*I was given a copy of Neoforest in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to Europe comics and everyone involved in the making of this graphic novel*
Synopsis:
In a distant future lives a young woman named Blanche. She’s the heiress of Cocto Citadel, a neofeudal city like those that arose after the end of the world… When Blanche and her father find themselves at the centre of dramatic power struggles, it’s in the heart of NeoForest, the Great Central Forest, that everything must be decided.
Review:
It feels incredibly mean to say but this was boring. The story was not gripping in the slightest and I found myself not wanting to turn the page.
Let’s talk about the visuals first. The cover is what initially drew me as it looks very interesting. However, I actually really didn’t like this art style. It had no points of interest and it was hard to distinguish any real details. The colouring was too dull and everything blended into one. I did really like Blanche’s character design, but that might just be because her hair was vibrant so she stood out more.
The lettering was not done well at all in my opinion. The font size was far too small and I kept having to zoom in so it was visible.
This brings me to my next point of the actual words of this story. What happened? I have no idea. Too much world building in a short space of time. The first few pages are crammed with world building and I’ll be honest and say I didn’t take in a single word of it. Pairing this with the busy visuals, I was having a nightmare focusing on either part.
The story really lacked any kind of excitement and having reached the end of the volume I can quite confidently say that Neoforest was a boring read. I really liked the sound of this, a futuristic world that has once again become lush with vegetation, but it just wasn’t done well.
I hate to be so negative in my reviews, but I’m struggling to think of anything positive to say. Absolutely no hate to anyone involved in the making of this graphic novel, it just wasn’t for me.
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I tend to agree the content of Neoforest was dense and initially off putting. And this happens a lot to someone who has a steady diet of American superhero comics. Those move at a faster pace at 20 or so pages of content, especially when every panel, if drawn well, keeps pushing you to the next page.
Neoforest… like quite a few European comics, is work. But I’m glad I pushed through it. The story feels like it’s playing the long game, and for me, evoked a possible future for all of us in terms of what happens when billionaires finally own every physical thing. They’ll turn to owning us, our homes, our land. In a sense, in 2025, don’t we all already work for them?
In terms of execution, part of what made the book feel dense is it clocks in at 64 pages of world building. And it’s a completely new concept unlike Spider-Man, or Superman, where we (in Western culture) already have the backstory as part of our collective culture.
The art, as you noted with the cover, is actually pretty gorgeous. It’s, for lack of a better term, very French, going back to what feels like a long tradition that started with Jean Giraud. The whole aesthetic is Art Nouveau, a movement itself that employed dense layers of flourishes and plant life, appropriate to a forested world.
It definitely demands work, because it wasn’t entertainment. It provoked an inner dialogue in me in terms of where I see the current world heading, and whether I want to be in that, especially the one outlined in Neoforest.
The dialogue and captioning are dense on some pages, nonexistent on others, so I was required to either read and comprehend, or fill in the blanks on empty pages. So there is a lot of cognitive switching.
Generally speaking, I really appreciate your review, as it made me think about why I worked as hard as you to get through it.