The Dire Days of Willowweep Manor, a graphic novel that upends its cover

The Dire Days of Willoweep Manor is a delightful surprise. As the adage goes, don’t judge a book by its cover, and this graphic novel gives a very self-aware wink to what people might be thinking when they see this book. The cover has a young girl with a sword, a young man with a small knife, and a swarm of rabbits with glowing green eyes all of whom are in front of a Victorian-era castle. If you’re an older reader and don’t like genre switching ploys your radar will go off. If you’re not a fan of Victorian or romantic era graphic novels-even if they have a twist, you’ll be on edge too. If you have those expectations then rest easy because The Dire Days of Willowweep Manor subvertsboth of them and is a fabulous graphic novel for ages nine and up. It’s a graphic novel that playfully goes between humor and science-fiction with ease and one that will satisfy girl readers, as well as boys.

Another benefit that middle school readers will appreciate is the book’s intelligence. Haley is our main character and her vocabulary; specifically, her choices of words are very smart and make you realize that the character is clever, but also very human. Astute readers will also realize the number of jokes, puns, or wry observations that produce a laugh or grin on reader’s faces. The Dire Days of Willowweep Manor isn’t a comedic graphic novel per se, but the strain of humor that’s woven into the book is strong and makes it stand out.

Haley is an upper middle school student who absolutely loves gothic, Victorian romance books. Her English teacher is telling her that she simply can’t do another book report on Wuthering Heights. Haley offers up the fact that she’ll add interpretive dance to her report, but the teacher isn’t buying it. On her way back home she sees someone struggling in the river and rushes down to help them. She does help the young man, but sees a strange building and lights that don’t look familiar to her and passes out.

When she comes to, she’s in one of the period pieces that she loves to read about so much. Readers also quickly meet the other cast of characters, the ghost from the castle and get a glimpse into the steampunk world that lives behind the curtain. On the surface, just looking at the elements that go into Willowweep Manor it could’ve been a graphic novel the simply connected the dots and would’ve been cursorily entertaining.  

Author Shaenon K. Garrity takes the jokes further, paces the pages well, and balances the science-fiction to steampunk, adventure, and dry wit so well that it’ll require a second reading to get most of the humor. Christopher Baldwin’s illustrations help sell the unspoken humor very well too. Haley often finds herself dryly observing something or in a very sly manner verbally enforcing something that should’ve been obvious to the others. The art works in tandem with the words to drive home the story, dramatic tension, and quite often, the humor. The Dire Days of Willowweep Manor goes way past its intended audience in the best of all possible ways. It’s not just for the castle sect, this is a graphic novel that ages nine and up will laugh at, share with friends, re-read it and maybe motivate them to read the books that brought Haley here.

The Dire Days of Willowweep Manor is by Shaenon K. Garrity with illustrations by Christopher Baldwin and available on Margaret K. McElderry Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster.

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