The Dreaming, Vol. 1

This first volume of Queenie Chan's trilogy, The Dreaming, which follows the story of twin sisters Jeanie and Amber, and their experiences at Greenwich Private College - an exclusive, remote, and (as they soon discover) frightening girls' boarding school deep in the Australian bush, where students have a habit of going missing - also happens to be the first manga, or Japanese-style comic, I have read. Given that it is my intention to read the two subsequent titles - this one ends with a cliff-hanger, after all! - and that I have a long-standing interest in learning more about the manga genre/artform, it will definitely not be the last, however.

I wasn't sure just what to expect, going in, but I found The Dreaming, Vol. 1 to be an show more engaging story, with appealing artwork. I can't say I was particularly frightened - maybe if I were a younger reader? - but I did want to know what was going on, and raced through the book... only to discover (of course!) that I need to obtain the second. After reading Thomas Siddell's fabulous Gunnerkrigg Court books, which also tell the story of an unusual boarding school, I was a little disappointed to find all the artwork here to be black and white. But apparently that is a characteristic of manga, and after my initial surprise, I soon grew accustomed to the style, and came to like it. Recommended to all young manga-lovers, kids who like frightening tales, and all readers (like myself) interested in contemporary adaptations of the girls' school-story genre! show less

The Dreaming by Queenie Chan is almost the first manga I've read. I say almost because I did read Red String online a few years ago (and then bought a couple of paper volumes) but I never got to the end because I lost track of it once I was up to date with the online pages. Anyway, The Dreaming is quite different, being both horror and Australian.

When twin sisters Amber and Jeanie are accepted into an exclusive Australian boarding school, their future looks bright. But the school's halls harbor a terrible secret: students have been known to wander into the surrounding bushlands and vanish...without a trace! No one knows where they went--or why. But as Amber and Jeanie are about to learn, the key to the school's dark past may lie in the show more world of their dreams...

I am by no means an expert on art but, to me, the art style was nice and added to the story. (People wanting to judge for themselves can see examples on Chan's website and this Asia Education Foundation page.) Especially some of the creepier images (pages? scenes?) definitely added to the vibe of the story. Especially the ones that sort of jumped out at me.

As for the story, this is Volume 1 of 3 so it was only the first part of the story, the set up for the overall story arc. The story is narrated from Jeanie's point of view and begins with the girls arriving at their new school, very isolated in the Middle of Nowhere, NSW. It's a co-ed school, which I thought was odd, especially since there's only one boy who appears briefly in this volume. (But presumably he or some other boy will be back at some point in Volumes 2 or 3, otherwise I don't see why it wouldn't just be a girls' school. This was the only thing that bothered me.)

The horror set-up in this volume includes a terrifying vice principal with a strong aversion to twins — to the extent that the girls have to pretend to be ordinary siblings born a year apart — a mysterious room, girls historically disappearing in the bush, and strange dreams. And, as I began to suspect once I was about half-way through, it ended on a bit of a cliffhanger. I suspect reading the omnibus version of this would be better, but Volume 1 was all that the bookshop had. I've discovered that the paper versions are non-trivial to get a hold of outside of the US (shipping costs more than the book/s), but I will be buying the remaining volumes on the iPad via Comixology, so stay tuned!

Not strictly part of the story, but the "Introducing Australia" page at the end was comedy gold.

I enjoyed this start to a horror story. I am definitely going to read the remaining two parts, because, as I've said, the story is just not complete. I highly recommend it to fans of horror and manga, especially readers interesting in either in an Australian setting. I'm not usually much of a fan of comics (longer than webcomics, anyway) or graphic novels because I prefer words to pictures and experience existential angst over which I should be paying attention to, but this worked for me. I would urge others who don't usually read manga to give it a shot (and it's not as though it's a long read).

4.5 / 5 stars

You can read more of my reviews on my blog. show less

This review was originally written for the website ListerX.com, which is now defunct. It can also be found on my blog, The Graphic Librarian. The book was an ARC.

Cover
The cover on this ARC does an excellent job of conveying the eerie surreal quality that this ameri-manga evokes. Using heavily contrasting shades of light and dark, the front image perfectly draws upon the ghostly and isolated world created within the story's pages. The title font also conveys the same eerie feeling, using dark colors and intangible lines that give the impression of chills creeping up your spine. Since this is only an ARC copy, there isn't a proper back cover for me to review, but hopefully similar creepy qualities will be present in the finished version.
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Artwork
While the artwork attempts to evoke the feeling of a real manga, there's still something vaguely unusual about the style. If I were more of a critic, I could probably tell you exactly what it is that makes the art different, but suffice to say that there's a distinctly un-Japanese feel to Queenie Chan's illustrations. Of course, that's not a bad thing, it's just the artist's personal style. What annoys me more are the seemingly persistent proportional mistakes that are so rarely seen in real manga - sometimes it's a pose, sometimes it's the way the face is drawn, but these kinds of errors tended to jolt me out of the story more than once.

On the plus side, the detail in this ameri-manga is absolutely amazing! Queenie Chan isn't afraid of her backgrounds, either - a rare sight even among Japanese manga artists. Every page is overflowing with details, which the artist has obviously taken a great deal of time to create and perfect. The costumes, too, are beautifully illustrated. It's obvious to me that Queenie Chan is working very hard to perfect her style, and I'm looking forward to watching her amazing art improve throughout future volumes.

Plot
**Possible Spoilers Warning**
Set in the bushlands of Australia, twin sisters Amber and Jeane, have been invited by their aunt to attend a prestigious co-ed boarding school. However, for some unknown reason the vice-principal of the school refuses to allow twins to attend, so the sisters must pretend to be a year apart. The night of their arrival both girls have the same strange dream involving a group of young women in old-fashioned clothes a forest of trees that bleed. The dreams continue almost every night and the sisters soon discover an odd connection between their nighttime ventures and a series of surreal paintings which are hung all over the school. The eeriness is heightened by the persisting legend of girls who've disappeared into the night never to be seen again.

Things take a further turn for the bizarre when one of the other girls decides to host a late night seance that quickly goes wrong. After the strange occurrences that take place, the story quickly spirals into what I can only describe as "Twilight Zone" weirdness. Jeane makes some rather ominous discoveries about their vice principal and Millie, the girl who hosted the seance, becomes part of the school's eerie curse, disappearing silently into the night. Suffice to say, there's definitely something otherworldly going on at the boarding school and both sisters are determined to find out what. Why is the vice principal so opposed to twins? Is she a twin herself? What exactly are Amber and Jeane's recurring dreams trying to show them? Are they prophetic warnings or the promise of more ominous things to come?

Content Warnings
Language = None.

Violence = Suggested, with a bit of blood here & there.

Nudity = None.

Sexual Situations = None.

Ratings
Cover - 7.5/10 - Darkly eye-catching, this cover, while not perfect, has hauntingly eerie appeal.

Artwork - 7.5/10 - There's slight room for improvement, but overall the artist has done a beautiful job!

Plot - 9/10 -
Grabs you fast, sends chills down your spine, and leaves you wanting more - gothicly surreal.

Overall - 8/10 - Despite minor artistic flaws, I'm hooked and will be picking up the completed V.01 as well as future volumes. show less

The Little Bookworm

When twins Jeanie and Amber are sent to Greenwich Private College in Australia, they expect it will be a regular school. Things quickly turn creepy as the sisters are told to pretend they are not twins and start dreaming the same dreams. As they delved further into the history of the school and the rumors of haunting and missing girls, the twins start to realize that the key might be in their dreams.

I went ahead and read all three since manga are short and it's only a three part series. This is some creepy stuff right here. The first volume is the introduction to the story with one of the twins getting weirded out right away at their new boarding school. Then they have the same dream about the bushland that surrounds show more the school and girls with knifes. The second and third volume give more history of the school and the disappearances that have happened over the years with the very creepy back story of the vice-principal. At first, it seemed that the story was going to devolve into some lame fairy tale, but then it takes a sharp turn at what? and then stops at nightmarish so I was actually somewhat surprised at the end. Though there was a storyline that feels like it was dropped somewhere along the way and I'm not quite sure what happened there at the end.

As far the artwork, it is typical manga style although with more creepy eyes than I have read before. I had some trouble with who was who until I realized that Jeanie always has a ponytail and then I got it. I think it is hard to draw twins and not have confusion though. The art really did add to the overall effect the story was going for and the paintings inside of the school were majorly horrible (like in scary, not in poorly drawn or anything). show less

The first in a series of 3 mangas about twin sisters Amber and Jeanie. They start at a boarding school run by their aunt in the Australian Bushlands which has many secrets. The Vice Principal is against twins due to a superstition not yet revealed, so they have to pretend to be sisters rather than twins. There is a mysterious sealed room guarded by a creepy picture and girls keep going missing wandering out into the Bush for no explicable reason. There is no trace of the missing girls and it is a complete mystery what is causing them to disappear.

The twins start having indentical nightmares where they are in the Bush surrounded by other people and the trees start dripping blood. They are dressed in what looks to be Victorian dresses and show more both keep waking at the same place each night. Amber is already superstitious and expects the worst and Jeanie is left trying to piece everything together. Things get even stranger when they discover a series of Victorian paintings around the school by an ex pupil and the women in it are seem to be going more insane in each successive painting.

Spooky, creepy and beautifully drawn I definitely recommend this series. I am hooked and will definitely be continuing the adventure very soon. It's nice to find a short manga series as most of the others around seem to just keep on going. There is also a fun bonus short story by Sarah Ferrick at the end. show less

This is not your typical manga. First of all it was not written by a Japanese author. Second, it is not based in Japan. Fans of manga will tell you this is virtually unheard of. The Dreaming is a horror story about a set of twins, Jeanie and Amber, that due to family circumstances are sent to an Australian boarding school. The boarding school has a history though; over the years eleven girls have vanished from the school into the surrounding forest. The vice-princpal is very strange woman who fears twins and the girls must lie to be accepted into school. Jeanie and Amber are nervous but are quickly accepted into a group of friends. After a séance/party strange happenings occur. One of the girls has fallen ill and the twins are show more disturbed by the exact same nightmares. Then it happens, another vanishing. Who is behind these disappearances? Why is the Vice-principal so afraid of twins? What is the story behind the forest that surrounds the school? Check this manga out to find the answers.

Queenie Chan was born in 1980 and grew up in Australia. She got her break into manga when Tokyopop began accepting submissions from international authors. show less

One of the most beautiful graphic novels I have yet to read. There are no truly boring characters, and even if there were, the marvelous backgrounds themselves would be enough. The Dreaming has an interesting storyline as well. Definitely worth reading.