e-book, 256 Pages
Release Date: July 16, 2024
Published by: First Second
Read from: April 9-17, 2025
Stand-alone
Source: Library’s Libby
Content Warning: Death, Death of a Parent, Violence, Blood, Alcohol, Body Horror, Murder, Homophobia, Religious Bigotry, Mention of Drugs
For Readers Interested In: Graphic Novels, Religious Diversity, Action, Sparkly Covers, YAWhen Kay reluctantly agreed to join the youth group at Stone Mission Church in Orange County California, she expected the Jesus talk and the dorky singalongs and the colorful posters about dodging temptation. What she didn’t expect was to stumble on her youth group leaders, Meg and Cortland, in the middle of a read-deal exorcism. Turns out they’re both soldiers in a secret organization of demon hunters in a war that’s heating up, and even if Kay wanted to stay on the sidelines, she doesn’t have a choice – she’s a “Blight,” a human who demons can’t possess, and apparently that’s made her a target.
Will Kay find her place in a world that’s so much more God-fearing and monster-fighting than what she’s used to? Will the Stone Mission youth group find common cause with their badass peers of other faiths? Or will a pack of small-time demons use Blights like Kay as the key to starting some real big trouble?
*MY THOUGHTS*
I always have a hard time reviewing graphic novels. I talk a lot and there’s not always a lot to say about them. But this one doesn’t have that problem. From the religious aspect to the fantasy aspect, this one was hella fun.
Ok so first of all, the writing style of this was so good! I really enjoyed the conversations about religion. For ToB we’re looking at other books that discourage “group think” and more. In this we get both sides from her mom and then her reasonings. I enjoyed that part a lot. Then there was the peer pressure, and the different ways of praise. Let them make their own decisions. However, I didn’t like the ending. It was so like abrupt. It was like they finally got the information they needed and then BAM talk about some other demons and its over. I wanted to know more about her dad and more about what’s happening after she had been doing this for a while.
The demon hunter thing was hella cool tho. I also loved that there were so many other youth groups there from other religions. This was the coolest, but I do wish they had like given us insight on how they were fighting these demons. I’m hoping against hope that there is something else coming from these two. Because there are so many more stories in this that could be told.
The illustrations are one of the biggest things about this book that I love. That freaking part of the water thing?! Above the pool? OMG lol I remember sliding over to the next page and was like WTF lol I was not expecting that. I also liked that the illustrations have that one main color thing that graphic novels do, but it’s not on every page, but so it’s not over-bearing like it is in other novels. And because of this I was thankful.
This was a lot more fun than I thought it was going to be. I read this for work, but I ended up really enjoying it. I think this one will be fun to read and compare notes with my co-workers. I enjoyed it and I don’t even usually care for most of the elements in this. I hope y’all pick this up and tell me what you think about it!
Overall, I give this
