Delicate Creatures

Delicate Creatures (2001) J. Michael Straczynski

Delicate Creatures was not what I was expecting, though I’m not sure what I was expecting.

The art was interesting in that it was definitely in a style that I associate with comics, but was written like Stardust and The Dream Hunters–more like a picture book than a comic filled with dialog bubbles.

As far as “new” fairy tales, I think it ranks with Stardust and The Hounds of the Mórrigan.

It was cute, although I’m not sure that I agree with the rest of Erin assessment that it was “slightly predictable.” There was a happy ending, but the story didn’t go in the direction I was expecting. Or perhaps it would be more correct to say that I was just reading and not particularly expecting anything. Maybe that was the difference.

It’s not particularly written for children–there is violence in the story, and I am unsure at what age this type of violence would be acceptable–it occurs in the background, and you don’t see the violence, nor do are the results described in detail, but it was somewhat disturbing.

My one complaint was that in places the text was slightly difficult to read–the background was too dark behind portions of the text. It wasn’t a huge problem, and it occurred only a couple of times, but it was slightly distracting. (For what it’s worth, I have excellent eyesight, however my reading style involves recognizing words more by their shape than phonetically. This might have made a difference.)

Okay, two complaints. Trifle is green in the story, but wasn’t green on the cover. Why?

It was a good story, and the artwork was nice, so I definitely recommend it.
Rating: 7/10

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