*I was given an ARC of More Weight in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to IDW Publishing and Ben Wickey for my copy of the graphic novel*
Synopsis:
“Every word is an accusation…and every whisper kills.” This staggering graphic novel explores the infamous Salem witch trials and the long shadows they cast more than 300 years later.
In Salem, Massachusetts, 1692 is a year of terror. When accusations of witchcraft plunge the community into paranoia and death, curmudgeonly farmer Giles Corey and his great-souled wife Martha are forced to confront their troubled pasts, fighting to hold onto their principles even at the cost of their lives. In the 1860s, famed writers Nathaniel Hawthorne and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow stroll the streets of Salem together, reflecting on their own dark connections to those wicked days. Today, graphic novelist Ben Wickey wrestles with the complex legacy of “the Witch City” and what it shows us about the best and worst of humanity.
Based on true events, set in three centuries, and hand-drawn over a decade, More Weight is a stunning visual symphony — a unique and profound inquiry into the infamous Salem witch trials and the long shadows they still cast on us all.
Review:
When I came across More Weight I was really excited. A graphic novel about the Salem Witch Trials is right up my street. Unfortunately, the execution was not great. I didn’t make it particularly far into More Weight before deciding that this graphic novel was not for me.
Firstly, it’s more than 500 pages long, which is already long for a graphic novel anyway, but More Weight has an insane amount of text crammed onto every page. To the point that some of the text is cut off because there isn’t enough space. If you take into consideration how much text there is and the amount of pages, this is pretty much the length of a regular novel.
The artwork also fell extremely flat. The cover was very intriguing but this isn’t what More Weight looks like throughout. A lot of the pages actually look a little messy and unfinished and there’s a general air of inconsistency with the art throughout.
It’s not often that I find a graphic novel overwhelming but that sadly was the case here. I’m very interested in The Salem Witch trials and I love all things spooky but I just couldn’t get through more than a few ‘chapters’ of this graphic novel. I did love that it’s all based on true stories though.
More Weight had a great concept, but the execution wasn’t done well for my personal preferences.
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