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A review by corky12
Adora and the Distance by Will Dennis, Marc Bernardin
1.0
TLDR: Increasingly ableist, shallow and personality-less characters, and breakneck pacing of a nonexistent plot
I picked up Adora and the Distance so excited about a fantasy graphic novel with a biracial girl protagonist. I could not have been more disappointed. The story’s pacing is breakneck, to the point where I could barely understand the plot. Said plot itself is so vague, it feels nonexistent. They’re escaping, then running toward The Distance whatever that is, and it wants Adora. This vagueness is because the whole thing takes place in Adora’s head, but that makes it seem even more ableist to me. So because she’s autistic, she can’t come up with a consistent story in her own mind?
The characters are shallow. Despite a diverse cast, I kept confusing the characters. None of them had fleshed out personalities or backstories. When they died, Adora moved on without a single tear. When they betrayed her, she immediately forgave them as if she saw it coming. Even Adora herself had no real conflict in the story. She stayed the same calm collected girl throughout the narrative, despite friends dying around her.
Now for the biggest issue, the ableism. Adora and the Distance was written by an author who has an autistic child. In my experience, these are the worst authors to depict children with disabilities, especially autistic children. (See my review on Rules for another example.) These parents only see the outside tendencies of their autistic kids. Where an autistic writer could flesh out Adora’s personality, a parent would only see the lack of outward personality (for lack of a better term). I am not autistic nor do I presume to speak for the autistic community. However, when you create a character that wishes an autistic child was neurotypical and base your entire story around that, that is automatically ableism in my mind.
Unless you get this book for the pretty art, don’t bother.
I picked up Adora and the Distance so excited about a fantasy graphic novel with a biracial girl protagonist. I could not have been more disappointed. The story’s pacing is breakneck, to the point where I could barely understand the plot. Said plot itself is so vague, it feels nonexistent. They’re escaping, then running toward The Distance whatever that is, and it wants Adora. This vagueness is because the whole thing takes place in Adora’s head, but that makes it seem even more ableist to me. So because she’s autistic, she can’t come up with a consistent story in her own mind?
The characters are shallow. Despite a diverse cast, I kept confusing the characters. None of them had fleshed out personalities or backstories. When they died, Adora moved on without a single tear. When they betrayed her, she immediately forgave them as if she saw it coming. Even Adora herself had no real conflict in the story. She stayed the same calm collected girl throughout the narrative, despite friends dying around her.
Now for the biggest issue, the ableism. Adora and the Distance was written by an author who has an autistic child. In my experience, these are the worst authors to depict children with disabilities, especially autistic children. (See my review on Rules for another example.) These parents only see the outside tendencies of their autistic kids. Where an autistic writer could flesh out Adora’s personality, a parent would only see the lack of outward personality (for lack of a better term). I am not autistic nor do I presume to speak for the autistic community. However, when you create a character that wishes an autistic child was neurotypical and base your entire story around that, that is automatically ableism in my mind.
Unless you get this book for the pretty art, don’t bother.