After reading Darkly She Goes by Hubert and illustrated by Vincent Mallié (translated by L Benson and color by Bruno Tatti) I realized that I will be haunted by Hubert’s writing. After reading Beauty by them, I figured nothing would shock me about their style. But Darkly She Goes is a terribly odd, weird, insane ride. There were unlikable characters, situations and the ending was unsatisfying. The images were dark, violent and awkward. Yet, I was mesmerized from page one and could not stop reading. This is a journey that is about obsession, power, lust, greed and the darker side of humanity and who really is the monster, or is everyone?
To say that this has mature themes and images is an understatement. The cover almost gives away how dark (look at the grotesque creatures that surround our main female protagonist) but shies away from how bloody, cringy and even erotic sensationalism (even during the violence) on the internal pages. Though it does give you the idea of what the images inside will look like. They are that brown and red tones, with a few other colors just to center you in the moment or even to take you out of it. Things can be crowded and busy and therefore a bit hard trying to distinguish what is happening. Yet, that chaos is most likely the tone the creators want; to always keep you paying attention.
An emotional response will happen as you are reading and (if you can) after you finish. I would not blame anyone for stopping even through part one as it only gets more unsettling as you go along. Not to mention the publisher of this book, Nantier Beall Minoustchine Publishing, is known for its adult (erotic, violence, commentary of humanity) works. And as much as I really do not care for Hubert on the surface, there is something deeper that keeps me coming back for more, to find more titles by them.