The monsters in horror fiction, whether those monsters are ghosts, vampires, or zombies, always seem to represent something beyond the natural fear a person would have against something with fangs and claws. Many times, these monsters are symbolic of a more universal fear involving a person’s space in society or in the universe at large (at least according to critics). Ghosts, for example, are often connected to humanity’s universal fear of death. Zombies are often symbols of death as well as disease. Author and illustrator Jon Claytor, however, presents an interesting idea in his book Nowhere, the world of zombies, vampires, and aliens represents the very modern fear of growing up.
Nowhere takes place in Beauséjour. Beauséjour, a small town in Canada and it’s where teenage Joel ends up, along with his morose mother, his verbally abusive but generally useless stepfather, and various animals. When the family’s car breaks down in Beauséjour, they stay at a roadside motel and slowly become accustomed to what makes Beauséjour different from other towns. Those differences include vampires that talk to therapists, ghosts that look like sheets and who actively engage with the living, and a massive cube that sits on the edge of town. And don’t forget about the zombies that wander around at night.
People might look at Claytor’s story and think of shows that run on late 20th century nostalgia like Stranger Things, especially when Joel finds a group of his friends close to his own age to hang out with. However, these friends don’t battle the various monsters that show up in town; they simply accept them as part of living in Beauséjour. In fact, no one within this book expresses any emotions other than melancholy, even when more apocalyptic elements start happening. Many have likely read action/adventure stories with a coming-of-age element that has the protagonist learns more about who they are and who they’re going to be due to the events in the book, but if Joel comes of age within Nowhere’s pages, Joel grows to realize that banality is the norm, which is perhaps the most terrifying thing to realize.
Banality could be used to describe the book’s artwork, which, in any other book, would be a critique, but the banality fits into the book’s overall tone. Claytor uses a deceptively simplistic art style that nevertheless depicts realistic human faces that are struggling to emote within a muted black and white world. Colors are also used sparingly, such as the blood on the vampire’s teeth when he talks with his therapist, and only provide a speck of brightness in Claytor’s universe. Even the aliens, typical grays with bulbous eyes and small mouths, approach their job of manipulation with the enthusiasm of security guards who’d much rather watch the clock tick toward the end of their shift, which is not surprising considering the universe they inhabit.
While lacking the excitement of Stranger Things, this book does share some DNA with an intellectual property well-known for weirdness. “Welcome to Night Vale,” a novel and podcast created by Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor, features a supernatural town where residents accept the supernatural to an absurd degree. Fans of that book/series will want to visit Beauséjour, as well as fans of shows like “X-Files” and “Supernatural,” particularly of their sillier episodes.
Nowhere By John Claytor Goose Lane Editions, 2026 ISBN: 9781773104584
Company Age Rating: 14 Years and Up
NFNT Age Recommendation: Adult (18+), Older Teen (16-18)
The story opens with David, a brown-skinned, lanky middle-schooler, imagining the “spark” of creativity and ideas as a cute little cartoon creature. He arrives home and meets up with his neighbor Marta, a lively homeschooled 2nd grader with red-rimmed glasses and the two investigate an explosion in David’s basement. It turns out his mom has successfully created a tool to shrink herself down so she can travel between dimensions into a “micro universe.” Unfortunately, she’s left the tool behind.
David and Marta go on a brief adventure to rescue David’s mom and, while in the microscopic dimension, encounter the blue spark of David’s imagination. It’s pictured as a blue ball with a purple cape, gloves, and boots on it’s stick-like arms and legs and a splash of blue “hair.” Together, with the help of David’s experiments, they rescue his mom from a crowd of purple creatures like Spark that seem to be sucking her creativity.
Inspired by Spark and their adventure, David tries again to start a Science Club and gets more interest this time. With the enthusiastic participation of Marta, he demonstrates how to make “space mud” at the club’s first meeting in his backyard and even gets the interest of a girl, Lisa. She’s shown wearing tights, a long skirt, and a loose jacket with curly black hair and a blue knit cap. David’s audience includes a kid with long blonde hair in a wheelchair.
However, the story is far from over – Spark isn’t the only creature that came through the portal from the microscopic universe and David’s mom is working on a new project in their basement that could mean disaster! David will have to bring out his trusty experiments and depend on Marta’s inexhaustible energy to save the day with science and keep the spark of inspiration alive.
There’s not a lot of variation in body types pictured, but that’s due more to Loux’s art style than a studied lack of diversity. Loux’s characters all have long, thin, flexible limbs and show exaggerated emotions with their wide mouths, heavily-drawn eyebrows, and the rapid changes in their eyes. The science experiments have a few illustrations, but these are mostly part of the story – the instructions are primarily in the text.
The other dimension is colored in orange-hued pinks, pale purples, and yellows with lots of ripples, creatures with multiple legs, and speech bubbles that look like tropically patterned easter eggs. This contrasts with the everyday suburb where David lives with blue skies and green trees and lawns.
The story includes 18 simple science experiments, from slime to a straw rocket and there is a QR code that has videos to accompany each experiment. The book is sponsored by a science organization called High Touch High Tech which creates fun science experiences.
There is some disconnect in the story – David is supposed to be a middle schooler, but the science experiments are more something an elementary student, like Marta, would enjoy doing. They do somewhat interrupt the flow of the story. As Marta points out, they’re running from monsters so why didn’t David just bring a compass instead of magnetizing a needle in the middle of a chase? However, the story is mostly a vehicle to carry the science experiments and a younger audience will enjoy the light story and be interested in trying the different projects. Manning is an experienced author who is used to creating nonfiction/fiction graphic novel scripts and the plot moves smoothly despite the sometimes jarring science elements. Older readers who like Matthew Loux’s art and are interested in the science-fiction genre are more likely to enjoy his own graphic novel series, The Time Museum.
The Spark Experiment By Matthew Manning Art by Matthew Loux Andrews McMeel, 2026 ISBN: 9798881601928
A young boy navigating a near-future world that is both like ours, and also not. A story woven through with commentary on where we find ourselves today.
Street Noise Books brings us Hybred from Jamie Mustard and Francesca Filomena. Set in an alternate future, the book introduces us to Johnny James, 9 years old when the story begins. Mixed race, outcast, and living in a slum walled off beside the bright lights of Follyland, the rich and shining section of city just next door, Johnny splits his time between a home for boys and his fractured family, living life alongside gangs, despair, and a consistent stream of violence.
What Johnny learns from a young age is that those who give up, do not survive. And Johnny is determined to survive. Through years of childhood and into adulthood, Johnny crosses paths with a range of characters, all the while hiding the secret that he is even more different than those around him can know. As everyone claws their way toward survival, Johnny’s love of art may be his path toward safety, but only if he can endure the dangers laying in his way.
Written entirely in narration, Hybred doesn’t use paneling or text bubbles to deliver its relatively short narrative. Instead, the series of standalone, full-spread images and text blocks carry us through each moment of Johnny’s story. Written and with art direction from Mustard, this book tackles a lot—race, inequality, mental health, exploitation, and more—all grounded in an examination of the role that art can play in shaping society. It’s an ambitious and admirable undertaking to address so much in a singular story. Unfortunately, the scope of the themes ultimately harms both Johnny’s narrative and the broader ideas Hybred seeks to convey.
The story itself is never given room to breathe, unfolding in a series of vignettes that never quite find cohesion, while the dramatic conclusion of certain plot points happens largely in summary and off the page. Quiet storytelling and ambiguity can be immensely powerful. The challenge with Hybrid is the size of the gaps the reader is left to fill themselves. Similarly in theme, Mustard turns a lens on vitally important social issues, but in packing so many in with such passionate intensity, it becomes a struggle to walk away from the book with a greater understanding of any idea in particular. In trying to show us all the sights along the way, Johnny’s story struggles to reach a clear destination.
But this is not to downplay what the book does achieve. Not only does Mustard approach the writing with vision, but Filomena’s painted illustrations bring a wealth of character and visual style to the story. Reminiscent at times of Dave McKean’s art, Filomena’s hazy and stylized approach fills the book with life, blending rich colors with striking visual designs that showcase this strange-but-familiar world and the multitude of characters who inhabit it. Pages move from more cinematic presentations to portraits to paintings that demand focus on key elements of the story. Across the range of palates and scenes, Filomena’s style invites the reader to keep looking, following Johnny into this strange alternate world he is navigating.
Throughout Hybred, there are moments of drug use, violence, death, strong language, racism, human trafficking, and sexual themes. With only a couple exceptions, the book does not linger overly long on these moments—and with the early portion of the book framed through a child’s eyes, some of the darker plot points are clearer to the reader than they are to Johnny himself. Nevertheless, the often bleak combination makes the book best suited for adults alongside some older teens who know what they’re in for. In the end, I wish I liked Hybrid more than I did. It’s a respectfully ambitious undertaking from a writer who clearly has a lot to say, and I admire any piece of art that’s willing to aim big. Additionally, Filomena’s art deserves to be seen as it brings this complex tale to life. Hybred doesn’t achieve much of what it sets out to do, but I respect its vision even as I wish more of Johnny’s story had landed effectively along the way.
Hybred A Graphic Novel By Jamie Mustard Art by Francesca Filomena Street Noise Books, 2025 ISBN: 9781951491437
Many science-fiction stories follow Mary Poppin’s advice of providing a spoonful of sugar to go with one’s medicine. While readers are usually enjoying the fantastic technologies and interdimensional shenanigans, they are also assimilating the story’s moral about universal problems that affects most everyone on earth, at least ideally. Sometimes, that’s a delicate balance. Too much sci-fi sweetness and the author’s message becomes lost, but too little and the audience becomes resistant to the author’s didactic delivery. Luckily, Acid Box, with its story provided by Sara Kenney and art provided by James Devlin, Emma Vieceli, and Ria Grix, manages that delicate balance.
This time travel adventure begins in 2026 with Jade Nyo, a Glasgow woman more interested in dancing and getting high (and taking care of her brother) instead of saving the world. During a trip to a seemingly normal restroom, however, she becomes acquainted with three women who call themselves Liminals, guardians of doorways through space and time. Jade becomes responsible for the Acid Box, a device that can potentially cause geological catastrophes. Jade and her companions, including her brother, go on a quest, traveling through space, time, and the 90’s rave culture scene to repair the Acid Box while hopefully not destroying the world.
As much as Kenney’s story is about environmental issues and humanity’s role in them, this story also serves as a love letter to rave culture and what music itself provides. Jade and the people she encounters on her journey serves as musical and historical tour guides through the ‘90s as the book explores the rave music genre along with historical events. Such a statement might sound like a synopsis from a PBS show about the power of music, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. The main benefit of this musical genre, argued by Kenney’s story, is its power to connect people and unite them under a common cause. This trip through musical history also allows Jade to experience her own hero’s journey of self-discovery once she stops relying on recreational drugs to handle the mindbending time-travel narrative.
Complementing this mindbending journey is the visuals provided by the multiple artists that lend their talents to this book. There are many opportunities for these artists to be creative, from depicting natural disasters that seem to be sentient to trips through different time periods that take their toll on the body. Many of these panels take up whole pages, so the artists have a lot of canvas to show off their talents. Combined with Kenney’s story, the art is as vibrant and stirring as the music serving as the narrative’s heartbeat.
This book is ideal for librarians wanting graphic novels that take advantage of both the linguistic and visual aspects of the medium. Acid Box provides a visual feast for the eyes, a compelling protagonist, and a story that doesn’t dilute this message, the proper ratio of sugar and medicine.
Acid Box By Sara Kenney Art by James Devlin Not in listAvery Hill Publishing, 2025 ISBN: 9781917355056
NFNT Age Recommendation: Adult (18+), Older Teen (16-18) Creator Representation: British,
Continuing to showcase fan favorites from the original show, Mariner, Boimler, Tendi, Rutherford, and T’Lyn, this first volume in the new ongoing series features the same humor and adventure from the cartoon in episodic comic form. Starting off with a series of short adventures that solve themselves, we see our lower decks’ lieutenants in the bar, where Mariner is complaining about the lack of substantive adventure. This is obviously followed by adventures that get a little too dangerous, including a battle royale with mentors from previous iterations of Star Trek, a new universe quickly consuming theirs, and a time traveling menace wreaking havoc on the timeline.
I appreciated that the artists used the same character styles as the original cartoon and that it was consistent across issues. The primary color scheme of bright and bold with only cel shading really showcases the Star Fleet uniforms and aliens they encounter periodically. And it was fun to see previous favorites like Picard and Scott drawn in this style.
Although you can read this volume without seeing any of the cartoon’s five seasons, it would probably lead new readers to some confusion when character growth or previous adventures are referenced. The footnotes at the bottom of almost every page were fun but mostly unnecessary to the story after the first issue. They also seemed to be attributed to various characters and the narrator without identifying who was speaking in most cases, which was confusing more often than not. This would work best in public libraries since the show was produced for adults and contains adult themes and bleeped language. The subject matter can also get a little dark and depressing, so it’s definitely not meant for children to read although upper teens would likely enjoy it. If you have fans of the show at your library, they should enjoy reading this tie-in continuation.
Star Trek Lower Decks: Second Contact By Ryan North Art by Derek Charm and Jack Lawrence IDW, 2025 ISBN: 9798887243030
Related media: TV to Comic
NFNT Age Recommendation: Adult (18+), Older Teen (16-18)
To know Chase Darrow is to love her. But to love Chase Darrow is certain death.
There is something about Chase that draws men to her like flies to honey. Although a more apt metaphor might be ‘like moths to a flame.’ One kiss of Chase’s lips draws the life out of a man, slowly aging him and eventually leaving him dead. Even the men around her she doesn’t kiss just love her and want to make her happy.
The problem is that there’s something within Chase that forces her to seek out company. She’s tried living alone without success. She’s tried throwing herself at bad men who deserve a bad death. She even tried romancing an older man who would be content to just have a beautiful trophy wife to look at. Unfortunately, nothing has worked. Eventually either she or they push for a kiss and the inevitable happens.
When Chase’s latest relationship ends with a dead billionaire, she finally gets the attention of the American government. Thinking she’s some natural-born superhuman, they dispatch their oldest and most powerful home-grown superhuman agent in turn – an invincible slab of testosterone simply known as “The Man.” He has a talent for killing and not much use for empathy. This sets up a long manhunt and a confrontation between the unrelenting and the irresistible. What will prove stronger? The Man’s ability to deal death or Chase’s tainted love?
Originally published as a four-issue miniseries by Vertigo Comics in 1990, Breathtaker is the definition of a cult classic comic. It was well-regarded upon release and saw a trade paperback collection in 1994. However, because it was intended to be a one-and-done story, it fell into obscurity compared to other mature readers’ titles of the age that were longer-running and sought out for film and television adaptations. This may be because Breathtaker is distinctly designed for the world of comics.
No less a luminary than Walt Simonson speaks on this point in the introduction to this hardcover collection. The way a train silhouette becomes a roof to the three panels under it showing a conversation on said train. The way a checkboard pattern sets up the layout of the room beyond. There are many visual tricks like this that might be replicated on film, but nowhere near as well. Marc Hempel and Mark Wheately crafted one heck of a visual extravaganza, with the writer painting several sequences that punctuate key moments of the story.
That story is what truly makes Breathtaker memorable beyond the outstanding visuals. While many comics have explored the idea of a superpower that is more curse than blessing, few have done it with the same political acumen. Beyond the psychological torment Chase experiences as a woman who just wants to be loved despite knowing she is literally poison, Breathtaker examines the paradoxical nature of sex and sexuality in American society and media. Women are encouraged to be sexy yet are looked down upon as harlots who seek to drag good men down. Likewise “The Man” is held up as the epitome of everything a man should be – a cinematic action hero in the flesh – despite being an unpleasant bore.
Breathtaker is rated M for readers 18 and up by Titan Comics and rightly so. With a plot based around love, death, sex, and power, this title requires a certain level of life experience to fully appreciate. Beyond that, it depicts numerous scenes of sexual content and aggressive violence that it should go without saying are not suitable for children.
Breathtaker Collection By Mark Wheatley Art by Marc Hempel, Mark Wheatley Titan, 2025 ISBN: 9781785867354
What would you do if you had only six months to live?
This is the question facing everyone who contracts the G+ Virus. There is no cure. It is definitively lethal.
However, for some victims, it is also the best thing that ever happened to them. Because even as the G+ Virus overclocks the host body, it also allows people to briefly become more of what they are.
Creative people seem to become more creative, perhaps driven to make something that will outlive them. Even the baseline cases somehow become more physically capable.
A rare few, however, become something superhuman.
Death Sentence was an oddly prescient work. Originally published in 2014, it predates the many works of superhero fiction inspired by the COVID-19 pandemic. Of course, the idea of a disease bestowing superpowers is not entirely original. (George R. R. Martin’s Wild Cards is built around the same general premise.) What marks Death Sentence as unique is its distinctly British flavor and its tight characterization.
The first volume centers around a trio of newly infected G+ patients. Verity is an artist who accidentally kills the government agents sent to bring her in. Weasel is a rock star hoping for a comeback who becomes a fugitive after his powers accidentally kill a groupie. They become the unlikely heroes recruited to stop the third focus character, David “Monty” Montgomery – a comedian whose mind control powers allow him to turn all of London into a captive audience.
The second and third volumes explore the aftermath of the first, as the American and British governments attempt to exploit the most visible expression of superpowers in history. This leads to the introduction of new characters like Roots – a drug farmer who uses her powers to enhance her product and defend her neighborhood.
Writer Monty Nero does a fantastic job of building up the world and the characters. With subversive takes on politics and pop culture, Death Sentence invites comparison to the work of Alan Moore. This seems to be intentional, as Nero references Moore twice in the text. Once with the analogy “like Alan Moore on an acid trip,” and once more with the character of Creighton Baines, a comic writer whose creation is co-opted by masked protesters. (A clear reference to Anonymous and V for Vendetta.) However, while the influence is apparent, Nero still makes the story his own and goes beyond simply mimicking Moore.
The artwork is fantastic across the board, with each section of the story has a distinctive look. Mike Dowling draws the first volume with a gritty, dark aesthetic that evokes memories of classic Judge Dredd comics and the early years of Hellblazer. Martin Simmonds skews a bit more surreal in the second and third volume, as Verity begins to fully master her powers. And Nero takes over the art for the final three chapters of Volume 3, with more traditional comic art as the story skews into more traditional superhero fare.
Death Sentence: The Collected Edition is rated M for readers 18 and up and rightly so. This should be obvious given the back cover blurb screams “Sex, Superpowers, And Six Months To Live.” For those who need more detail, there is indeed explicit sexual content, outright nudity, and multiple acts of sexual violence. There is also physical violence in plenty, with considerable gore. There is also cursing, with liberal use of the F-dash-dash-dash-word. Needless to say, none of this is suitable for children. Adult audiences, however, looking for something in the same vein as The Boys but more dramatic, will be well served
Death Sentence: The Complete Collection By Monty Nero Art by Mike Dowling, Martin Simmonds, and Monty Nero Titan, 2025 ISBN: 9781787741461
Company Age Rating: M (18+)
NFNT Age Recommendation: Adult (18+) Creator Representation: Scottish, Character Representation: British, Bisexual,
Armed with a flashlight and his knife (with a sharp point, serrated edge, and nail file), young Dave prepares to dive deeper and deeper (and deeper) into the watery abyss to find his missing mother…
Deeply Dave is a graphic novel written and drawn by Michael Grover and adapted from Grover’s original webcomic of the same name. Dave is a young boy diving into the deep and dark water to look for his mother, whose spaceship went missing far below. How this came to pass is revealed throughout the story, but much like Dave, the reader is facing the unknown with only certain elements of the story being revealed at first. Throughout his journey, Dave meets a unique cast of characters, some friend and some foe, who add heart and charm to the story.
The publisher describes Deeply Dave as a “madcap, hilarious adventure” and it certainly is that, but it is more than its funny moments, though those are incredible. This book achieves the delicate balance of sprinkling humor onto a story with serious undertones mixed with hope. Such a concoction is what life is all about, which is why reading Deeply Dave is such an incredible experience.
Grover’s narrative ability is elevated through the skillful use of visual art. The characters and setting may seem simplistic at first, but the sparse use of shapes and colors is intentional, juxtaposed against meaningful perspective drawing to create depth and ambience. Grover’s original webcomic has music, animation, and a scrolling website to add atmosphere to the story. Gentle and attentive care has been taken to recreate Deeply Dave in a physical print format. Panels that once existed on the web have not simply been placed on a page and printed. Careful choices have been made in terms of adapting animations into static panels. The physical book is printed on its side so that pages are flipped vertically in order to mimic the scrolling feature of the webcomic.
The publisher’s age rating for Deeply Dave is ages 8-12, which is a great age group for it, but, much like the title suggests, this book goes deeper than that. Teens and adults will enjoy this whimsical yet serious tale that’s about more than just a boy looking for his missing mother. The publisher markets Deeply Dave for fans of the animated series Adventure Time, and the comparison is apt. There are some darker plot elements and subtle moments that will resonate with older readers. The physical book of Deeply Dave would make a great addition to libraries searching for a graphic novel with wide age appeal and an innovative style. Readers who love the graphic novel should definitely check out the original webcomic by Grover as it is one of the most original pieces of art that has come along recently.
Deeply Dave By Michael Grover Henry Holt, 2025 ISBN: 9781250331038
Company Age Rating: Ages 8-12
NFNT Age Recommendation: Adult (18+), Middle Grade (7-11), Older Teen (16-18), Teen (13-16), Tween (10-13)
Something lurks in the water off the coast of New Marseyland. Something dark. Something unnatural. Something evil. Something that… quacks. The dreaded Moby Duck, a man made monster, ominously waddles to the center of the center volume in the Cryptid Kids series from Sara Goetter and Natalie Riess.
Cryptid lover K is back for a new mystery and a new mysterious creature and she’s bringing her semi-willing friends with her. Fueled by a passionate curiosity and love for weird and unlikely creatures inspired by her great aunt TK, nothing will stop our intrepid scientist from discovering new species… except maybe all a noisy arcade. It is really loud.
The cryptid hunters are going on vacation to the shore where K intends to find the elusive Moby Duck, a creature unlike any other she has studied. Luc, K’s “kinda boyfriend”, is more focused on making a good impression on K’s family while Penny is only allowed to spend time with K with the expressed promise to her mother of “No looking for cryptids, no ‘operations,’ nothing cryptid related at all.” Unfortunately, K and friends are not the only ones looking for the dreaded waterfowl: pirate and cryptozoologist Arrvida Scales is on the hunt with less than savory intentions. But even more devastating than that threat is Penny’s new friend Jo joining them, who seems to be drawing more of Luc and Penny’s attention than K, and K’s dad suggesting that it may be time she gave up the cryptids and generally not getting her.
There’s a lot going on in this graphic—kidnappings, pirates, one eyed seagulls, secret cousins, aliens. The aliens, who resemble jackalopes, really caught me off guard if we’re being honest. But beneath the shenanigans, this is a story about relationships and the way they evolve. K needs to find new ways to connect with her dad. Her dad needs to come to terms with years of anger at his aunt while figuring out how to give K room to grow up into herself.
This is a goofy read and I mean that as the highest compliment. The humor feels very Dav Pilkey adjacent with a dryness that’s at odds with the extreme circumstances of the book. Seasoned partners Goetter and Riess add a sweetness to the story and the characters that make them relatable and real, even with the plot’s absurdity. This is something these married creators are very good at and have displayed throughout their collaborations.
The graphic starts with a peek at Creature Monthly, the K’s zine/scientific publication, that provides an introduction to the central characters and a quick recap of the events from the previous book making this accessible to new readers without reading the first volume. The panels alternate between moving smoothly and steadily through the story to moments of almost frenetic bouncing during big action scenes. Like I said, there’s a lot going on. And I quite liked it.
Cryptid Kids: Moby Duck seems specially built for reluctant readers. It’s visually exciting, supremely silly, and centers around a very real heart that makes this middle grade reader sing. This is the kind of series that kids who say they hate reading can easily lose themselves in.
Cryptid Kids: Moby Duck, Vol. 2 By Sara Goetter and Natalie Riess Macmillan First Second, 2025 ISBN: 9781250899408
Company Age Rating: 8-12
NFNT Age Recommendation: Middle Grade (7-11), Tween (10-13) Creator Representation: Queer, Character Representation: African-American,
AI simulations, corporate mismanagement, and a psychological mystery intertwine in this first graphic novel from cartoonist Kit Anderson.
From Avery Hill Publishing, Second Shift brings us across a frozen wasteland far from Earth and into a lush habitat where the second shift of Terracorp employees are just being brought out of stasis. Enter Birdie Dornan, the senior of the two employees signing on for the current shift. The other is her brother Heck. After artificially cheerful greetings from the automated farm machines and an awkward passing of responsibilities as first shift heads into stasis, it’s time for Birdie and Heck to run management operations on the multitude of automated systems slowly working to capture minerals from passing asteroids and terraform a hostile landscape.
Second shift is there for repairs in the midst of increasing mechanical breakdowns and to monitor the status of the “payloads” harvested for the resources they contain. Through it all, they are assisted by the station AI, a digital projection which manifests into any number of forms considered pleasing to the human inhabitants.
Wondering how much their employers care about them and often on edge amidst the relative isolation, Birdie and Heck pass their free time in a series of simulations offered by the Station AI, all carefully tailored to the individual inhabitants. From adventure games to nighttime meditations, algorithms and virtual reality add depth and complexity to this remote corner of space. Everything changes when an unexplained signal leads Birdie and Heck to discover a second station, seemingly abandoned by people but also unlocking a host of questions which Birdie must decide if she truly wants answered.
Offering worldbuilding in small details and interlude messages spread between chapters, Anderson paints enough of a picture for the reader to grasp the circumstances of these characters while allowing the fullness of the larger world to exist in ambiguity. It’s a decision that works as Birdie and the others, out of touch with the wider galaxy, also find themselves cut off, disoriented, and questioning exactly how they fit into larger events going on somewhere beyond where they can see. There is plenty of sci-fi intrigue, but Birdie’s uncertainty after so much time with Station are central to the story. As she and Heck delve into virtual realities and the artificial environment of their current home, lines of understanding begin to blur. Terracorp is likely keeping secrets while the Station AI assures the team that everything is truly fine. Far from help and caught between the virtual and the real, Birdie’s willingness to ask questions—and to embrace the answers they bring—will shape much of what is to come.
With heavy line work and a muted palate of colors, Anderson gives richness and emotion to each segment of the story. The art is stylized enough to hold the dreamlike unreality of certain sequences, but also realistic enough to ground the narrative firmly in Birdie’s boots as she finds her way through each twisting corridor of the mystery surrounding her. For such a contained cast, each character and voice steps onto the page in memorable fashion, and as we follow Birdie down the rabbit hole, the psychological and tangible realities of the situation begin to show themselves across the panels of the story, larger than life but simultaneously all too real.
Avery Hill does not assign the volume an age rating. Though there is no mature content to speak of, the general themes and pacing of the book will more likely appeal to older readers from teens to adults. Despite the wider sci-fi setting of the narrative, the story itself is relatively slow paced and deeply personal as the characters navigate more existential questions of the place where they have found themselves. For readers who appreciate the ability of science fiction to explore future possibilities and the human condition, Second Shift should provide an engaging read. Balancing ambiguity with lovingly crafted detail, it’s a mystery that takes its time to unfold—but what it reveals drives at truths far deeper than just the nature of the mysterious second station. As a Terracorp missive asks in the book’s opening, “Isn’t it all worth it?”
Second Shift By Kit Anderson Avery Hill Publishing, 2025 ISBN: 9781917355209
NFNT Age Recommendation: Adult (18+), Older Teen (16-18)
always seem to represent something beyond the natural fear a person would have against something with fangs and claws. Many times, these monsters are symbolic of a more universal fear involving a person’s space in society or in the universe at large (at least according to critics). Ghosts, for example, are often connected to humanity’s universal fear of death. Zombies are often symbols of death as well as disease. Author and illustrator Jon Claytor, however, presents an interesting idea in his book Nowhere, the world of zombies, vampires, and aliens represents the very modern fear of growing up.
The story opens with David, a brown-skinned, lanky middle-schooler, imagining the “spark” of creativity and ideas as a cute little cartoon creature. He arrives home and meets up with his neighbor Marta, a lively homeschooled 2nd grader with red-rimmed glasses and the two investigate an explosion in David’s basement. It turns out his mom has successfully created a tool to shrink herself down so she can travel between dimensions into a “micro universe.” Unfortunately, she’s left the tool behind.
find ourselves today.
Many science-fiction stories follow Mary Poppin’s advice of providing a spoonful of sugar to go with one’s medicine. While readers are usually enjoying the fantastic technologies and interdimensional shenanigans, they are also assimilating the story’s moral about universal problems that affects most everyone on earth, at least ideally. Sometimes, that’s a delicate balance. Too much sci-fi sweetness and the author’s message becomes lost, but too little and the audience becomes resistant to the author’s didactic delivery. Luckily, Acid Box, with its story provided by Sara Kenney and art provided by James Devlin, Emma Vieceli, and Ria Grix, manages that delicate balance.
Continuing to showcase fan favorites from the original show, Mariner, Boimler, Tendi, Rutherford, and T’Lyn, this first volume in the new ongoing series features the same humor and adventure from the cartoon in episodic comic form. Starting off with a series of short adventures that solve themselves, we see our lower decks’ lieutenants in the bar, where Mariner is complaining about the lack of substantive adventure. This is obviously followed by adventures that get a little too dangerous, including a battle royale with mentors from previous iterations of Star Trek, a new universe quickly consuming theirs, and a time traveling menace wreaking havoc on the timeline.
To know Chase Darrow is to love her. But to love Chase Darrow is certain death.
Armed with a flashlight and his knife (with a sharp point, serrated edge, and nail file), young Dave prepares to dive deeper and deeper (and deeper) into the watery abyss to find his missing mother…
that… quacks. The dreaded Moby Duck, a man made monster, ominously waddles to the center of the center volume in the Cryptid Kids series from Sara Goetter and Natalie Riess.
Anderson.
