Cat’s Cradle: The Golden Twine by Jo Riox

Arc was given by First Second Books & NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This review is being published before the release date (June 21st, 2022)

Content/Trigger Warnings: Sexism/sexist remarks, abandonment, displacement

Friends, this was such a delightful, whimsical read with stunning artwork! I know I usually talk up a lot of the graphic novels that I read, but I really enjoyed this one. It has monsters, a main character who is beautifully layered, an art style that pulls you in, just so many goods wrapped up in this graphic novel. Honestly, I wish I knew about this sooner because I would have talked about it sooner.

Our story follows Suri, a young girl who wants to be a monster tamer, but for right now she’s telling stories/legends of monsters, while travelling with her monster camp. However, things start to take a turn for the ominous when Suri discovers a ball of golden twine. Soon Suri finds her world being turned upside down and setting out on an adventure with an Imp and a giant-sized dog named Byron.

Suri was such a wonderful main character to follow. As a reader, I feel that I’m always drawn to characters who have a very headstrong, warm, but also lighthearted kind of presence, who wants to seize their opportunities throughout this story. Also, Suri is that kind of character you can’t help rooting for, you want to see her succeed and have the happy ending she deserves. And there’s a whole mystery around Suri about how she ended up with this traveling monster camp, why is this person of authority chasing after her and want her gone, and more so related to the end of the book, what will happen to Suri now that she’s on her own.

The artwork of this book is probably one of the most stand out elements. Though, all graphic novels usually have drop gorgeous artwork, but the color tones of this graphic novel really stuck out to me. It really resonated with aesthetics that I’m really drawn to. The design of the monsters really stands out as well. There’s a very eerie, spooky, almost ominous vibe expressed through the art style for these creatures. Though I do want to point out, this art style isn’t of a horror aesthetic. This is a graphic novel that’s directed more to younger audiences though I say anyone would enjoy reading this graphic novel especially in the fall/winter season.

Despite these wonderful elements, I still had questions that I doubt I’ll get answers to. Mostly, I had questions surrounding the backstory of our main character and the traveling camp. It feels like there’s missing details surrounding these two elements. This is also a fast paced read and with that being said, I felt like this could have been a longer graphic novel. I’m still holding out hope we may get some more details or more backstory about those two things and fingers crossed the next book with be a tad longer.

Overall, I really enjoyed my time reading this graphic novel. It’s such a fast paced, whimsical read that I think many readers are going to fall in love with. It has such an amazing, magical feel to it and I’m really excited to see where this story goes in the next book, The Mole King’s Lair. I’m even more excited to check more books by Jo Rioux and I think this will spark many readers to look into more of this author’s work.