Spellbound, Book 4

Well, that didn’t end how I was expecting it to.  It’s a little bit darker, but it also makes a lot of sense.

I like a good surprise.

Casting a Credits Spell

Back to the Beginning

To really understand this volume (and the whole series), you need to go back to the first book and read over everything again. Get it fresh in your mind. The events of the first volume really did set everything in motion towards the inevitable conclusion that this book represents.

If you had forgotten details from the first book, it might be more surprising and yet less satisfying.  You’d be waiting for a different ending which never was going to happen.

If you’re like me, you got caught up in all the characters who were backstabbing each other, setting up their own political power plays, and just plotting in general against others.  The high political gamesmanship, the lying, the seducing, the magical spells, and family squabbling all distracted from how the book began:

A spurned lover of the about-to-be-queen struck a deal with a witch to get his revenge.  It ended badly for him, and she was cursed/doomed to a bad fate upon being touched by god’s hand, which is something that happened as she ascended to the throne.

Meanwhile, Maldoror is exiled from the evil world below, sent to the sun-drenched fields of Middleland, where he finds himself changing.  He’s losing his powers. He’s falling in love with an honest and innocent woman.

That innocent woman, though, is seeing her family not just opposing her, but working hard to kill her.  This drives her to commit some evil acts on her own. It may be out of self defense at first, but it’s a delicious power that can change a person, if unchecked.

Parallel Stories (Kind of Spoilery for Tone)

And there is the core of the series.  It’s a two hander, as it turns out. It’s about how Maldoror is initially dark but turning to the light, while the light Blanche is turning to the dark side. And they each have a sibling who works against them that they have to overcome, and a power structure working against them that they increasingly don’t want to deal with anymore.

Can they break the spell they don’t realize they’re working under?  Are they fated to be star-crossed lovers as their own instincts change from under them?

This whole series features a fancy dressed up story of two people with similar lives moving in opposite directions but getting mixed up with each other along the way. Their timing is just awful, though. There’s a middle section of their movements where things will be similar enough that they can get along, but as time goes by, their love is doomed.

There are just too many people in opposition on both sides. Events are pushing the characters into making decisions they couldn’t have imagined making before.

I think that’s the high point of this comic: it’s about people making bad decisions that seem like perfectly logical ideas at the time, but ultimately destroy them in some way. They aren’t necessarily bad people and their reasons for their actions are spelled out and make sense in the moment. Sometimes, they’re ignoring better advice from their confidants, but the point is that some people just can’t overcome their situations.

Credit goes to Dufaux for not making this a book about last minute redemption and surprising twists and turns to save the day.

In a way, it’s a shame that the story wrapped up with its fourth volume. It really felt like Munuera and Dufaux were settling into an interesting rhythm with this series. The art was getting slightly more cartoony again. While the color is still a big impact on the style, it’s much more restrained in many parts of this book, which makes the moments where it flairs up just that much more impactful.

And, just like in “The Campbells” finale, we get a sword fight! I love a good swashbuckler!

One Last Question

It feels like there’s something else happening beneath the surface that’s being hinted at, but not explained.  There are a couple moments that felt like they were setting things up for another twist, but never paid off.

For starters, is Blanche’s mind being clouded for a particular reason other than just being part of that spell from the first volume?  Is someone, perhaps, poisoning her or casting some kind of magic spell on her? Why are all her papers filled with drawings of stars?

Or am I expecting too pat an ending by asking everything to tie together instead of just letting them take their natural course of actions, even when the hero turns villain?

It’s not confusing or unsettling to me as a reader.  It’s the kind of thing that leads me to thinking more about the book, and being careful on a second rereading of it to look for more clues. I feel like I still don’t have all the answers, but that I’m satisfied with what we’ve got, even if the ending is a little against the typical model.

Recommended?

Yes.  You “Game of Thrones” folks might enjoy this kind of stuff.  It doesn’t have any dragons, but it does have a funny zombie army, plenty of backstabbing familial mischief, and people dying in bloody ways.

Pulling off a series ending story is always tricky. The writer needs to wrap up the major story parts from the series while delivering another interesting story. It’s not enough to just put a capper on things and call it a day. Dufaux and Munuera pull that off with this book.

Everything is a logical progression of what came before it, paying off many of the events from the first three books. It all made sense in the end. It’s not necessarily the classic Hollywood third act with the definitive ending with the tears of joy.

I think that’s part of the reason I loved the ending so much, and why i think some people will have issues with it. Those people aren’t wrong necessarily; they just expected and wanted something else and didn’t get it. it’s up to them to embrace the surprise and appreciate the cleverness, or not.

— 2019.026 —

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