Page 45 Review by Stephen
"There are way worse things than you."
That's not intended as a comforting balm; it's a realisation, and an empowering expression of self-liberation after living under someone's shadow for so long.
Welcome to the WET MOON finale, lord knows how many years in the making, and it is perfect!
After the angriest opening page that I can ever recall, watering with newly released rage, a face so contorted and scrunched up with righteous fury that it almost distorts the paper page, I can promise you closure: so many moments of quiet, intimate closure as things held silently unsaid are finally spoken, at long last shared, and the young women who have endured so much turmoil and conflict and grief, finally find a peace that's as soft and serene as freshly fallen snow.
Oh, not immediately. There's so much in WET MOON that's so far unresolved to be worked through first, including pieces of the past you may well have forgotten, now picked up and put into place. But after all they've struggled with, there will be peace and understanding, the mending of ways and the minding if not of manners then of something far more important: each others' often fractured feelings. Some scars aren't going to heal or fade away overnight - there will be repercussions - but they maybe they can be lived with.
There will be no spoilers here, as there weren't throughout our substantial WET MOON reviews; I only hope to intrigue to you.
Except for this: Campbell has unexpectedly burst into colour! Only tinctures, mind, to highlight hair or some clothing, then a snow-speckled sky at night, and it works beautifully.
What have I loved most about this series?
Its inclusivity, its diverse body forms, its compassion, psychological depth and oh dear god the series came drowning dramatic irony as this close community of emotionally vulnerable, largely female friends remained unaware until recently of the seething cauldron of hate which lurked within, grinding its teeth with festering, barely contained rage.
I've relished the art from the very first edition of book one, then adored seeing Campbell develop visually in public on the page, thanking god that she never saw fit (as others have) to go back and redraw what to me was pretty damn perfect in the first place.
So yes, "There are way worse things than you."
What are they? What have they done?
