Status
Call number
Collection
Publication
Description
A firefighter in rural Kentucky, Ursa searches for her place in life, struggling to meet her own expectations. When a tornado hits her town, the ensuing chaos brings her world into sharp focus, somehow making everything clearer, and Ursa finds that she just can't stomach the way her life is going. It is then that she meets Rafi, an illegal immigrant whose life isn't going the way he'd pictured it either. Their encounter is the catalyst for Ursa and Rafi, who take different roads to the realization that wanting your life to change isn't enough to make it happen. Slow Storm stands apart as a graphic novel with its literary heart and charged, atmospheric watercolor and ink artwork. The storm builds around the characters and inside them, and moments of violence and tenderness suddenly crack like lightning. With Slow Storm, Danica Novgorodoff takes her place as a talent to be reckoned with in the literary world.… (more)
User reviews
The artistic style of the graphics wasn't my favorite. It's fairly stylized and looks like it was done in
The story itself involves a woman who is a firefighter and her encounters with a Mexican immigrant during a colossal series of tornadoes. This is also not usually the type of story that I would enjoy, but despite myself I was very drawn to it.
The story is very engaging and you can't help sympathizing with the characters. I was amazed at the depth of character the characters had, given that this was a graphic novel. Some of the scenes with the Mexican and his god of wanderers were very reminiscent of some of Neil Gaimon's graphic novel stories.
All in all a great book and I am looking forward to more work from this artist/author.
Ursa is a female firefighter who doesn’t have the respect of her fellow firefighters, including her brother. Rafi is an illegal immigrant who gets blamed for a crime Ursa committed in a fit of rage. With their paths crossing, their lives will be forever changed.
My Thoughts
Even my
I didn’t even care for the art style like I’d hoped. It was all very gestural, which is fine, but not to my tastes. There were moments when it was hard for me to tell what was happening, because the drawings weren’t clear. If you’re going to tell a visual story, it’s paramount you get your point across in your drawings, so I have to say that it failed on that level.
The story wasn’t bad, but it definitely didn’t go in the direction I would’ve wanted it to. It sets itself up for intrigue, and there is none. There could’ve been some very explosive drama, and there wasn’t. It just quietly petered out, and I felt robbed. There was a powerful story here, and a much weaker one was the story that got told.
If anything, I think my rating is for the setup. Otherwise, it should be skipped.
Final Rating
2/5