CMYK Reviews

Babylon Cove has a brilliant concept that resulted in a book that is really good but not great, and that’s mainly because of one flaw that I can’t get over.

Heather Hutchens has a high stress job in a competitive field, but has to go home for her father’s funeral. That just happens to be a small town with several handsome, eligible bachelors. Are there two that are similarly traditionally attractive that have differing personalities? You know there are. We’ve gone full Hallmark movie.

Things get twisted when people start dying. There’s an idol that Heather played with a child that’s gone missing. Everyone else seems oblivious to the supernatural aspects that are going on in the background, but Heather knows something’s up and is trying to get to the bottom of it. A stressor is that just before graduating high school and leaving town, she did something – what is left to the reader’s imagination so far – that turned her from the queen bee of high school to the target of everyone’s ire.

This is my favorite issue of the run so far – the story’s picking up, we’ve gone full weird science, and things are coming to a head. There’s good humor in here with solid art, which particularly shines when things start to get weird.

My biggest issue with this book is that the lead character, Heather, is just an absolutely awful person who gives you no good reason to feel sympathetic towards her at all. She is completely unable to interact with another human being in a way that isn’t essentially awful. She either immediately gets into an argument with someone or manipulates them to her wants to the point they get sick of her and give up on helping her.

Still – it’s a great concept that is written well, and I’m enjoying it quite a bit. If it sticks the landing, it’ll be a really good title.

Babylon Cove #3
Writer: Rafer Roberts
Artist: Joe Eisma
Colors: Marissa Louise
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