Al Rio (1962–2012)

Review originally posted on My Urban Fantasies

For those of you who are unaware, Fever Moon is a side story that takes place about halfway through Shadowfever. If you are considering reading Fever Moon to see if you like characters and the world they live in, or if you have not finished the Fever series, I would seriously consider waiting. While Fever Moon works as a stand-alone graphic novel, there are numerous spoilers. Personally I'm very happy I did not read it until after I was finished show more with Shadowfever.

Fever Moon is an amazing graphic novel, with a solid story and out-of-this-world art. Al Rio, may he rest in peace, passed away before finishing this novel. The last of Al Rio's art can be found in Fever Moon. Cliff Richards was brought in to finish. As to be expected there is a slight variation between the art. I am a novice when it comes to Rio and Richards' work. That being said, I had to really pay attention to notice the difference. Richard did a beautiful job blending his style to match Rios.

The Story
If you are new to graphic novels please remember this: The majority of the story is told through the art, not the word bubbles. That is why there will be an entire page with nothing written on it, just art. The bubbles are there to give the art context.

I was excited that the Fear Dorcha is the villain. What's not disturbing about a creepy guy with a swirling void for a face? The fact that he's stealing parts of other people's faces just makes him creepier.

The Art
As I said before the art is amazing. Most of the characters were how I imagined them. The only character I have a problem with is Jericho. His body is amazing, especially the abs, but there's just something off with his face. I loved seeing Mac wearing the Machalo. Completely adorkable! My absolute favorite was seeing Moning's vision of the Rhino-boys. They are so much... more than what I had imagined. I will definitely be envisioning hers the next time I read the series.

The Extras
There are a few extras included in Fever Moon. Some character spoilers and notes about the novels. There are also some original sketches with character notes. While I would not buy Fever Moon simply for the bonus materials, they are a fantastic addition. show less

Beautifully drawn with a fast paced plot. Was more than slightly uncomfortable with the reference to rape early in the story:

"I was drugged and raped by the dark unseelie princes--with fae magic, they forced me to love it even as I hated it."

Aside from that reference I enjoyed this and would read more in the series.

This review contains some spoilers for the Fever series

If you haven't already read the Fever series - perhaps you are thinking of trying this out as a sample before reading - I would highly doubt you'll get much from this apart from a bunch of series spoilers. This could work as a standalone story but I think part of it's charm and part of the reader's ability to care is based on the assumption that you already know and love these characters. Seeing as this describes me perfectly, I enjoyed show more this little mini addition to the story a lot.

It took me a while to be certain exactly when this is set but it turns out it's somewhere in the middle of [b:Shadowfever|7304203|Shadowfever (Fever, #5)|Karen Marie Moning|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1320474645s/7304203.jpg|6967072]. I'd actually forgotten about this but Mac has already met the Fear Dorcha in Ryodan's bar, he was the strange Unseelie creature without a face who made Mac feel like her mind was being drained before he was told to leave her alone. He's a creepy little bugger, that's for sure, and he brings with him some interesting new Seelie mythology to add to the mix.

You know, I used to think that comics/graphic novels were so breasty because they were mostly read by teenage boys, but seeing as this is predominantly one for the ladies and Mac is still like a walking mammary gland, I can only assume that there is some rule in the graphic novel publishing world that prohibits normal-looking boobs. Strange. At least they got the t-shirt spot on:



Even though Mac and Barrons weren't quite how I pictured them, it was great to see two of my favourite characters again. Plus, one thing they did do completely right was the loaded banter between the two of them. This story is set after the Unseelie rape and Barrons has, ahem, come to the rescue, but it's also set before the end of [b:Shadowfever|7304203|Shadowfever (Fever, #5)|Karen Marie Moning|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1320474645s/7304203.jpg|6967072] so the tension between them is still running high and Barrons doesn't miss the opportunity to extract Velvet's name from Mac's tongue his own way:

So, probably not one for newbies, but it should certainly satisfy existing fans' cravings a little until [b:Iced: A Dani O'Malley Novel|12444166|Iced A Dani O'Malley Novel (Fever World, #1)|Karen Marie Moning|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1333022535s/12444166.jpg|17427104] comes out. show less

I am not a graphic novel reader. It isn’t that I am opposed to them or I don’t like them, I just tend to be less of a visual person and more into detailed story lines. But I am going to put my cards on the table here and admit something — if Karen Marie Moning publishes it, I will read it and I will likely buy it at the first day release price. I may also buy the hardcover, the ebook and the audio version.

The illustrations in Fever Moon are beautiful, detailed and worth examining for show more all fans of the Fever storyline. Like anything, the illustrations deviated what I had held in my mind and imagined to be Mac, Barrons, Dani, etc. I have to admit that I was bothered by what seemed to be the sexualization of Mac’s rape. The images portrayed the scenes from Fae Fever in not so much a terrifying way but in a sexual way. Also, what the heck happened to Mac’s boobs? Where they always that ginormous? And Dani was in no way an awkward teenager as described in the books, she is the opposite of awkward. I did not like these deviations. But oh well, I went with the story.

Quite a bit of the story is filled with memory flashbacks or a retelling of the first four books in the Fever series. For most fans, I think they will enjoy seeing these key scenes brought to graphics. But this does amount to less of a new storyline being told.

The story is interesting and it takes place before the conclusion of Shadowever but after the beginning of Shadowfever. So for those of you who have read the series, Mac knows what Barrons is. Mac and Barrons are on the search for the book but get sidetracked because a horrible thing is stalking people in Dublin. Once the story reaches the 1/2 way point, it becomes rushed and seems less developed. It does, however, come to a satisfying end (I would say of course, but we all know that KMM is the queen of unsatisfying ends!)

So do I recommend this graphic novel? Well, if you are like me, I couldn’t dissuade you from reading Fever Moon no matter how I reviewed it. I don’t think Fever Moon adds anything truly new or amazing to the Fever Story, but it was nice to revisit my favorite characters. So yeah, if you are a fan then read it. show less