Liz (Quirky Cat)'s Reviews > The Heart of Shadows

I received a copy of The Heart of Shadows through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

The Heart of Shadows is a graphic novel brought to life by Marco Cosimo d’AMico (Red Harlequin Series, Moksha), Laura Iorio (new artist), and Robert Ricci (Red Harlequin Series). It’s one part horror and one a coming of age story, though in its own way.
The series addresses childhood fears, from the most basic and primal ones to the ones taught to us by our elders. It never actually says that fear is harmful, but it does address the concerns of an excessive amount of fear, and how that easily a person can be trained to resort to fear before any other emotion.
The journey that the Heart of Shadows makes is a beautiful, if slightly twisted one. I love the message that it was trying to convey, and how well supported it was by the artwork. Using all sorts of fears personified was an interesting choice. Yes, that concept has been done before, but the way this was handled didn’t read like any of the others I’ve seen.
I think it’s safe to say that Luc would have been a fearful child regardless of how he was raised. The real question is would he have exceeded the normal levels of fear, had that behavior not been encouraged by his parents? It’s hard not to look at how the mother worried at Luc and feel a connection – no parent wants to see their child harmed, but sometimes pointing out each and every potential danger for even the slightest thing…it can cause more harm than good.
In a way I would have liked to see the story continue. I think it left off at the right point…I’m just very curious to see how Luc and the rest of his family do from here on out. But in the end I’m glad they made the choice they did, in leaving things a bit more open ended. For me that was just further proof of some of the metaphors I believe they were using.

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