Book review: Another Castle

Another Castle: Grimoire, by Andrew Wheeler & Paulina Ganucheau

Description: (from goodreads)

Our tale begins when Princess Misty of Beldora, who longs for a more exciting life and gets more than she bargained for when she is captured by Lord Badlug, the ruler of the neighboring kingdom of Grimoire. He intends to marry her and conquer Beldora, leading the land into ruin and chaos. The people of Grimoire already suffer under his rule and desperately need a hero. Luckily, Badlug has just kidnapped one! Together with the citizens of Grimoire and a certain bumbling prince, Misty must fight to protect her kingdom and free both realms from Badlug’s tyrannical rule. Misty is determined not to be another damsel in distress; and with her new friends to protect, she’ll discover just what it takes to be the hero of the story.

Expected publication: February 15th 2017.

A review copy (eARC) of this book was provided by the publisher through Netgalley. Some things might change in the final copy.

Another Castle starts with the princess (Misty, for short) discovering in a matter of second she’s being spied on, proceeds to kill the spying bird and jump out the window, leaving her handmaids dumbstruck because they were actually doing her nails and hair. I knew this graphic novel was going to be about a fierce heroine but I was pleasantly surprised to see that she’s still a feminine princess who loves pink dresses and dances. It’s just that that’s not all she wants to do and being forced to love only those is not to her taste, to say mildly.
She’s dedicated to her kingdom, she wants to be able to defend it just like princes and guards can, and she’ll do everything she can to do that.

The setting is of a fantasy world, both colourful and flowery and dark and full of monsters. It reminded me of the Disney picture book I loved as a kid, The Black Cauldron (pictured here), when one second we’re on a light green forest and the next there is a dark dark castle with monsters dressed in bones and such.

Another Castle is filled with funny narration and dialogues and a very diverse cast of side characters. From and old mage woman, to the naïve handsome prince with Asian features, to a queer gargoyle, and so on. Look at the singles cover bellow for some more. I call them “side” characters but really I felt like they grew a lot through the pages just as much as Misty. They all have different arcs, motives and personalities, which I found very cool. They weren’t just there to help Misty or to be sidekicks.

I cannot find one single flaw or negative thing to say, so that’s why I rated it 5/5 on Goodreads. I loved it from beginning to end. It might not be my favourite graphic novel of ever, but I enjoyed it deeply and cannot wait for more people to read this awesomeness.
I could feel it is aimed at younger reader, like middle grade or younger, but even as a twenty-something I had a great time!

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Cover and variant cover for the 5 issues! I personally LOVE the variant covers!

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There is an interview with the creators at the end that was really fun to read.
Also I took some screenshots of their presentation because they are too cute:

 

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What this book made me want to read next (also because I heard a lot of great things about them on twitter) :

(On Goodreads : Princess Princess Ever After (graphic novel, middle grade), The princess saves herself in this one (poetry), The Princess Who Saved Herself (picture book, children)

Anyone read these already? 🙂