GRAPHIC NOVELS

Royal City. Bk. 1: The Complete Collection

Image. Jul. 2020. 408p. ISBN 9781534316058. $44.99. Rated: Teen+. F
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Decades after Tommy Pike’s tragic death, he returns as an apparition that haunts each member of his family. His older brother Patrick, a middle-aged novelist struggling to follow-up his early success, sees Tommy as the sullen teenager he was when he died. To his sister Tara, a realtor whose attempts to revive the failing economy of their hometown has pushed her marriage to a breaking point, Tommy appears as a little boy; a sharp contrast to the form he takes for self-destructive, guilt-ridden brother Richie, who sees him as a bedraggled drinking buddy. When Pike family patriarch Peter suffers a stroke and slips into a coma, the family is forced to reunite. Soon, relationships are strained, lost loves are rekindled, and secrets come to light that set the Pikes on a path to reckoning with the trauma that’s kept them all locked in emotional stasis since Tommy’s death. This volume collects the entire series, previously published as single Issues 1–14.
VERDICT An emotionally raw, thematically rich, intricately plotted saga with strong appeal for more literary-minded readers from the prolific Lemire (Gideon Falls. Vol. 4: The Pentoculus).
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