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A review by lailat
Cassandra Darke by Posy Simmonds
3.0
Cassandra Darke is a read-it-in-one-sitting crime graphic novel. Cassandra is a mean art dealer, who was convicted of fraud after selling fake sculptures. She allows her ex-husband/stepsister’s daughter, Nicki, to stay in her basement in return for being her assistant. One day, after Nicki has moved out, Cassandra finds a gun in the basement, and, due to a case of mistaken identity, finds herself mixed up in something a lot worse than fraud.
I liked the unusual form of this graphic novel - large chunks of text narrating the story alongside the illustrations. I enjoyed the style of the illustrations, and the emotions and facial expressions of the characters were easy to read. This made it straightforward to follow the story, even in the squares that contained no text or speech. Most of the artwork is dark and gloomy, fitting in with both the narrative of the story and the atmosphere of London streets during dark winter evenings. This was contrasted with the bright yellow end papers and ribbon bookmark.
However, I did find that the narrative became jumbled. Most of the story is narrated by Cassandra, but it switched to a third person narrative a few times, which was a bit jarring as there was nothing to indicate that the narrative had switched. It also switched to another first person narrative from the view of the character Billy, but this was preceded by “Billy said”, making it easier to follow.
“Usually, to kill time I might have gone to the Wolseley for eggs Benedict and some fruit scones but I needed air. I rang my driver to say that I would find my own way home and then wandered for hours through the crowd of imbecile Christmas shoppers.”
Cassandra is a very unlikeable character - extremely privileged with a great deal of horrible words to say about other people. Unlikeable characters are not necessarily a bad thing, as they can make for interesting reading. However, I didn’t find Cassandra or her abrupt change of personality at the end particularly interesting.
“The problem for Nicki was how to balance her distaste for the extreme ponciness of Cassandra’s part of town with the benefits she enjoyed there - rent-free comfort, space, privacy, heating. It was easier to think of herself as a servant, a more privileged one, certainly, but not unlike the Filipina maids she saw in Osmington Square.”
Nicki has slightly more redeeming features than Cassandra, although one of her main character traits is to make art about those less fortunate than her, e.g. taking photos of homeless peoples’ cardboard box ‘houses’, to make herself feel that she is doing something to help, while not making an effort to actually help. There’s plenty of well-off people who do this kind of virtue signalling, so I thought the character was convincing. She also made quite a few bad decisions, which is pretty believable from a young woman of her age!
The storyline itself was quite anticlimactic and I found the ending slightly abrupt. However, I did appreciate the contrast between the upper class streets and the dark, gritty streets of London, and the characters that inhabited both.
Although this wasn’t my favourite graphic novel I’ve ever read, I enjoyed the form and the illustrations and so I will definitely try another of Posy Simmonds’ graphic novels to see if it works any better for me.
Reviews || Instagram
I liked the unusual form of this graphic novel - large chunks of text narrating the story alongside the illustrations. I enjoyed the style of the illustrations, and the emotions and facial expressions of the characters were easy to read. This made it straightforward to follow the story, even in the squares that contained no text or speech. Most of the artwork is dark and gloomy, fitting in with both the narrative of the story and the atmosphere of London streets during dark winter evenings. This was contrasted with the bright yellow end papers and ribbon bookmark.
However, I did find that the narrative became jumbled. Most of the story is narrated by Cassandra, but it switched to a third person narrative a few times, which was a bit jarring as there was nothing to indicate that the narrative had switched. It also switched to another first person narrative from the view of the character Billy, but this was preceded by “Billy said”, making it easier to follow.
“Usually, to kill time I might have gone to the Wolseley for eggs Benedict and some fruit scones but I needed air. I rang my driver to say that I would find my own way home and then wandered for hours through the crowd of imbecile Christmas shoppers.”
Cassandra is a very unlikeable character - extremely privileged with a great deal of horrible words to say about other people. Unlikeable characters are not necessarily a bad thing, as they can make for interesting reading. However, I didn’t find Cassandra or her abrupt change of personality at the end particularly interesting.
“The problem for Nicki was how to balance her distaste for the extreme ponciness of Cassandra’s part of town with the benefits she enjoyed there - rent-free comfort, space, privacy, heating. It was easier to think of herself as a servant, a more privileged one, certainly, but not unlike the Filipina maids she saw in Osmington Square.”
Nicki has slightly more redeeming features than Cassandra, although one of her main character traits is to make art about those less fortunate than her, e.g. taking photos of homeless peoples’ cardboard box ‘houses’, to make herself feel that she is doing something to help, while not making an effort to actually help. There’s plenty of well-off people who do this kind of virtue signalling, so I thought the character was convincing. She also made quite a few bad decisions, which is pretty believable from a young woman of her age!
The storyline itself was quite anticlimactic and I found the ending slightly abrupt. However, I did appreciate the contrast between the upper class streets and the dark, gritty streets of London, and the characters that inhabited both.
Although this wasn’t my favourite graphic novel I’ve ever read, I enjoyed the form and the illustrations and so I will definitely try another of Posy Simmonds’ graphic novels to see if it works any better for me.
Reviews || Instagram