What We Don't Talk About, Reviewed.
Beautiful vibrant and charming art, with a powerful message of contemporary issues of race? Well, Charlot Kristensen offers a graphic novel so accomplished you wouldn’t believe it's her first.
The great Avery Hill publishing continues to build a catalogue of stunning stories exploring important themes with a much more inclusive audience than the mainstream comic industry. Avery Hills catalogue contains a powerful mix of social commentary and important exploration of human existence in all its majesty. As such this is the perfect home for Charlot Kristensen's first big graphic novel What We Don’t Talk About. Exploring issues of race and bigotry this graphic novel has a powerful voice presented in a vibrant pop art, almost Disney Esq style that captivates and educates.
So, let’s start with the art. Charlot Kristensen has created a very aesthetically pleasing graphic novel. From the front cover with its underlying sadness to the disarmingly charming brightness of its opening act. Charlot delivers art which fully forms the emotions offered to the reader throughout this captivating comic. At each emotional cornerstone, Charlot emphasises the weight of the characters feelings with very effective colour choices. There’s a pink/purple used for the darker moments I felt which is a wonderful example of this. The colours throughout are heavy with an emotional tone as it is explored. These colours also lean into and emphasise the emotion of the settings, as it shifts from its bright hopeful opening to its saddening revelations. Charlot's art captures and directs these colours with minimalist defining lines. Lines which hold a wonderful pastel quality which still allows for strong detail when required. In particular, Charlots characters facial expressions portray great emotion thanks to their extra detail. Overall these are minimal pastel lines that don’t compromise the detail. Charlot's art also manages the pace with great accomplishment. There are noticeable shifts in colour to emphasise tone while the wonderful detail of characters adds very real weight, emotionally, to the story. There also, for me, seemed to be an air of charm and whimsy maybe, to this art. It feels almost Disney like in its initial pages, very disarming, expertly accessible. This style also felt like it emphasised the important parts of this story by its juxtaposition between looks and content. It’s wonderfully beautiful art to back up a very strong story.
Well, Charlot Kristensen sets a high standard for herself with that superb art. She then manages to elevate this art to exceptional heights with an expertly crafted powerful story. Its power sits, I feel, in the charm of its looks and opening. The first act plays out like a very traditional love story. We are introduced to Farai, a young woman rushing to get ready while balancing a conversation with mum. A conversation all young adults tend to hear. The dialogue of which reads so naturally I was fully prepared for a standard bubblegum romance story. Farai is rushing to meet partner Adam, for that always drought first meeting with the parents. The opening act sells the emotional tone of the comic. Hope and young love. It’s this “heart” of a standard love story that elevates the sadness found later. Farai and Adam head for Adam's childhood home in Windermere, which feels very apt for the revealed attitudes. From the very introductions things seem off for Farai and it seems to only go downhill from here. An air of subtle, middle class backwards ignorance begins to creep in, that will shake Farai and show Adam to be failing her on a basic human level let alone as a lover. This is also, I feel, a story of the definition of love. An exploration of the roles and importance of mutual respect, love and strength. Love should come inherently with respect, shared passion and the strength to support each other. It’s the lack of these inherent human wants in a larger society aspect that defines this comics message. A story of sadness at the ignorance of malice and yet hope for personnel strength to guide us through. An outline of a particular sadness in racism. A dangerous form that permeates through society. It’s Charlot's dialogue and its tone that expertly craft the stories delivery in it’s slowly building sadness. I feel like this tone is so ideal for adding extra weight and power to the important message of this story. Namely offering a very real exploration of an often less identified and less corrected upon form of racism found in culture.
The story perfectly encapsulates the, and I hate the word but, “casual” racism seen and heard in society. This racism feels very much like a rural community voice in particular. My privileged perspective allows me to only hear these types of flippant remarks, and it is also my experience that those responsible tend to be those that when questioned really do defend themselves vehemently with the denial of malice. Charlot has captured this in the most accurate of ways. The belignorant racist. The sadness is the truth this story lays bare. The truth is we are all familiar with this flippant attitude and dismissive air that lends itself towards the systematic racism still plaguing the earth. The sadness that a story like this needs to exist, which it does. Charlot uses Farais internal monologue to talk to all of us. To reassure those that experience it first hand, and to show those that don’t, that subtlety and ignorance is nowhere near an excuse.
What We Don’t Talk About is a beautiful love story with an expertly delivered, powerfully emotional, heart. Charlot has created in Farai a stunning role model. A powerful, driven, young woman teaching us all important lessons about the context of racism, and asking us all to really reconsider what our comments mean from someone else's perspective. This is a story so honest it made my teenage stepdaughter cry. For fans of love explored with unflinching truth. I really do implore you to go to https://averyhillpublishing.bigcartel.com/ to buy your copy. When you're done there I’d also highly recommend Charlots twitter page @Zolwia where you can find links to her own Etsy page should you fancy getting your hands on some of her art.
Review: 5/5
