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<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/38333.Black_Hole?utm_medium=api&amp;utm_source=blog_review" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img alt="Black Hole" border="0" src="http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1169144128m/38333.jpg" /></a> <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/38333.Black_Hole?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">Black Hole</a> by <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/21574.Charles_Burns">Charles Burns</a> 
 <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4820530?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review"><h3>My review</h3></a>
 rating: 4 of 5 stars Graphic Novel. It's called the bug. It's a plague, transmitted by bodily fluids, and seemingly ignored by the world at large. In fact, the world of Black Hole is a world almost entirely populated by teenagers, who are the only ones affected by the disease. As in Peanuts, parents are distant figures, rarely seen, and speaking another language when they do appear. Kids get sick, start to mutate, and run away from home. Many of them end up in the woods where a small camp of mutants has formed. No one seems to miss them or try to help them.
 
 Obviously a metaphor for AIDS -- less obviously one for simple adolescence -- when it comes down to it, these are just stories about kids who are growing up scared and alone, and can't see far enough ahead in their lives to think to protect themselves against something that could kill them. Every minor disaster in a teenager's life can seem like the end of their world so they've got no perspective when they meet the real thing. This is normally where parents or other authority figures would step in and offer guidance, but there's such thing in Black Hole, which is maybe the most depressing part of it.
 
 In keeping with the story, the artwork is flat, black, and razor sharp, with repeating visual themes and enough vagina imagery to make Freud spin in his grave -- the first page is nothing but a white slit surrounded by black. That'll happen again and again. The book is strictly black and white, working in the negative, with most panels white on black instead of the reverse, as if Burns carved out each figure from the nothingness that surrounded it. It's beautiful and awful, like Mexican folk art filled with devils and death. My one complaint about the book is that neither the text nor the art gave me enough information to easily distinguish the male characters, and I often had a hard time recognizing them. The two main boys were Rob and Kevin, and thanks to their similar haircuts, I didn't realize they were two different kids until I was halfway through. They were both after the same two girls, how was I supposed to know they weren't the same guy? So maybe a little character development was in order, still, it was marvelous and horrible to read, with my favorite character getting a happy, if not entirely believable, ending.
 
 Four stars, not because I "really liked it" -- it's too painful to enjoy on that level -- but it's an amazing work of art with a story that stands up to it.
 <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/116652?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">View all my reviews.</a>

Punk's review
rating:
bookshelves: graphic-novel

Graphic Novel. It's called the bug. It's a plague, transmitted by bodily fluids, and seemingly ignored by the world at large. In fact, the world of Black Hole is a world almost entirely populated by teenagers, who are the only ones affected by the disease. As in Peanuts, parents are distant figures, rarely seen, and speaking another language when they do appear. Kids get sick, start to mutate, and run away from home. Many of them end up in the woods where a small camp of mutants has formed. No one seems to miss them or try to help them.

Obviously a metaphor for AIDS -- less obviously one for simple adolescence -- when it comes down to it, these are just stories about kids who are growing up scared and alone, and can't see far enough ahead in their lives to think to protect themselves against something that could kill them. Every minor disaster in a teenager's life can seem like the end of their world so they've got no perspective when they meet the real thing. This is normally where...more Graphic Novel. It's called the bug. It's a plague, transmitted by bodily fluids, and seemingly ignored by the world at large. In fact, the world of Black Hole is a world almost entirely populated by teenagers, who are the only ones affected by the disease. As in Peanuts, parents are distant figures, rarely seen, and speaking another language when they do appear. Kids get sick, start to mutate, and run away from home. Many of them end up in the woods where a small camp of mutants has formed. No one seems to miss them or try to help them.

Obviously a metaphor for AIDS -- less obviously one for simple adolescence -- when it comes down to it, these are just stories about kids who are growing up scared and alone, and can't see far enough ahead in their lives to think to protect themselves against something that could kill them. Every minor disaster in a teenager's life can seem like the end of their world so they've got no perspective when they meet the real thing. This is normally where parents or other authority figures would step in and offer guidance, but there's such thing in Black Hole, which is maybe the most depressing part of it.

In keeping with the story, the artwork is flat, black, and razor sharp, with repeating visual themes and enough vagina imagery to make Freud spin in his grave -- the first page is nothing but a white slit surrounded by black. That'll happen again and again. The book is strictly black and white, working in the negative, with most panels white on black instead of the reverse, as if Burns carved out each figure from the nothingness that surrounded it. It's beautiful and awful, like Mexican folk art filled with devils and death. My one complaint about the book is that neither the text nor the art gave me enough information to easily distinguish the male characters, and I often had a hard time recognizing them. The two main boys were Rob and Kevin, and thanks to their similar haircuts, I didn't realize they were two different kids until I was halfway through. They were both after the same two girls, how was I supposed to know they weren't the same guy? So maybe a little character development was in order, still, it was marvelous and horrible to read, with my favorite character getting a happy, if not entirely believable, ending.

Four stars, not because I "really liked it" -- it's too painful to enjoy on that level -- but it's an amazing work of art with a story that stands up to it....less

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