Anya’s Ghost ~Vera Brosgol
–published 2011
–First Second Books
–221 pages
–9/10
Navigating the tumultuous waters of adolescence is difficult enough in a typical American high school. For Russian-born Anya Borzakovskaya those difficulties are compounded by a last name and a culture that she works hard to distance herself from. What successes she has gained in the battle to “fit in” are put in daily peril by body image issues, poor school performance, and the presence of another Russian student, Dima, a prototypical nerd with a thick Russian accent who regularly tries to befriend her. One day when familial and school obligations threaten to overwhelm her, Anya decides to take a walk in the park, wherein she discovers, quite by accident, an old well. Things go from bad to worse when she discovers the bones of the last person to stumble across the well and with them, a ghost.
In her debut book, Anya’s Ghost, author/artist Vera Brosgol combines clean lines and subtle retro-styling with tight prose to tell a compelling and sometimes mysterious tale about a young girl’s journey towards becoming herself.
For the second straight time this week Twitter was the catalyst for an unscheduled visit to the bookstore. Earlier in the week it was friends tweeting about Ransom Riggs’ debut novel, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. Then Neil Gaiman tweeted about Anya’s Ghost, indicating that his two-word cover endorsement, “A Masterpiece”, was a sincere reflection of his feelings about the book. Neil Gaiman put it on my radar, but what really sold me was the fact that author/artist Vera Brosgol was involved artistically in the creation of the stop-motion film Coraline, adapted from the novel by Neil Gaiman. I feel a special bond with that group of creators because of the simple fact that I was the recipient of one of the special hand-crafted boxes that the Coraline Team put together and sent out prior to the film’s release.
Despite my predisposition towards her work, I can say with complete sincerity that Vera Brosgol’s debut novel is a delight. The art is rendered in shades of blacks, whites and grays which evoke the somber and melancholy mood of the darker days of the high school experience. Brosgol writes in an efficient style in which words are never wasted and she proves time and again that a skilled artist can tell as much, if not more, with images. With a look, a pose, and with just the right shading and angle of view Brosgol conveys in one panel what might take many pages in a text-only novel. I have long been a fan of this style of art and Vera Brosgol has created in Anya a character that you cannot help but like from the moment she appears despite the fact that her attitude and apparent choices do not initially endear her to the reader. This is in part because, irregardless of her own feelings about her looks and size, she is a cute underdog that you know that you want to root for. She is also likeable in spite of herself because those of us who have survived adolescence and lived to tell the tale, male or female, can relate quite easily to this transitional period.
For those of you who have left the teenage years behind and consider the idea of revisiting them the antithesis to good entertainment, allow me to caution you against giving a pass to Anya’s Ghost sight unseen. There is more, much more, than just teenage angst at work here. At its heart Anya’s story is about relationships–relationships with family and with friends, relationships with the culture we come from and the culture(s) we are surrounded by, and it is also about that all important relationship with oneself and the freedom that can come from embracing who you are and who you will become. And along the way there is a slowly building tense mystery surrounding the ghost that Anya inherits after her impromptu visit to the well. I hesitate to say much about the ghost character at all because of fear of spoiling the story for you. Let me just say that the ghost has her own developed story arc that makes her an interesting and unpredictable character.
Whether one glimpse of Vera Brosgol’s art has you running for the bookstore (like it did for me) or whether you are the person I referred to above who would most likely give a pass to this graphic novel, First Second Books has generously given you the opportunity to sample Anya’s Ghost by allowing you to read the first 17 pages for free. If afterwards you still feel like the book is not for you, then no harm done. If, however, you find yourself desiring more I can assure you that Anya’s Ghost is a book worth adding to your personal collection. I believe that so strongly that I am offering up a free copy of Anya’s Ghost to one lucky reader. Simply leave a comment on this post and a winner will be chosen randomly. Comments must be received by 11:59 p.m. CST on Tuesday, June 14th. The high school years can be full of both fun and frightening times. I would love to hear about some of your experiences. If you choose to include any stories/thoughts about your own high school experience in the comments, your name will be entered in the drawing twice.
Best of luck to you all. Anya’s Ghost is wonderful and I hope this is just the first of many books from the heart and hands of Vera Brosgol.
Well, the art looks fantastic and the GN section of my TBR pile is about the only section reducing in size, so I’m going to need to add to it soon. This looks like a great contender!
Darren: I hadn’t read a graphic novel in quite awhile so it was a thrill to get back into the medium with such a great read. As blasphemous as it may sound in regarding my favorite author, I do not always agree with Neil Gaiman’s opinions on the books he blurbs (which frankly is comforting…I’m sure Neil doesn’t want a bunch of 100% identical clone Neil’s running around. Does he?) But in this case he is right on target.
In the interest of sharing, I only went to a “proper” high school for my junior and senior years. I was in a small Christina school prior to that with grades K-12 present. Those two years certainly had their down moments, but by and large they were a glorious time of expression for me. I was involved in drama, art, photography, music, track (briefly) and went to as many school events as I could. We were a small, close knit class (42 in my graduating class) and we had fun together.
That said, the first part of junior year was miserable until I established myself. Some kids thought I was part of a cult, largely because the first time I asked a girl out it was to go rollerskating. Unbeknownst to me that place I enjoyed so much as a pre-adolescent had begun to develop rumors that it was a known recruiting place for some strange cult of one kind or another. That was a difficult one to overcome, especially as I had come from a Christian school. And there were the normal ups and downs with relationships, with the fact that I got in with a rather rough crowd to begin with what I had little in common with so it took me several months to decide just who I wanted to be in that new school. Once I decided to be true to myself and pursue my passions, things really opened up and it was a fun time.
Great review!
Been waiting for this one. I have been working my way through the First Second catalog (as you likely know), and this one appealed to me straight-away! I’m relieved it doesn’t disappoint. It sure looks pretty!
(thanks for making sure I didn’t miss entering for this giveaway, because you are right. I am going to like this one.)
L: I figured as much given the fact that you obviously read and review graphic novels. This one is one I think your whole family will enjoy.
I’ve loved Vera Brosgol’s comics since she drew Return to Sender from way back when! I’m really looking forward finding a copy of Anya’s Ghost to read now…not sure if my local bookstores carry it, though.
Grace: I’ve seen/read her stuff in the Flight volumes before, though I had forgotten about that until I read it somewhere researching Anya’s Ghost.
Well, you are included in the drawing now at any rate.
Oh man. I already got this comic, but as a long time lover of Vera Brosgol’s work and of comics in general, I have to wholly endorse it for sure. And if I wind up winning, I’m going to give it to a friend, because the world needs more Anya’s Ghost in it!
As for me, Vera Brosgol was a huge influence on me in my high school years, along with Jen Wang and Yuko Ota and many others. They influenced my love of art and drawing, and comics especially, all throughout my adolescence. So while I was a geeky little comic-reading teenager, it was nice to know I wasn’t alone. 🙂
Caytlin: I couldn’t agree with you more, “the world needs more Anya’s Ghost in it”. I’ll be sure to include you in the drawing…twice! 🙂
I’ll have to check out those other artists. Have you read Plain Janes and the sequel, Janes in Love by Cecil Castellucci and Jim Rugg? I highly recommend those as well.
I’ve been following the progress of this book on Vera’s blog forever, it seems – delighted (DELIGHTED!) to see that the book is finally out … and that the blurb from Gaiman is helping to spread the word.
Yay Vera!
Richard: Yes, having Neil Gaiman as part of your promotional gang is certainly helpful, I would imagine. I’m so very happy for her. And happy that this helped me discover her blog. I couldn’t help but order a print and mini-comic while I was on there today. She does wonderful work. Reminds me a little of the work of Shane Glines, an artist whose work I greatly admire.
I had an overall horrible public schooling experience… actually led to a full-scale nervous breakdown at the end of HS, but I really dig good coming-of-age stories.
I’ve been excited about this book for a while, actually. Neil Gaiman’s praise and Vera’s art that she’s posted on Twitter gave me high expectations… and the 17 page preview does NOT disappoint!
Totz: I am so sorry to hear that and I sincerely hope that things are much much better now. I’m well past “coming of age” (being 42) but I too love coming of age stories, and with Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, Anya’s Ghost, and viewing Super 8 today, it seems that all I’ve been doing is surrounding myself with coming of age stories this week. And you know what? It has been lovely.
I’ve entered you twice, thank you so much for sharing.
I’ve been looking forward to this graphic novel for ages! I’m a huge fan of Vera Brosgol’s work and do enjoy a good coming of age story in this medium, like Craig Thompson’s Blankets. Like him I found high school relatively uneventful other than being ridiculed for having long hair and struggling with the idea of religion. It was outside that was the most important and my desire to be a comic artist. Problem was, I wasn’t very good! Nowadays I make comics and illustrate for a living but it’s a million miles away from the copies of X-men and The Maxx which I used to draw!
Rus: It sounds like you are following your passions, which is something to be most proud of! I like Craig Thompson’s work as well.
High school wouldn’t be the same without some ridicule, would it? I tried hard, once I made a place for myself, not to make fun of other kids who were on the “outside” and most times I think I succeeded at that, but there are times I can remember being cruel to and those are painful memories in and of themselves. I wish I knew then what I know now about how powerful words can be.
Very true but one thing I did find was if you kept your head down you became pretty insignificant to those eager to mock. I was lucky I had a decent group of friends who were also insignificant to the vocal types and was only subjected to being called a girl rather than anything physical. It’s funny because I had long hair right up until my mid-twenties and was still called and sometimes mistaken for a girl. Even though since I was 18 I’ve had a rather healthy beard! Go figure!!
Thanks, I guess you could say I’m following my passion, I never thought of it like that 🙂
Rus: Yes, having friends in every stage of life certainly makes it easier, regardless of which crowd we are circulating in. I’m certainly thankful for the friends I had that helped me enjoy high school and am also thankful for the friends I have now who make life so rewarding.
I’m really excited I bought this one too! I feel like we’re reading twins now :p
Chris: I’m just excited that this old man beat you and so many of the rest of the ‘graphic novel gang’ to reading it! Despite hanging out in a comic shop once a week I am usually woefully behind everyone in actually reading them! LOL! Can’t wait to hear what you think of it.
I can only compare my high-school years to one of those “dark” YA books, so to keep this on the lighter side I will say that those years gave me a great understanding of human character, or..more often than not…lack there of….lol Also, there were some rays of sunshine that broke through the clouds here and there. Not too emo I hope ;D
Anya’s first 17 pages were very entertaining 😀
Kelly: Oh, certainly not too emo at all. Sometimes I feel bad about how fortunate I’ve been in the stages of my life that there weren’t very many dark periods. A few, no one lives life unscathed, but not many and most were the result of my own doing rather than things being done to me. All those bad times can indeed be made into worthwhile learning experiences if we choose to make them so.
Carl: Never be sorry for being fortunate. No one would begrudge you a good wholesome life, and It obviously hasn’t made you any less empathetic to those who may not have had a *stellar* adolescence 😀
Kelly: Thanks, you are quite right. And yes, I certainly try to put myself in other people’s shoes when interacting with them. Life is too short not to try to connect with people in a real way.
This looks unlike anything Ive ever tried before…I would love to give it a whirl. Thanks!
I will be sure to include you in the drawing Jessica. It is very good.
The first word that comes to mind when someone mentions high school is “sucked”. But, then when I start to think about it more, there are many individual moments that made it quite enjoyable. I like reading / hearing / watching someone else’s high school experiences because I feel that I can relate to many of the stories from what I went through both good and bad in that chapter of my life. Anya’s Ghost sounds like an interesting read with great illustrating!
Hey Sis! Yes, your high school experience was vastly different than the one I had at the same place a few *cough* years prior. I think you might like this one.
I didn’t realize, from your review, that this was a graphic novel until I clicked the “read more…” link.
I went to high school in a much kinder, gentler time, 1958-1962, and though there was the usual angst about girls/dating, cliques, fashion and peer pressure, there wasn’t the ridicule, bullying, or any of the dangers of today. I say thank heavens for that! Even by the time I was out of college in1969 (a period in the Army between high school and college plus some graduate school) high school life was pretty tame though the peace & love years were in progress. So I can’t relate to a lot of this material.
The artwork is simple but communicative here, from what you’ve shown. I used to buy a lot of this indie GN stuff, but backed off it and haven’t bought any in a long time. Last GN I bought was a Green Hornet, last year.
RkR: I actually tried to avoid initially saying it was a graphic novel simply because I didn’t want anyone to quit reading the review thinking, “I don’t read that kind of stuff”. Personally I’ve had as rewarding an experience reading a good GN as I have a novel many times in my life. I think they are as effective, and sometimes more effective, and I certainly consider them ‘novels’ or ‘books’ in their own right. Anyway, just my reasoning as to why I purposefully didn’t lead in with that.
My middle and high school experiences were, to my recollection, very much what I have seen portrayed in 50’s films about kids and adolescents. Part of that might have been from living about 7 miles from a town of about 20,000. I went to a country school, a small Christian school, and a small high school. There was a balance living in a farming/rural community and yet having a town with a mall, movie theaters, etc. I felt like we got the best of both worlds.
Although there was certainly alcohol use and possibly some drug use, I was never once exposed to drugs in my childhood or adolescents. There was a small degree of bullying, but I had a mouth that I could use to stand up for myself despite being scrawny. And I had a lot of friends and we had really good innocent fun together. (Which is one of the reasons Super 8 was such a fantastic movie in my opinion, as it reminded me of my childhood to some degree. I’ll be reviewing it later tonight).
You are right, the art is very communicative. I hesitate to call this a “cartoony” style because that makes it sound like I am being dismissive of it in some way which is not true at all. I often wonder if it is more difficult to be a stand out and master this style as opposed to something that might be deemed more “complex”. At any rate, Vera Brosgol does a great job with communicating with the characters’ facial expressions, the lighting, etc.
I don’t buy graphic novels nearly as much as I used to, but this style of art always captures my attention and I knew as soon as I saw it that I had to go pick it up.
I think what just sold me is that when reading the beginning preview, the Russian was used for syrniki… when I studied abroad, my host mom used to make those for me, and they are fantastically delicious. The art looks really cool, and reminds me a bit of the webcomic Blip that I read for a while.
Grace: I wondered as I read it how much of the story was autobiographical since Vera Brosgol was born in Moscow. I liked that she used Russian words in the story and I wonder if those little moments were drawn from real life experiences.
I’ll take a look at Blip, thanks!
I keep seeing so many of my favorite bloggers talking about this book (including you), that it’s time for me to read this! What I love about First Second is that the books they publish are so creative and different from graphic novels published by other companies.
Vasilly: Yes, I’ve been impressed with First Second as a company from reading some of their other books. They offer work by some great creators and their books are so nicely put together. Really good quality.
carl, your new blog look is the shizzle!!!!
i love that photo of you!
That JP. I’m really enjoying the new look and feel of the blog. It was past time for a change.
Other than it being a photo of me, I am happy with the way it turned out. I’m going to need to retake it in better lighting at some point.
Okay, I’ve seen this title floating around the last few days without having a clue what it was about. Sounds amazing! You’re right–I think this is one both Annie and I would enjoy a lot. After wracking my brains about what to say about high school, I’m still sort of at a loss. I don’t think I was as full of angst as some…was generally pretty happy. Looking back, I don’t like a lot of the things I did though–but then I’m not sure I’d change anything because I suppose it all helped me become the person I am.
Debi: Same here. If I went through any memorable angst at all it was over girlfriend issues, and what teenage boy doesn’t go through the ups and downs of relationships in high school? Overall even those were pretty good times for me during those years. One way or another you guys definitely need to get this book. I think you’ll really enjoy it.
This book sounds really good! I love the art!
It is Annie, quite fun and the art is beautiful to look at. I’ve since visited the author/artist’s website and I am really taken by her work.
This is an area of books that I am just starting to really get into; graphic novels, manga.
The art and story of this book speaks to me; both are fitting to my tastes, I do believe.
Highschool; ahh…I did not like highschool. I immersed myself into a world of horses and horse shows.I spent all my free time at the barn. It was a world that I prefer greatly over all the highschool nonsense and drama.
I believe you’ll enjoy this one, Ibeeeg, when you get a chance to read it.
I’ve never had much experience with horses. I had friends who had horses and occasionally we would go for rides with them, but that is about all. They are such big, beautiful animals and I find myself feeling intimidated around them.
Here it is ladies and gentlemen:
After the ultra scientific method of writing down names on equally-sized slips of paper (two times for those who also shared about high school) and drawing one out of a bowl while not looking, we have a winner:
Congrats! Email me at poegeek(at)gmail(dot)com and give me your snail mail address!
Thanks everyone for the wonderful comments and response. I sincerely hope the rest of you support Vera Brosgol and her wonderful debut graphic novel by running out and buying a copy.
Thank you so much, Carl! My service is down at home so I had no idea that I won! You’re making my week so much better! 🙂
Congrats to you! Can’t wait to hear what you think of it. Hope your internet connection is fixed soon.