SOUNDTRACK: hiatus.
[READ: June 25, 2023] Sunburn
I haven’t read a book by Andi Watson in a long time.
I used to be a big fan of his indie comics and then I lost touch with him–turns out he was hired by the big guns and has been working with Dark Horse for a pretty long time.
This surprises me, because his stories were usually very quiet and introspective. Like this one.
It also surprises me that Simon Gane did the art for this book because I was especially attracted to Watson for his drawing style. However, Gane’s designs are quite excellent and work really well for this story.
The story starts out pretty simply. Rachel is a sixteen year old British school girl. Her parents are typical, with her dad giving her a hard time because she doesn’t like eggs. And making dad jokes.
Then her mom comes in the kitchen and says that Peter, Rachel’s dad old friend, has invited Rachel out for the summer holidays. Rachel is mortified at the thought of spending the summer with her parents’ friends–ones she doesn’t even remember–is horrifying.
Until her mom says that they are vacationing in Greece.
Greece is lovely–so much more beautiful than rainy England. Peter is an older gent and is super nice, but it’s Peter’s wife Diane who is full of ebullience and life. She swoops down, gives Rachel a huge hug and tells her to make herself at home. She gives her regionally appropriate clothes to wear (British swim suits are very different from Grecian ones) and even lets her have some wine with dinner.
That first night they go out to a grown up (boring) party. Fortunately, there’s a local boy, Benjamin, who is very nice to her and they begin hanging out. Rachel teaches him to swim and he provides her with her first kiss.
But things seem a little off. Or if not off exactly, then maybe uncomfortable. Benjamin says that everyone knows everyone else at these parties. There’s no secrets. “I know who cheats at backgammon and I know who’s gobbling pills by the handful just to make it through the day.”
It turns out that everyone at these parties also knows about Ben and Rachel. One day Diane warns her to be careful to not bring home “anything unwanted.” She is offended by the lectureand is upset when Ben doesn’t act the way she thought he would. He basically says that no one cares about what they do, but it sounds a bit like he means he doesn;t care what he does either.
Things grows tense. And then even more tense when an actual secret comes out. I was rather surprised by the secret myself.
But it’s also nice that Rachel grows from the experience.
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