Black Hole
Books | Comics & Graphic Novels / Horror
4
(179)
Charles Burns
“The best graphic novel of the year” (Time) tells the story of a strange plague devastating the lives of teenagers in mid-1970s suburban Seattle, revealing the horrifying nature of high school alienation—the savagery, the cruelty, the relentless anxiety, and the ennui. We learn from the outset that a strange plague has descended upon the area’s teenagers, transmitted by sexual contact. The disease is manifested in any number of ways—from the hideously grotesque to the subtle (and concealable)—but once you’ve got it, that’s it. There’s no turning back.As we inhabit the heads of several key characters—some kids who have it, some who don’t, some who are about to get it—what unfolds isn’t the expected battle to fight the plague, or bring heightened awareness to it , or even to treat it. What we become witness to instead is a fascinating and eerie portrait of the nature of high school alienation itself.And then the murders start.As hypnotically beautiful as it is horrifying, Black Hole transcends its genre by deftly exploring a specific American cultural moment in flux and the kids who are caught in it—back when it wasn’t exactly cool to be a hippie anymore, but Bowie was still just a little too weird.To say nothing of sprouting horns and molting your skin…
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Author
Charles Burns
Pages
368
Publisher
Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Published Date
2005-10-18
ISBN
037542380X 9780375423802
Community ReviewsSee all
"One of the first graphic novels I’ve read. A must read. Bizarre and good. "
Christian Bell
"Dark and twisted, and yet, wierdly familiar. Charles Burns art is able the surreal with the real. It’s a salacious book and one of a kind. "
Sonny Sumo
"i got lost in this book for hours. so much drama and the si-fi twist are great and amazing illustrations."
Mykayla Peterson
"Not bad but not great."
John Woakes
"The art is very great, if too weird for me. It just kinda grossed me out the whole time. And it didn't help that my used copy had some "somebody else's house" smell all over it. I'd smell the book, seem some weird growth, or a talking neck-mouth and wanna throw up. Unless the book comes with a weird smell to accompany the teenager plague metaphor? Anyway, I'd love to see something from Burns that was a little more written in reality. Good stuff, just too weird for me. Just the right amount of dark. I love dark. But less... deformity... ? Sorry!"
Andrew Greene