It's my 800th review!!!!!!!
What better book to celebrate this milestone - not to mention there's my nearly ten years of doing this - than an all-ages witchy graphic novel?'Baba Yaga's Assistant' is a magical, bizarrely calm and quiet and cosy, and understated and unpretentious, little comic. It's every bit the modern fairy tale, starring the wicked, devious, sassy, miffed Baba Yaga. I really like reading about the ancient Russian folklore witch and her chicken-legged house.
But this is the young wannabe assistant's story. It's her narrative, her coming-of-age, her struggle, her strife, her existentialism, her inner and outer strengths explored and put to the test, her weaknesses overcome.
Her name is Masha. And she's a great, wonderful character.
Because on paper, and in describing her, she might seem like a Mary Sue with nary any flaws, who accomplishes her tasks quickly and easily, and who is unrealistically calm about everything happening around her; able to take anything in stride. But by the magic of well-crafted (as well as just crafty) writing, and simple yet lovely and nuanced artwork, Masha flourishes as a fleshed-out human being worth looking up to in every panel she appears in.
An ordinary person (any innate magical powers she has is downplayed, and unimportant, compared to everything relatable about her), she is smart, resourceful, quick-witted and quick-thinking. Masha is not a child, but a young adult asserting herself and her place in life. She wants adventure. She is sad and vulnerable due to the deaths of her grandmother and her mother, as well as other changes and complications at home, where she'll have a new stepmother and little stepsister. But she is cool and collected when she needs to be; for someone who lives in a world similar to our own but where magic and dangerous witches are known to exist, she's very grounded, down-to-earth, and headstrong, never one to back down easily from any challenge thrown her way.
With the help of the stories of Baba Yaga, and other fairy tales told to her in the past by her beloved, dearly departed grandmother (who had herself encountered Baba Yaga as a child, and who raised the girl more than her father did), Masha will bravely weather any of the witch's tasks.
She is determined to become Baba Yaga's assistant (the witch had put an ad in the local paper, funnily enough), no matter what.
Masha has a funny and sarcastic side to her, an added spice to her character.
Levelheaded, assured, placid under pressure, practical, and the best person to turn to in a crisis - that's Masha. She's an assistant, but she possesses the capacity to be a leader. I love her.
She also has short brown hair and wears a purple cardigan, kind of like me. I definitely liked seeing myself in her as I read this comic, which is about her.
The house with chicken legs is a fun character in its own right, too.
'Baba Yaga's Assistant' is perhaps a bit too short, and not everything, especially concerning Masha's family problems, gets resolved in the end. It's a little rushed. Baba Yaga herself isn't very deep; she's pretty much the standard scary, cruel, child-eating witch and crone she's mostly depicted to be in both old and new tales and interpretations. She could have appeared more often here, and had some backstory. Like, is she really a mother and grandmother? Where is her family? Why is she the way she is? It's never explained.
But wow, it's hard for me not to adore this gem for what it is. The art, the characters, the tasks, the situations - they are all fully realised and creative. 'Baba Yaga's Assistant' is a delightful, organic, dainty, darling, comely, precious creation, and I'm glad to have finally picked it up.
There are Russian dolls, bears, frogs, snakes, potions, and music boxes, to boot.
Happy 800th (!!!!!!!!!!!!) review.
Final Score: 3.5/5
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