Black Hole: A Graphic Novel

ISBN: 037542380X

Author: Burns, Charles

Condition: New

?The best graphic novel of the year? (Time) tells the story of a strange plague devastating the lives of teenagers in mid-1970s suburban Seattle, revealing the horrifying nature of high school alienation-the savagery, the cruelty, the relentless anxiety, and the ennui.We learn from the outset that a strange plague has descended upon the area?s teenagers, transmitted by sexual contact. The disease is manifested in any number of ways-from the hideously grotesque to the subtle (and concealable)-but once you?ve got it, that?s it. There?s no turning back.As we inhabit the heads of several key characters-some kids who have it, some who don?t, some who are about to get it-what unfolds isn?t the expected battle to fight the plague, or bring heightened awareness to it , or even to treat it. What we become witness to instead is a fascinating and eerie portrait of the nature of high school alienation itself.And then the murders start.As hypnotically beautiful as it is horrifying, Black Hole transcends its genre by deftly exploring a specific American cultural moment in flux and the kids who are caught in it-back when it wasn?t exactly cool to be a hippie anymore, but Bowie was still just a little too weird.To say nothing of sprouting horns and molting your skin?