A different sort of graphic novel -- a mood piece. Innovative artwork consisting of sepia-tinted pages, significant detail, and manga-esque characters. The island off Maine itself is a mystical place, complete with demons, ghosts, and witches. The main character, Salamandra, is something else, but is likable and very real, with many of the common problems of orphans and loners. I liked this one, but am disappointed that none of the local libraries has a copy of the sequel. ( )

I don't read many graphic novels. This was very well done - lovely artwork and a story that retains its mystery for the next volume, which I am now really looking forward to reading. ( )

Salamandra is an orphan. One of many on the tiny island of Hopeless, Maine. And she's very afraid and lonely. Until she meets a friend, someone who's always there for her. The only one who loves her, the only one who understands. Her own, personal, demon. When Sal gets rid of the demon, it moves on to target others. Together with Owen, a real friend, Sal fights this personal demon and makes things on Hopeless just a bit brighter.

This book is lovely. It's dark and slow and feels like three a.m. when anything could happen even though you're so close to the dawn. The island is alive, with eyes and wisps that reach to grab. Sal is beautiful, a bit wild, a bit frightened, and very smart, and Owen with his height binds the sky to the ground in the same way he binds Sal to Hopeless. ( )

Beyond being about a little girl with magical powers, who may or may not be an orphan, on some creepy island that is always dark I'm not sure really what this book is about. It's the first in the series and doesn't really explain much of what is going on, which mostly is fine, it works quite well with the way the story is being told but it does make it hard to really connect with anything.
I like the character of Salamandra well enough, well enough that I am somewhat interested in her further experiences and development but I don't really feel compelled to care about her to much, the other characters are still a bit flat and I have no idea who any of them are, there was no real effort in setting them up.
The main conflict in the story wasn't particularity challenging and I had no doubt it would be neatly resolved by the end, but as I believe this is a YA series that is not to surprising. It was still well done, just not surprising, I did like how it touched on the series subject of feeling isolated and depression and was empowering without being at all preachy.
The art is the strong point of this book. It is gorgeous, dark, moody and creepy without being nasty, most of the pages have little, slightly hidden hits of something otherworldly, eyes where they shouldn't be or an animal that just doesn't quite look right and these upped the surreality of the image without going overboard into the cartoony. I normally don't like books that use such a monochrome color palate but in this case it really works well for the story and the art is so strong and beautiful of overcomes the limit of colors.
For an adult reader this is not really all that challenging of a read but I think a strong one for younger readers and I am really looking forward to reading more. ( )

Weird. Creepy. Dark. Good artwork. Not sure I would keep reading the series. ( )