This adaptation of a French anti-slavery novel from 1831 is a mix of Uncle Tom's Cabin and blaxploitation movies. The original author and the adapters all appear to be European white guys, and as well done as the book is, it is as problematic as Quentin Tarantino's Django film.

In the end, it's a bleak piece about awful people doing awful things to each other. ( )

Revenge is a dish best served cold. Like, glacially so.

(Full disclosure: I received a free e-ARC for review through NetGalley. Trigger warning for racist violence, including rape.)

Based on a novel of the same name, penned by the French writer Eugène Sue and published in 1831, Atar Gull is a story of revenge - of the "dish best served cold" variety. Taken prisoner by Taroo, chief of the Great Namaquas, Atar Gull finds himself on a slave ship bound for the West Indies. During the voyage, the Catherine is attacked and ultimately boarded by a band of ruthless pirates, led by Captain Brulart. A ruse, a sacrifice, and a ship chase later, Atar Gull is one of the few surviving captives when the vessel finally docks in Jamaica. Here, he's sold to plantation owner Tom Will; part of a lot of "Negroes and Negresses" to serve as a dowry for his daughter Jenny.

While all these horrors are certainly just cause for what comes later (or some of it, anyway), the breaking point comes when Atar Gull learns the fate of his father, the chief of the Little Namaquas before him. If the previous pages didn't completely dispel with the myth of the "benevolent slaveowner" (an oxymoron if ever there was one), then certainly this calculating and heartless scheme will do the trick.

Gazing upon his father's lifeless face, Atar Gull hatches a plan of revenge that's slow to unravel, yet destroys everything in its path.

Usually I love revenge stories that center members of oppressed groups as anti-/heroes, but my feelings were a little more conflicted here. It's hard to root for Atar Gull without restraint, since so many innocents suffer under his wrath: Will's human captives and nonhuman chattel chief among them. Consequently, Atar Gull's revenge felt a little empty and ... unsatisfying. The final panels, though? Chilling AF.

http://www.easyvegan.info/2018/05/29/atar-gull-by-fabien-nury-and-bruno/ ( )