Graphic Novel Review - 'Hilda and the Stone Forest (Hilda #5)' by Luke Pearson

A dark, dramatic, clever and tearful instalment - and the comic series will only become darker, cleverer and more touching.

Now we come to the storyline that the first season of the Netflix series didn't adapt. It's all about the feared stone trolls in the mountains. It's about how they live and behave in their society; how their varied relationships with one another work (it's dysfunctional, disorganised, and mostly hostile); and what their lore and history is.

And at the heart of this adventure, this danger, this strangest and most fantastical of situations, is the mother-and-daughter relationship drama.

Hilda and her mother have such a complex, rocky, yet touching and realistic bond. Mum is not "just Mum". She is not just someone for Hilda to home to for food and bed after another adventure: Mum is with her daughter when they end up trapped with the deadly trolls in the mountains (she had grounded Hilda for her many escapades), and together they will bravely find a way out and back home. They do work brilliantly together; and love each other dearly.

(Also included are Frida, David, elves, a ground stump creature, the raven, and Hilda's Tontu the Nisse in cameo appearances.)

But even after that perilous ordeal, Hilda and Mum's troubles are far from over. Their love will be put further to the test - not to mention the very fate of Trollberg will be in their hands - in the sixth and currently final 'Hilda' comic, 'Hilda and the Mountain King'.

Final Score: 4.5/5