The Night Eaters, Book 1: She Eats the Night

Series Info/Source: This is the first book in the She Eats the Night trilogy. I got this as a birthday gift.

Thoughts: I thoroughly enjoyed the first book in this new graphic novel series by Liu and Takeda. The story is humorous and horrific all that once and the illustration is stunningly beautiful.

Milly and Billy are twins trying to keep their restaurant business going through the pandemic. Luckily their parents, Ipo and Keon, are in town to help with things. Ipo (their mother) is strangely obsessed with plants and also determined to solve the mystery of the creepy abandoned house across the street. When Ipo decides to teach her kids a lesson about caring for plants by making them help her clear out the creepy house, things go show more sideways. Milly and Billy quickly (and violently) learn that neither their parents or themselves are what they thought they were.

This was a fun story about family and mysterious pasts that is incredibly entertaining. I loved that Milly and Billy were just normal young adults trying to get through life and then their parents reveal all these crazy secrets. Some of the twists and turns in here were truly unexpected and I really enjoyed this.

The story touches a lot on family and immigration and the struggles of past generations compared to the struggles of present generations. Of course, there is also a good dose of creepiness and supernatural horror in here as well.

The hardcover book itself is beautiful quality with nice thick paper. The illustration is amazing as always; with beautifully detailed drawings and deep rich colors. This was as much of a joy to look at, as it was to read.

My Summary (5/5): Overall I really loved this first book in The Night Eaters series and am eagerly awaiting "Her Little Reapers", which is planned to release in Oct 2023. This is a wonderful humorous supernatural horror read, that starts out pretty normal and ends up a bit crazy with some huge twists and turns. If you are looking for a great new fun horror graphic novel series to read, I would definitely recommend this. show less

An impressive start to what promises to be an exciting series. The storytelling is assured; it is refresshing to find a graphic work that doesn't feel the need to lay out its story in a lock-step narrative. Here, the characters go away and do other things connected with the narrative and then re-appear. Sometimes they hint at what they were doing, sometimes they explain, sometimes they don't. The thing that surprised me was just how funny the story is; there is an absurdist sense of human failing that often mixes with sharp commentary about identity that builds up a strong sense of the world. It is also used to calculated effect; in one instance there is a hilarious scene where the mother has a showdown in the restaurant with the twins, show more and the customers are cheering the twins on with comments about how terrible it would be to have a mother like that. Ipo is coming across as the stereotypical tiger mom, but as we come to find out, she is actually mostly correct about the messed up lives of her kids.

It bugs me that by publishing convention Liu is referred to as the author and Takeda as the illustrator. You can't imagine this story withont either one. The color palette here is distinctive although it hearkens back to their "Monstress" work. Particularly effective is the way Takeda draws the grown-up twins as still very childlike, which is appropriate. She also presents their reactions to events in extreme, often melodramatic ways, as if they are toddlers pitching a tanty. Which, again, makes sense given the narrative. I'm not a big fan of the tendency to over-do the sound-effects in the panels, which is reminiscent of the worst of the "Pow! Wham!" style of traditional comics. However, what saved this for me was that Takeda seems to use these as a vehicle for making the words themseves illustrations, sometimes to the point where it is difficult to make out what the sound-effect is actually supposed to be. It is creattive, but it still may be overkill, and it sometimes takes away from the effectively moody and cryptic style of some of the panels. show less

A brother and sister set of Chinese American twins finds out why their immigrant mother has been so harsh and aloof their whole life -- and it's a doozy of a reason that gets the family caught up in a supernatural adventure in the haunted house next door.

I couldn't get past the first two volumes of Monstress because there were so many dull words covering up some very nice art. So I had my doubts going into this book, but I was very pleasantly surprised to find myself quickly caught up in the domestic and paranormal aspects. There are no narration boxes, and the dialogue is lean and realistic. The art seems a bit cruder though, perhaps trying to convey the horror vibe.

I eagerly look forward to the next two volumes.

gorgeous illustrations and super intriguing premise. the twins are so lovable and funny and i am Obsessed with their parents. really solid horror and gore level too

Great story with the outstanding artwork of Sana Takeda. Though I find the psychology of some characters sometimes puzzling. Maybe things will become clearer in the coming volumes.

this wonderful comics team that authors the graphic novel series Monstress has started a new trilogy; this is volume 1. the main threads of the story set up a long timeline, an interesting contrast between the family story and the horror story, and a sharp twist at the end where it all goes somewhere else.

My review of this book can be found on my YouTube Vlog at:

https://youtu.be/1-a1qMpCKwo

Enjoy!