Booknote: The Divine

Boaz Lavie, et.al., The Divine. New York: First Second, 2015. ISBN: 9781596436749. 

Genre: comics and graphic novels
Subgenre: adventure, fantasy
Format: e-book galley
Source: NetGalley

Mark is retired from the military, and he now has a relatively safe job as an explosives consultant. He also has a new wife, and a baby on the way; money is getting tight. So, when an old army buddy, Jason, shows up with a very lucrative defense contract to do some secret work in Quanlom, a very obscure Southeast Asian country, the offer is too good to pass up, even if the country is in the middle of a civil war, and the U.S. is not supposed to be there. However, it gets worse, or weirder from there.

The war is led on one side by a pair of 10-year old twins, child soldiers. One of them is silent, but he has amazing powers that seem magical. Then, there is an army of large statues they control, and there is even a dragon.

The story starts out like any other story about ex-military somewhat shady operatives taking on one more mission. However, the story soon takes a fantastic turn into the mysterious and magical, drawing you in to make you wonder what is real or not.  You get the sense those twins are way more than they seem. The art brings the setting to life very well. The jungle lends itself well to the magic and mystery. Overall, this was a good read that I enjoyed.

4 out of 5 stars.

Book qualifies for the following 2015 Reading Challenges: