (spoiler) --
The mom's pact with a demon is meant to explain that her death was so that the girl could live. She gave herself up for her daughter. The father and daughter defend against the demons to show that they have already battled grief. The storm during the demon invasion was meant to give reason as to why some children were dying. One of these deaths included her ex-boyfriend who already had another girlfriend.

-- Criticism --
I thought the story was nice, but not insightful. The pacing felt rushed and the Plot B containing romance was undeserved. She literally puts her hand in a boy's pants after talking to him for, like, 2 pages. The one good thing in the romance is that, throughout the story, the girl wears a viking helmet while exploring nature. She loses the helmet during the storm, but he brings it back, representing his acceptance of the more eccentric parts of her.… (more)

Thank you to Tony Sandoval, Diamond Book Distributors, and NetGalley for allowing me the extreme pleasure of access to an advanced reader copy of “Watersnakes” for an honest review.

I wasn't quite sure what I expect when I started reading this graphic novel, only that it was set like many fairy-and-fantasy stories began, with someone living their regular life and then being touched once by the supernatural, which sent them down The White Rabbit's hole like Alice. Mila is the Alice of this new read and realm, and there is darkness afoot, with deep supernatural happenings, of ghosts and ghoolish warriors.

I felt the story didn't have enough depth to it, but I was mesmerized by the art, which all looks like paintings.… (more)