Stephen reviewed Girl Called Echo Omnibus by Katherena Vermette
Well drawn history, odd comic
3 stars
So, there is a girl called Echo Désjardins, who is Métis and in Winnipeg Middle School. She seems entirely depressed and detached from her life. She is interested in her history lessons, but daydreams in them, and then enters the actual past of how the colonials treated the Métis (spoilers, not well at all).
So half the book is telling this story from the roughly 19th century, and the other half is Echo wandering around being confused. She gets a bit happier, I think, but I'm not sure why. And then the omnibus finishes. Now in general one can say that true life doesn't have a neat beginning, middle, and end; but the historic parts told a much better story to me than Echo. I certainly hope the girl has had some character growth but it was difficult to tell.
The artwork of the book is nice, and I appreciated …
So, there is a girl called Echo Désjardins, who is Métis and in Winnipeg Middle School. She seems entirely depressed and detached from her life. She is interested in her history lessons, but daydreams in them, and then enters the actual past of how the colonials treated the Métis (spoilers, not well at all).
So half the book is telling this story from the roughly 19th century, and the other half is Echo wandering around being confused. She gets a bit happier, I think, but I'm not sure why. And then the omnibus finishes. Now in general one can say that true life doesn't have a neat beginning, middle, and end; but the historic parts told a much better story to me than Echo. I certainly hope the girl has had some character growth but it was difficult to tell.
The artwork of the book is nice, and I appreciated the timelines and other historic sidebars, e.g. what is pemmican and how was it made.