Graphic Novel Review: Spectacle Vol. 2 by Megan Rose Gedris

Synopsis:

A murder is tough thing to solve, even without temperamental performers, supernatural occurrences, and the ghost of the victim giving commentary. But as Kat’s only link to the living world, it’s up to scientifically-minded Anna to figure out who killed her sister—before any more murders rock the small traveling community. Yet as she gets closer to finding a lead, even more unbelievable events obscure the truth: roustabouts start sprouting horns, performers grow forked tongues, and a demon visits Anna’s sleep at night. Does Kat know more than she’s letting on? And can Anna keep the circus—let alone herself—safe?

Review:

Spectacle Vol. 2 is a good follow-up to the first volume, but sadly yet again this volume has fallen short. The idea of a circus-themed murder mystery is very cool, but Anna doesn’t even attempt to find out more about her sister’s murder. Anything that does happen is pure coincidence.

Unfortunately, the plot didn’t progress very far outside of ‘everyone at the circus is getting cursed with mutations, oh no how is this happening?’. Which is a pretty fun storyline, I enjoyed seeing what was happening to which character and how it was going to affect them and the story, but that is all that happened.

We are introduced to a demon-type monster, this may have been in the first volume but I can’t remember, but it is only present once. In this time it scratches Kat and her arm gets infected. This injury heals over time and the demon isn’t really mentioned again. What it is? Why is it hanging around Kat? Does it have something to do with her murder? I don’t know, nothing is happening!

Sorry, rant over. I will now talk about areas that I did like. Firstly, we are seeing a tiny bit of character development from both Kat and Anna. With the latter learning to be more empathetic and actually try to make a friend. Sidenote: I love Flora.

Secondly, I still really enjoy this art style. Every page is brimming with detail and colour and it’s very fun to look at. These reasons are why I am giving Spectacle Vol, 2 a generous three stars.

Now, despite this slightly negative review, I am going to continue the series. They don’t take long to read, the next volume is on Kindle Unlimited and I got given copies of the last two for review. So I’m not wasting time or money. I do seriously think Spectacle has the potential to be great and I’m hoping that happens in the next volume.