Sweet Tooth Vol. 2: In Captivity

by Jeff Lemire

Other authorsJeff Lemire (Illustrator)

Paperback, 2010

Status

Available

Call number

741.5973

Publication

Vertigo (2010), Paperback, 144 pages

Description

Following on the heels of The Nobody, his Vertigo graphic novel debut, writer/artist Jeff Lemire pens his very first ongoing series Sweet Tooth. A cross between Bambi and Cormac McCarthy's The Road, Sweet Tooth tells the story of Gus, a rare new breed of human/animal hybrid children, has been raised in isolation following an inexplicable pandemic that struck a decade earlier. Now, with the death of his father he's left to fend for himself . . . until he meets a hulking drifter named Jepperd who promises to help him. Jepperd and Gus set out on a post-apocalyptic journey into the devastated American landscape to find "The Preserve" a refuge for hybrids. In this second volume, Lemire explores the heartbreaking story of Jepperd and how he went from a devoted husband to the ruthless mercenary he is now. Meanwhile, Gus is captured in a camp with other hybrid creatures where he meets Dr. Singh, a scientist studying the plague that's wiped out so much of the world. By traveling more into Gus' past, Singh will learn more about the plague, as well as clues to how some of it might relate to Gus and his father.… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member kivarson

Society has completely broken down and paramilitary groups hold the only power. Just why is every child born after the epidemic a mutant? Is Sweet Tooth the key to understanding the origin of how all of this came to be?

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LibraryThing member schatzi

After being rather on the fence after reading the first trade, I decided to give the second trade a shot, and I'm glad that I did. The characters, particularly Jeppard, are fleshed out a lot more in this trade. He has his reasons for turning over Gus to the militia - painful ones, as the reader

soon learns. And Gus, who was believed to be just one of the hybrid children, discovers that he might have been the FIRST hybrid children. This trade is a good, although bleak, way to spend an hour or two.

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LibraryThing member DeltaQueen50

In this second volume of Sweet Tooth by Jeff Lemire, we find Gus being held in a quasi-military base about to be used for scientific research into why children born since the plague are half-human, half-animal hybrids. Meanwhile, Jepperd has taken his reward for turning Gus over and gone back to

his farmhouse. It is here that we realize what his reward is.

While the scientist marvel at Gus and believe he could be the possible answer to their questions, Jepperd tries to lose himself in alcohol, but finds he cannot turn off the memories that haunt him. And one such memory seems to be Gus.

This is a fascinating and strange tale of man’s humanity and inhumanity towards each other. I am firmly hooked by this post-apocalyptic saga and will gladly follow where this author intends to take me.

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LibraryThing member clstaff

Part of a post-apocalyptic series based around a young mutant named Gus. After a plague has killed most of the world's population, children begin being born part animal. These mutant children become sought after by the humans that remain because of their resistance to the plague. Great series.

LibraryThing member librarybrandy

Volume 2 begins with Gus trapped in the "preserve," where he meets several other animal-kid hybrids, also locked up in the prison camp. Wendy, a pig-girl, is one of the few who can speak, and she tells him what actually happens there: someone comes to get the hybrid kids, and they don't come back.

Soon Gus is taken to talk with the doctor, who believes that something in Gus's past will explain the plague. Meanwhile, Jepperd considers his own past, reviewing how he came to be the person he is, and deciding who he wants to be.

The post-apocalyptic elements are clearer here; there's a better sense that this is something that Happened to the world and now we're living in it, rather than something that's happening Out There Far Away. Violence is ticking up, pushing this more toward upper-high school or adults.

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LibraryThing member LaneLiterati

I can't help but notice a great handful of parallels and influences from The Walking Dead. It only goes to show that this is definitely my kind of book, as well as anyone whose interests are within this genre.

LibraryThing member cameling

The sequel focuses on 2 stories, Jeppard's history as the pandemic as started to spread and Gus's beginnings under hypnosis at The Preservation.

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