Flow volume 1
Writer: Paula Sevenbergen
Artist: Claudia Balboni
Color Artist: Fabi Marques
Lettering: Jodie Troutman
Publisher’s Summary:
Three adolescents at camp convince a naive girl they can cure her “curse” (really her first period) if she does everything they say. Ten years later, they find themselves the target of an actual curse that mirrors the torment they inflicted upon her.
When blood began to run down Dara Lund’s legs at summer camp, she thought she was dying. Homeschooled by her conservative and protective father after her freespirited mom’s mysterious death, Dara has no way of knowing her bunkmates’ claims that she has been stricken by a curse aren’t real! What follows is a week of torment under the guise of “lifting the curse,” from carrying a fish head with her to sprinting naked through the camp, finally culminating in Dara’s near death! But the curse “ends,” and so does the summer, sending them all their separate ways.
10 years later, the campers have gone into the world as adults, embarking on careers and lives of their own. When strange and horrific recreations of the torments they inflicted upon the naive girl begin happening in their own lives, her three campmates must reunite to track down the source of their own curse… the vengeful Dara!
Born of the political discourse around the discussion of menstruation in schools in America, Flow explores a rite of passage through the eyes of a sheltered young girl and the rage that boils up when she is betrayed by those around her. Written by celebrated television and comic writer Paula Sevenbergen (Stargirl) and illustrated by Claudia Balboni (Killer Queens), Flow is an exploration of guilt, shame, bullying, and the horror and wonder of the human body sure to appeal to fans of Carrie and Yellowjackets.
Review:
This review is provided by NetGalley. Trigger Warnings: blood, vomit, toxic friendships
What first appeared to be a retelling of Stephen King’s Carrie, developed uniquely as one young girl’s story of her menarche into a decades-long quest for revenge. Paula Sevenbergen presents the question: If a young girl is horrendously bullied at summer camp, who would be motivated to seek revenge twenty years later?
I was unfamiliar with Paula Sevenbergen (a TV and comics writer) and the artists, Claudia Balboni (from Italian comics and Hollywood movies) and Fabi Marques (based in Brazil and has worked in comics for Vault Comics, DC Comics, Boom! Studios, IDW, Sumerian, Mad Cave); but Jodie Troutman is a familiar name in American comics (DC Comics, IDW, Boom, Oni, Mad Cave, Bad Egg, Scholastic Graphix).
This young girl is Dara—white, blonde, home-schooled, and longing to be just like her mother. Her mother Susan, however, was an infamous witch and eco-terrorist who set a chemical company on fire which left several people injured. Dara’s father comes off as the exact opposite and it leaves the reader wondering how on earth he and Susan ever got together in the first place.
The bullies at this nature camp are a typical pack of teenagers comprised of a leader, Conley, and followers, Alister (Ali) and Maureen (Moe). Each of them go through personal development in the story as the decades passed. Only Moe and Ali seemed to bear the weight of guilt from what they did to Dara. Conley went on to drop her chubby, butch teen body to become a zaftig CEO that people in her path fear. That part of her personality was consistent.
The camp’s adults, namely Miss Marg, have roles to fill in the plot also. Marg and Susan were close friends. Their connection and care for each other’s lives balanced how filled with rage they could also be.
The story is jarring when less time is spent in a scene. It bounces with each page turn sometimes: Then, Now, Then, Now, Then, Now. There is a purpose to it, as the creators show that what happened at nature camp has a devilishly mirrored consequence in present day with each abusive action against Dara. Conley, Moe, and Ali don’t have the perfect lives they want, although Conley is the best at pretending she has it all.
Summary:
Dara’s story ends with a brilliant lesson of forgiveness and acceptance. The others still have lessons to learn. Alister is the one former bully who ends up the most at peace with where his life landed. Conley and Moe still have a lot of work to do ahead of them as the story ends.
FLOW gives readers two major twists which won’t be spoiled here. The ending is more refreshing than a 1980’s horror formula. The witchcraft, while it scares the three grown bullies, is accepted as a normal thing too easily.
Rating: 4 stars
Previews of each chapter can be found at Mad Cave Studios.
Founder and Editor-in-Chief of AmberUnmasked.com and Vodka O'Clock Podcast. Author of The Farrah Wethers Mysteries, comic book short stories, prose, and non-fiction. Cosplayer and figure model.