Other creators involved in the making of this comic include: Art by Shae Beagle, Pleasant Mountain Sisters Art by Kate Leth, Coloring by Caitlin Quirk, Lettering by Clayton Cowles, and Editing/Design by Laurenn McCubbin
Content/Trigger Warning: Toxic obsession, consumption of alcohol, anxiety, PTSD/trauma, and toxic friendship/relationship.
Blitheton is just like any other college town. It’s full of your typical monstrous creatures living alongside their mortal counterparts. Well for as peacefully as any town full of mythical creatures, magic, and mystery can be.
Julie, our werewolf deep in the threos of young love, longs to live for a normal, mortal life. But when enchanted drinks start getting passed around and your average college frat party turns into a full on magical melt-down, those dreams of normalcy seem to be lost at sea. Not to mention, her relationship seems be hanging by mere threads…Julie must find a way to save her friends AND her love life, before everything falls to chaos.
“Do you want some coffee? It’s got a little extra something in it. If you know what I mean. More something than usual. I mean. Caffeine is good.“
We’re back with comic number two with the same crew! We join Julie, Selena, and Chet with their bands of friends as they get themselves into some sticky situations…again! There’s partying, there’s fairies, there’s romance, there’s some kitty action and even some more insight to my favorite seer! In Moonstruck Vol 2.: Some Enchanted Evening we truly do learn just how enchanted this evening is about to become when Julie agrees to find a way to save her friends from the fate of the fairies. Yes you heard right, we’re dealing with fairies this round!
If you been here for a hot minute then you know I recently just reviewed Moonstruck Vol. 1: Magic to Brew where you heard me talk about the good and the bad. Well the same thing is going to be happening here. And trust me when I say, I have A LOT of tea to spill with this comic. Volume two gave me happy moments, warm moments, made me laugh, but it also delivered a whole lot of ‘what the hell‘ and ‘why is this still happening‘ moments. I’m going to talk about it all, but let’s dive into the more happier things with the comic.
As always I love the art work for this comic! I love the way each page sets the mood whether it’s something light or something that’s about to have a lot of drama. Even the cover itself is so beautiful and really captures the essence of the two fairy houses. What I noticed the most was Cass’s visions got a slight revamping of their color tone. It was more eerie and more setting of the attitude rising between the characters in the whole scene. It was such an unexpected twisted and I loved every second of it! One thing I do want to say is the art style for the Pleasant Mountain Sisters comics did change. They’re still very bright in comparison to the rest of the artwork in the graphic novel, but I actually didn’t mind them that much this time. They felt a lot easier on the eyes and they didn’t overly clash with the color tones of actual graphic novel panels.
Also the fact that we got to see more unique characters that we never got to truly experience in the first comic was also really nice. In the first comic we just experienced Mark having conflicts with Lindi or the one scene where he pelted Lindi’s snack with a stale marshmallow, but in this comic we see so much more of him and learn some key details about him. We also get to experience more of Maneul! I love the panels we get with him and Chet. They’re so cute, they’re so sweet and fluffy, and even the way he interacts with Julie is so nice. He’s basically a cinnamon roll who’s packed with a whole lot of wisdom. I also don’t want to spoil anything, but wait till you find out the real secret with Manuel! Then we also get more scenes with CT (only mortal character) and Veronica (she’s basically a plant girl who can shift her body into different plants). These are two characters we both briefly saw in volume one, but now we’re seeing more interactions with them and seeing how their personalities are. I loved seeing these characters and how they interact with our more main characters in this comic. It was a really nice tid-bit that added those necessary details we needed to know. I think this was one of my most beloved parts. And before I forget, we do get to see more of Cass. Cass is our witch/seerthat everyone goes to for help, guidance, and assistance from. She is one of my favorite characters, I wish we had more panels of her in this comic, but the parts she did get were very vague and ominous. I got chills seeing her parts and had me tabbing up so many parts with blue tabs (blue tabs are what I use for questions). I’m always here for some Cass Greenhill action!
“Oh my stars, sugar, didn’t anyone ever tell you about fairy houses? A fairy lead and you’ll be freed! But on your own, never go home!”
However, even with all the wonderful information we get, the lgbtqiap+ representation, the beautiful artwork, and the fanart included in the back…all of this isn’t enough to make me stop from questioning a lot of the bad. And some of these issues have even lapped over from the first volume in this series. They’re issues that should have been nipped in the butt this time around, they’re issues that are still unsettling, and per-usual one of the same things a lot of other reviewers keep saying. So let me spill some tea!
My first biggest issue with this comic is the same as what I stated in my review for the first comic. Lindi’s character is a HUGE issue and I’m not saying this lightly. She is a problem character that has never been properly confronted about her actions, her attitude, her crappy remarks, always picking fights with people, and always being a person of conflict with someone. She stated that she’s a friend, but she’s a toxic friend. She is literally the definition of a toxic friend, a toxic person, or someone you don’t want to get mixed up with. Even worse, trying to bring in a form of comedy to distract from the point that she’s a problem character and needs to be properly challenged isn’t okay. The fact that this is book two, nothing background wise is explained why Lindi acts so horribly to those around her should have happened. And then fact that she’s not challenged and the author tries to use a form of comedy to normalize her behavior also isn’t okay and gives off a vibe that they “support” that type of behavior and I’m not here for it. This was the biggest issue I had and for me trying to read this comic, Lindi distracts from the whole story because her character is so in your face and starts so many problems that it’s hard to ignore. Lindi’s character is full blown narcissistic, toxic, and full on bully mode who gets brushed with some drama bomb or with some for of a comedic panel usually enforced through Mark. I’m not here for it. I dislike it entirely. I probably wouldn’t have an issue with Lindi’s character if we got more background information on her, but we don’t and she’s just this horrible person all the time in the comic. If her character can’t be improved, I honestly think I would drop the next comic. So I’m hopeful she gets challenged in the next volume or we at least get some insight on why her character is remaining a toxic influence.
On the note of toxic characters, Selena’s character is definitely turning down a path of toxic and abusive. In volume one we saw many sides to Selena. She was super sweet, supportive, and caring, but we eventually saw some sides of her that we didn’t like. If you’re like me, you were probably hoping that was a one time thing and we would never have to deal with that again. Yeah, me too, but we all make mistakes and we’re here now. Just like in volume one we see the classic Selena with her sweet, loving, thoughtful, and caring sides. But for some reason, the author continues to use Selena as the beacon for fights to break out. More specifically, arguments and almost full blown fights between her and Julie. Whether this is for dramatic effect or the author is trying to address abusive relationships, Selena’s character is definitely headed down a path of doom. I hate the fact that I went from loving this character to borderline hating her in such a short amount of time. In the first comic, I let things slide because I thought her behavior was a one time thing due to the heat of the situations and she was going to be better in the second volume. The fact that in this volume Selena almost got into a physical fight (AGAIN!) with Julie, but almost got into another fight with CT (the only MORTAL character) is not okay. Not to mention, Selena went completely radio silent on everyone (including Julie) and then just showed up man-handling Mark very aggressively…this is toxic and abusive behavior. And once again, a character does something really horrible and no one is challenging the behavior. What bothered me most was the author tried to brush off Selena’s actions and behavior by saying it’s a “werewolf thing.” What the hell does that have to do with anything?! Last time I checked, there’s no pack hierarchy and Julie definitely isn’t part of a pack. So unless we missed the memo that there’s a heavy werewolf presence in this town, that Julie or Selena are part of a pack, or something along those lines then there should be no mention of “it’s a werewolf thing” because that’s completely irrelevant to the big issues happening between Julie and Selena in this comic. Outside of the abusive and toxic behavior, we have one major scene where it almost implies Selena has some type of trauma or may even have PTSD, where she’s goes into a full meltdown saying how much she hates being trapped. That’s all we get for that scene. We don’t get anymore details into that , there’s no clues, but the really icing on the cake is literally right after a couple of panels Selena is up, fine, and ready to leave. Quickest bounce back much? I have so many questions that I hope volume three will answer because the scene as a whole felt rushed and left a desire for more details.
Not to keep repeating myself (or what other reviewers have been saying), but once again the story-line was an issue. Just like with my first review, the plot and story-line definitely left something to be desired. Too much was going on, nothing was explained, and once again, not enough detail for where it was needed most. Everything felt muddled and lacking with details. There were parts in this comic where I wished the panels had a little extra push to show so insight, but most of the time, some of the panels didn’t get the content across because of everything else happening. Honestly, this is the first time where I don’t know what the plot was about. My overall summary of this is as follows: There are fairies, they trap people, and that’s it. The comic itself doesn’t go into any further detail of what is about to happen, what the Beta House fairies are plotting, even when the Ice Queen fairy is explaining their “history” it doesn’t even lead into what is happening with the Beta House. Not to mention, it always seems like all this stuff is happening to the characters, but the characters aren’t actually doing anything. Even during the resolution, Julie nor Selena were the ones who resolved the issue. It literally just happened and Julie spent all that time literally just running around in circles until she got so frustrated and broke some equipment. It was really hard to keep focused and it really left a lot to be desired.
“Try my drink, I based it on a Newpals item called “Mega Blast Ultra Coffee,” doesn’t it look just like the drawing?? P.S. we’re being blackmailed by the sorority fairies now. But also: Try this Newpals drink!”
Overall, Moonstruck Vol. 2 has so many fun elements and is a super quick read. As the reader, you really fall in love with a lot of the characters or feel connected with specific characters. Plus, the artwork is absolutely beautiful and so eye pleasing. And let’s not forget, so much diverse representation! But there were issues that conflicted me and still haven’t been improved on that definitely need to be corrected for future volumes. However, if you’re looking for a quick read or trying to find something that may pull you out of a reading slump, then definitely check out this comic series. I have reviewed the first comic and you can find it HERE!
Chapter Malliumpkin 
2 thoughts on “Moonstruck Vol. 2: Some Enchanted Evening by Grace Ellis”