A dark, creepy, isolating, yet still cartoony and colourful, YA graphic novel.
It is full of LBGTQ+ characters, and complex female characters. There is hardly a male in sight in this feminist tale, where a sapphic romance is at the heart of its Texas small town horror mystery, and family drama. (In fact, fathers don't factor into it, if they are mentioned at all). Among the abundance of females in the cast that I like - including a sassy, perky young paranormal podcaster/journalist/college student, a hardened, grumpy older cousin, and a cranky diner waitress - there is an addition of a cute, closed-off, sneaky little sister in the mix. Like I said, they are complex and do not stay in their boxed roles and archetypes.
There are themes of witchery, histories of persecuted women, closeminded American small towns and their mysteries, and family secrets. The spooky graphic novel also contains podcasts (of course), diners (ditto), road trips, research in a library, mysterious red lights up hills at night, caves, skeletons, bugs, and demons.
It's a combination of the old and the new, the retro and the rise of relevance, the rural rustic and modern maidenhood, the mundane and the macabre, the sweet and the supernatural, the horror and the humble and humour. I find it all so endearing and precious.
It's fun stuff, with heart, wit, whimsy, and bonds between women.
'The Hills of Estrella Roja' is like the origin story of a 'Scooby-Doo' type adventure mystery series. With BIPOC, LBGTQ+ women, and enbies. In fact, I wonder if more stories - more paranormal cases - with these characters are being planned for the future...
As someone at the end of a podcast episode or radio segment would say: stay tuned.
In the meantime, stay spooky! And challenging!
(Yeah, I like 'The Hills of Estrella Roja' and I recommend it. A little review of it, full of enticing little mysteries, should be enough to stoke embers of interest.)
Final Score: 3.5/5
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