Halloween Girl Book 2: Dead Reckoning (Graphic Novel Review)
By: Joseph Perry (Twitter)
For my When It Was Cool review of writer Richard T. Wilson’s graphic novel Halloween Girl Book 1: Promises to Keep, I wrote that “Readers will find themselves immersed in weird, often chilling worlds.” In Halloween Girl Book 2: Dead Reckoning, the latest installment of the series, Wilson takes things in a different direction, aiming for the heartstrings more so than for outright horror.
The story takes place 10 years after the titular protagonist — a teenaged girl named Charlotte — died in a Halloween night car accident when hit by a drunk driver. She left behind her baby son Luke and her mother Marie, with whom she had a fractured relationship. Marie raised Luke to believe that she was her own son, but Charlotte has been visiting the now 10-year-old boy and is decidedly unhappy with her mother’s deception.
Wilson does a spectacular job of showing the tender relationship between the ghost of Charlotte and loner Luke, and the family drama between the three characters. He proves as adept at writing about these emotional bonds as he has with the darker supernatural elements presented in the first book. That is not to say that there is not frightening stuff going on in this latest volume, as Charlotte may be kindly to Luke, but she has a whole other side more in line with what readers might expect from vengeful spirits.
Whereas Halloween Girl Book 1: Promises to Keep featured artwork from different artists, Halloween Girl Book 2: Dead Reckoning solely features the talents of Eleonora Garofolo — and fine work it is, in richly detailed black-and-white illustrations that capture both the gentler side of the story and Charlotte’s eerier moments, as well. Carlotta Cesareo’s lettering adds to the fine work on display.
Halloween Girl Book 2: Dead Reckoning serves as both an engaging standalone story for readers as yet unfamiliar with Wilson’s characters and as an intriguing addition to Charlotte’s world for those who have delved into the previous stories in the series.
Halloween Girl Book 2: Dead Reckoning is available at https://www.rtwfilms.com/store/p2/HALLOWEEN_GIRL_Book_Two%3A_Dead_Reckoning.html.
Joseph Perry writes for the websites Gruesome Magazine (gruesomemagazine.com), The Scariest Things (scariesthings.com), Horror Fuel (horrorfuel.com), B&S About Movies (bandsaboutmovies.com), Uphill Both Ways (ubwpodcast.com), The Good, the Bad, and the Verdict (gbvreviews.com), and Diabolique Magazine (diaboliquemagazine.com), and film magazines Phantom of the Movies’ VideoScope (videoscopemag.com) and Drive-In Asylum (etsy.com/shop/GroovyDoom).
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