Review by Ian Keogh

The Book of Murmurs creates the mood of ancient fairytales before they were refined and sanitised for safe consumption, yet does so by starting in a recognisably contemporary world. A young girl has a comfortable home life with her parents until the Shenk arrives, possibly summoned by a poem, and her parents disappear. The Shenk is a cruel and deceptive creature, yet the girl is able to keep it at bay and maintain a pretence of normal school life until she’s contacted by allies who show her a way forward.

Candice Purwin ensures that visually The Book of Murmurs is startling from the off, creating an unsettling world that’s recognisable, yet disturbing for being rendered in a limited range of bright colours. When she switches to black and white for flashbacks informing what’s happening in the present there’s an even greater sense of fear and foreboding about dark times. The Shenk is a fearsome creature formed from snake coils punctuated by eyes, large and obstructive as it slithers around the house. It also exemplifies Purwin’s imaginative creation of previously unknown words evoking a continuing strangeness. We also encounter the Glassmoor and the Wandering Haar.

The girl navigates these new places strangely distant, but with the determined personality of Alice in Wonderland, unafraid to face up to challenges and put creatures in their place. Alice is deliberately evoked on a couple of occasions, and the absurdism is certainly an inspiration.

Every chapter here was originally released as a standalone comic, and unusually, The Book of Murmurs is a project that suffers from being compiled. Considered individually each chapter is a work of dark wonder, innovative, imaginative and entertaining, yet combined they suffer from repetition. The girl meanders from place to place until the only purpose seems to be to prolong the journey, and the constantly beguiling art isn’t enough to compensate.