Review: Another Castle - Grimoire by Andrew Wheeler and Paulina Ganucheau

Another Castle: Grimoire
by Andrew Wheeler (writer) and Paulina Ganucheau (artist) [YA PB (Graphic Novel) Wheeler] 

Princess Misty of Beldora is far from your traditional fairytale princess. She rebels against her father’s arranged marriage for her t0 a brave but fairly empty-headed crusading knight. Then the tyrannical, immortal, demonic Lord Badlug, of the neighboring kingdom of Grimoire, kidnaps Misty to force her to marry him and unite their kingdoms — but only because he wants to bring terror and destruction to both lands. While her betrothed suitor at home takes on a quest to rescue Misty, Misty herself tries to bring down Badlug from within — partly because of the trusting assistance of Golga (a friendly Gorgon handmaiden) and Fogmoth (a gay gargoyle) — and partly because she wants personal revenge on Badlug for having kidnapped and murdered her mother many years ago.

There’s a lot humor in this light-hearted twist on standard gender roles in fantasy epics. But there’s also moments of bloody action and grotesquerie. The art by Paulina Ganucheau is mostly strong, but borders on the cartoonish at times. The characters are simplistic and without a lot of shading, but that works for a story of this nature. If you like visual stories that tend to poke fun at stereotypical tropes, you’ll probably enjoin this. Personally, I found it to be a quick easy read, but I enjoyed Ladycastle more, which has a very similar style and tone.

[If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try Ladycastle, by Delilah Dawson.]

[ official Paulina Ganucheau web site ] | [ official Andrew Wheeler web site ]

Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library

Have you read this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewers recommendations!