The Low, Low Woods — Carmen Maria Machado (Hill House Comics)

TITLE: The Low, Low Woods (Hill House Comics series)
AUTHOR: Carmen Maria Machado
ILLUSTRATOR: DaNi
GENRE: Horror
AGE RANGE: Adult
PAGES: 168pg
SOURCE: NetGalley
FORMAT: Graphic Novel

Shudder-to-Think, Pennsylvania, is plagued by a mysterious illness that eats away at the memories of those affected by it. El and Octavia are two best friends who find themselves the newest victims of this disease after waking up in a movie theater with no memory of the past few hours. As El and Vee dive deeper into the mystery behind their lost memories, they realize the stories of their town hold more dark truth than they could’ve imagined. It’s up to El and Vee to keep their town from falling apart…to keep the world safe from Shudder-to-Think’s monsters.

Holy shit. Holy shit. I just finished this graphic novel and, friends, I truly do not see myself as someone who gets legitimately rattled easily — books may make me emotional, but rarely do they get under my skin and stay there — but I feel like The Low, Low Woods is going to linger in my bones for a long, long time to come. That’s not because it’s scary, but because it is horrifying, not in the haunted houses and ghosts sort of way, but in a sinister, nauseating manner that I never saw coming.

There is so little I can say without spoiling the entire thing, so instead, I’ll just tell you that Carmen Maria Machado is one of the most brilliant creative minds I’ve ever seen and I cannot possibly recommend this story highly enough. It carries her signature speculative taste and bleak outlook on the world, despite following characters you can’t avoid loving and rooting for (and naturally, it features queer women of color as the main characters, because we can always count on CMM to give us beautiful diversity in her dark little tales) ♥).

All of my appreciation not only to CMM for crafting this story, but to DC and the Hill House Comics team for helping this twisted creation come into being.

Thank you so much to the publisher for providing me with this review copy in exchange for an honest review!

c o n t e n t – w a r n i n g s →

SPOILERS IN TRIGGER WARNINGS

violence, death, transphobia, hate crimes, several mentions of sexual assault (all challenged in-text)

d i v e r s i t y →

queer plus-size Latinx MC, queer Black MC, multiple queer and/or POC side characters

t l ; d r →

Dark, twisted, horrifying, and BRILLIANT.
WOULD I RECOMMEND IT? Yes, but check the content warnings first if you think you may need them. ♥