CBR16SweetChallenge #Exciting (excited to read, excited to share with others becuase this needs to be read/known about)
The concept of mental health and representation of a not usually talked about community had great potential. However, the execution of Where Black Stars Rise did not work for me. Things were too abstract and messy for my eyes to focus and my “reader eye” lost the flow of things. I was not always sure where I was, who was who and what was what. For the right reader, this would be great. Is more of a 2.5 rating than my 2 rating. And yet, this book is also a five rating.
What I mean is that Nadia Shammas and Marie Enger put a lot of effort into the story of two women and their journey into and out of madness. I feel there are two levels to the story or two ways you can look at things. The first is that Amal Robardin (the Lebanese immigrant therapist) and Yasmin (of similar background and the patient) are the same person, and Amal is the one working out her thoughts, anxieties and issues with a therapist. Yet, in her mind she and Yasmin are two different people where she (Amal) is the therapist and not the patient. However, it is just as easy to see Amal and Yasmin as two people and Yasmin’s own struggle is being reflected back to Amal, making her come to terms with her own issues. There are a lot of triggers in the story. Yasmin’s mental health is shaky at best and the talk about her mental health issues could be disturbing. However, the manifestation of those thoughts, feelings, etc., as well as Amal’s own situation, that are reflected in the illustrations could be even more disturbing. Many of the images are abstract to a point, but are more nonconcrete than realistic most of the time. This unreal art hides some of the grotesque but also amplifies it as well. There is an image of “something” (I thought it was a bird, but could be a tree, later we’re told it was human) that “dreamed its teeth fell out” and you see “teeth” falling. There are even “teeth” hidden inside of a pomegranate fruit. There is a small part about Amal and her girlfriend, Nina, that is actually more important than her limited page time might suggest.
What I was wondering about is the use of colors. This is probably the biggest part of the story and the art itself. There is yellow everywhere. There is black as well, but yellow seems to be a huge theme. I missed the black stars, I was so focused on the yellow. There are other colors, so when they are used, it is important to notice, but yellow seems to blind us. Sometimes it feels literally, as the yellow is so bright (even in my slightly used library copy) that I could not see anything else. Light and the idea of “light at the end of the tunnel” seems to be what yellow represents, but it also could be the light to the trap. Doors in their literal and metaphorical meanings are also dealt with.
It is hard to tell the story as it is both linear and meanders; it is solid and fluid; it is real and fantasy. I am not ashamed to admit that I was not the audience for this graphic novel in this state, but I would have loved to have seen this story play out in a more concrete manner and not as a (as the publisher description says) “an adult eldritch horror graphic novella” I will say that I am glad I did not “write Shammas off” and say I will never read them again, as I learned that they are the author of Squire which I enjoyed, a Ms. Marvel for middle grade or younger readers (Ms. Marvel: Stretched Thin, which I think I’ve read, but if haven’t I would like to try) and Confetti Realms which has been calling my name for awhile now and interested in reading.