Tim Seeley

i am a girl of simple tastes. you show me damian wayne admitting he cares deeply about dick grayson and is terrified of losing him, and you show me dick grayson admitting that one of his more shameful thoughts was that he would make a better father to damian than bruce would, and i order seconds and thirds and they eventually kick me out of the restaurant because they're worried about me.

Some full-on moments of horror in this volume, as the revivers experience some dissociative affects of their return from the dead, and the strange wraiths haunt the woods. Dana Cypress hunts her sister's killer in earnest, with a little help from her sister, the murder victim. All sorts of strange troubles and doings sre brewing, from the white supremacist stirring things up, the journalist investigating the disappearance of the three brothers Em killed last volume, a figure in black setting show more fire to a university professor's office, and the professor himself possibly connected to Em's death. It's getting tangled and troubled in Wisconsin, and this is absolutely brilliant. show less

In a small Wisconsin town, some of the dead have come back to life. But they aren’t necessarily the same as they were—they may be darker—and some of them have grudges. And now outsiders want to move the revived into internment camps, or possibly cut them up for parts, while some insiders are happy to have them do just that. I’m neglecting the tangled personal relationships—the sheriff’s daughter is a deputy trying to investigate the murder of her (revived) sister and deal with show more splitting custody of her son with his father, and also navigating her partnership with the hot CDC representative who’s come to town. The series reminds me a bit of Rachel Rising, though it’s less focused on relationships between women; I really like it and hope it doesn’t suffer comics plot complication collapse. show less

(Full disclosure: I received a free e-ARC for review through NetGalley. Trigger warning for misogyny, violence against women, and self-harm.)

-- 3.5 stars --

"They put us together so we weren't dangerous. They fucked up."

When YouTube influencer Kellyn West is attacked by one of her 9.2 million fans, she prevails - kind of. After smashing her would-be slasher Clay Coogan to bloody bits with a backhoe, a "secret judge" declares Kellyn an "Eve" - short for "endemic victim" - and sends her to show more Sacred Lamb, a sort of witness protection compound for similar survivors. Based on the theory that such savage and widespread violence is like a bug, Eves are sentenced to Sacred Lamb as much for society's protection as their own, to prevent the collateral damage that copycats and versions of the slashers "previously unknown to science" (whatever that means) might wreak.

While there, Kellyn meets the very first Eve - Diana Grell, the infamous babysitter who survived the Soulsaver massacre, and inspired the Soulsaver Act of 1979. She's as creepy as you'd think, pushing a baby doll around in a squeaky stroller and popping into other survivors' houses uninvited. But when everyone's victimizers are resurrected within Sacred Lamb's walls - even those declared legally dead - Diana might be the Eves' best shot at survival. Well, that and their own audacity.

SACRED LAMB is a bit of a mixed bag. You can tell that the story wants to make a Larger Point about society: whether it's the folly and cruelty inherent in victim blaming, or the dangers of misinformation, "fake news," and conspiracy theories, all of which seem to spread like a contagion. And it does succeed, to a degree - but ultimately I felt like some of the more supernatural elements of SACRED LAMB distracted from the social critique.

I do so love seeing a bunch of incel, would-be slashers getting their asses handed to them by a group of women who were deemed to be damaged goods, and then locked away for their own good (echoes of institutionalization, anyone?) - despite having survived the first round. show less