May 2, 2022
Manila is a city home to two inextricably linked realities in this melancholy but ultimately hopeful graphic novel inspired by Philippine folklore. Ever since a civil war within the magical realm of Lambana, people have been dying from a mysterious disease called “rose,” which causes flowers to painfully bloom from their bodies; while mysterious “white shadows,” apparitions of living people, wander the streets. In secret, a network of diwata, beings from Lambana, preserve their culture in defiance of the authoritarian government, which forbids the use of magic. Conrad Mendoza de Luna, a young man with a rose on his heart, enters this underground with the help of Ignacio, a mysterious stranger who promises to bring Conrad to a healer. The quest reveals to Conrad the dispossessed lives of former Lambana denizens, as well as memories of his own childhood contact with the magical world. Sketchy, scratchy line work and glowing, brighter-than-Technicolor hues infuse the story with gritty urgency and beauty. This bittersweet urban fantasy unfolds with satisfying layers, and carries pointed echoes of the current political climate in the Philippines. Readers will welcome the diversity it brings to the graphic novel and fantasy genre landscape.
July 1, 2022
Conrad needs help. He's suffering from a fatal disease, and mitigating the excruciating agony is all he can do. Ignacio seems to be his only hope, navigating him through the Manila streets where humans--and other beings--pass between worlds. Beyond the last stop of the city's trains, the pair travel deeper into the night seeking Larissa with her magic potions. They continue to chase the promise of stronger painkillers--a journey that reveals shocking, violent answers. Writer Victoria and artist Malonzo, both Philippine National Book Award winners, make their graphic novel debut here. Victoria draws on their common Filipino heritage, adroitly weaving a story populated by magical creatures, clearly intensifying the mythic with the true-to-life political by pointedly highlighting government corruption and destructive control. Malonzo powerfully heightens the narrative with a saturated, kaleidoscopic, color-coded palette (for example, red and green for now; yellow and violet for then) that distinguishes reality from invention. In his afterword--Victoria is apparently not fond of writing them--Malonzo playfully shares the provenance and culmination of their chimerical collaboration.
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