Curiouser and Curiouser.
Creative Staff:
Story: Nalo Hopkinson
Art: Dominike “Domo” Stanton
Colors: John Rauch
Letterer: Deron Bennett
What They Say:
What doctors are calling “Cotard’s Delusion”—the disease Latoya contracted from the mysterious book—is beginning to spread across the Waking World, trapping the souls of its victims in the Dreaming, so that their corporeal bodies are mere husks, waiting for death to take them. Likewise, Erzulie is still trapped within the Dreaming, and her personality begins to shift, expressing fewer of her love-and -desire qualities, and developing more of her warrior persona, known as Erzulie Dantor. She may not be looking for a fight, but what function does a warrior have outside of battle?
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
House of Whispers continues to be the book I struggle with the most and I do try and reflect on why. I’m interested in the culture and the concepts that are used here and the characters but it feels like the storytelling execution is what’s just not clicking for me. Nalo Hopkinson is working a slow approach that’s similar to the other Sandman Universe books but it’s also one that feels disconnected – even while fully connected to the Dreaming here. I just feel like I don’t have enough of a foundation to really engage with it. The artwork continues to be delightful and intriguing and there are a lot of little character moments that draw me in. But I’m still not sure what it is that it’s trying to say as a whole.
Erzulie’s story makes up the bulk of the installment as we see her finalizing things about getting herself a new place here. It won’t be quite what she had before, a little smaller and cozier, but setting up shop instead of just on the shore of the houseboat will go a long way toward dealing with things and moving forward. What we see as the main arc for her here is that things are not right since coming into the Dreaming and everyone is feeling very off and problematic, which results in a rising of tensions between her and Turtle that turns into an all-out fight. It’s an important piece, however, as she ends up in the small part of the bayou that’s here and that ends up clearing her mind up nicely. Even better, Mr. Monday has regressed into his animal side completely (with hat) and the others are helping to bring him to the bayou to bring him back to his senses, which helps Erzulie realize the bigger picture of what’s going on here.
This has some fun with her chewing out her nephew for realizing all of this earlier but not telling anyone while also causing trouble with Turtle in punishing her for something that was out of her control. There are neat little moments here with this as Erzulie gets a handle on it all and even the small bit with Goldy delighted me in a big way. It also ties into the human world where we see Latoya and her girlfriend trying to figure out what it is that’s wrong with them at this point with Toya continually coming back to the idea that she’s dead and they can’t feel anything anymore. That leads them to experiment a bit out in the world with the tourists on Bourbon Street and that’s finally starting to connect clearly with what’s happening in the Dreaming.
In Summary:
I’m still intending to stick with House of Whispers for its opening arc but it’s still continuing to be a struggle. It’s a book I want to like a lot and it has so many small pieces that do work that I wish it connected better as a whole for me. Hopkinson does give it a sense that things are actually progressing more clearly this time and we get more wonderful artwork from Stanton that delights, especially with Mr. Monday and all that happens with him and the others underwater. I’m hopeful that the arc does include the creation and formalization of the title of the series as I get a sense that how it presents itself at that point is going to be the deciding factor whether to continue to invest in this story.
Grade: C
Age Rating: 17+
Released By: Vertigo Comics via ComiXology
Release Date: November 14th, 2018
MSRP: $3.99
