“Raleigh is eighteen years old, and she has no idea what she’s doing.If you’ve ever been eighteen, or confused or both, maybe you should read this book.”
This is a comment from the back cover of Bryan Lee O’Malley’s marvelous first graphic novel, Lost at Sea, and it is the perfect blurb for this wonderful story.
I first became aware of Lost at Sea’s existence after seeing it’s picture in the back cover of each Scott Pilgrim book. After asking around and looking it up on the web, I decided to give it a try, and let me tell you. It was COMPLETELY worth it.
Lost at Sea tells the story of Raleigh, an eighteen year old girl who is stuck in the awkward and frightening transition period between high school and college. She’s unsure of herself, uncomfortable in her skin, and a little socially paranoid. From the start of the book she’s emotionally hanging on by a thread, and to top everything off, she’s stuck in a car on road trip from California back to Canada with three other kids she barely knows form her high school . This whole situation combined with some motives that are not fully explained until later in the book, (and you won’t find theme here, sorry,) leads to a reluctant coming of age journey that helps Raleigh grow and learn important nuances in life. Things like stumbling through words expressing yourself, and knowing that no one is completely OK and that it is this baggage that unites us.
Lost at Sea is told in a first person omniscient narrative, and does a great job doing so. O’malley writes the story so while Raleigh does explain to us her feelings and some of her thoughts directly, it is done so without blatantly telling the reader what going on or what will happen. O’Malley also does a good job of putting us in her shoes, making the reader feel her awkwardness and feelings of isolation and confusion. You are never lost in a maze of Raleigh’s thoughts, even though there is a large amount of narrative text. To put it simply the story is told beautifully, causing empathy for the reader towards the characters.
The art in Lost at Sea is fairly simple, but at the same time it’s expressive and fun to look at. There's not a lot to say about the artwork really, it’s pretty standard stuff, but nothing to write home about; and yet, that’s part of it’s charm. The art progresses the story and portrays emotion well enough without it being a distraction or detrimental to the experience. It does it’s job, and that’s enough.
Overall, I LOVED this graphic Novel. It’s emotional without being emo, and it’s dramatic but at the same time still fun to read. I totally recommend it,
10/10
Next Time: Part 2 of the retro gaming series.
Peace out and geek out,
Mikeke352
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