Graphic Novel Review: Somna

Published by: DSTLRY Media

Written by: Becky Cloonan & Tula Lotay

Illustrated by: Becky Cloonan & Tula Lotay

ISBN: 9781962265010

Ages: 18+

We’ve all heard of the Salem Witch Trials. Did you remember that this didn’t happen only in Salem, but in many Puritan communities of the time? Many women were burned at the stake for giving into their inner thoughts, feelings, and desires. Was the Devil or dark spirits really involved? I’m not sure we will ever or should ever know. But… what they lived through does make really good stories.

Ingrid and her husband Roland live in a 17th Century English village, where he serves as both bailiff over trials and occasionally a witchfinder. She has been sleeping poorly for weeks, struggling with nightmares, which have slowly begun to manifest as a shadowy man, seeking to convince Ingrid to give in to her desires. Roland continues to ignore her advances, especially after coming home from a burning. And every night she falls deeper and deeper into temptation…

Becky Cloonan (Gotham Academy, Batgirls, Southern Cross) and Tula Lotay (The Wicked and the Divine) act as both authors and illustrators in this absolutely gorgeous graphic novel. During Ingrid’s waking hours, the art is more in a traditional comic book style, but for her dreams or waking fantasies, the art becomes very rich and expressive, comparing easily to renaissance oil paintings. This book does not shy away from the true visions of lust, not holding back on the nudity or actions being taken, but they are all handled with the same tastefulness as something on the more erotic side of what you’d see in an art exhibit. Somna shows a “witch trial” from the point of view of a “witch”, which we can see is merely a woman giving into something she greatly desires. No spells or curses here.

A visual masterpiece. Somna belongs in your collection.

Ages 18+ for nudity and sexual situations.

ADAM FISHER, Reference Associate

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Adam Fisher

Adam Fisher has worked for more than a decade at Lane Libraries in Fairfield, Ohio, where he is a Reference Associate. He creates and leads programming for all ages, manages the graphic novel, sci-fi/fantasy, and magazine collections at his branch, and has recently seen great success with his self-created Escape Room programs. He writes reviews for everything he reads and can be found on Goodreads @FisherAd80 and on Twitter @adamreadscomics.

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