Beneath The Trees Where Nobody Sees - Patrick Horvath - ★★★★.¼

AUTHOR: Patrick Horvath

GENRE: Horror Graphic Novel

PUBLICATION DATE: September 17, 2024

RATING: 4.25 stars.

In a Nutshell: A horror graphic novel filled with anthropomorphic animals and questionable moral compasses. (More ‘Dexter’ than ‘Zootopia’!) Gripping, chilling, creepy! Definitely not for the faint-hearted. Loved the plot and the character development. Appreciated the complex exploration of ethics. Recommended but not to all.

Plot Preview:

Samantha Strong is a brown bear who has spent most of her life in the small town of Woodbrook, where everyone knows everyone else and everything about them. At least, that’s what the townsfolk think. But Samantha has a dark secret. Though she is a law-abiding hardware-store owner, she is also a serial killer with one golden rule: Don’t murder the locals. She chooses her target from a big city just beyond the forest. After all, the city is full of potential victims and no one will miss one person in the crowd. All these years, her modus operandi has worked perfectly. But now, there’s a problem.

A Woodbrook local has been murdered brutally. Samantha is wild at the thought of some other killer upsetting the status quo. With Sheriff Patterson (literally) barking up the wrong tree, Samantha knows that it is up to her to hunt her rival before she is caught for the murders she didn’t commit, or even for the ones she did.

This graphic novel is a compilation of the six comics of ‘Beneath the Trees’, the critically acclaimed indie series. This edition has the complete story, no cliffhangers. (Thank heavens!)

It is strange to read a book filled with animals, most of them drawn in a cutesy art style and in lovely light pastels, and then to realise that this isn’t a sweet animal fable but the story of a psychopath (Or two!) My mind is still reeling from the aftereffects of this bizarre juxtaposition.

The core plot is brilliant. The story does exactly what a horror-thriller should, keeping us glued to the pages and horrified at the psyche of the murderers, which allows them to commit brutality without any qualms. There is no justification provided for why Samantha kills; she just wants to. This was the toughest part for me to accept - casual killings done just for the sake of it. Very disturbing!

The murders are as brutal as you can imagine, and a bit more. Think Dexter, but with a bear. The strange part is that when the second killer comes into the picture, the proceedings become more brutal, thereby ending up making Samantha look saner. While reading, we know we can’t support Samantha but nor can we support the other killer. Imagine reading a plot where you don’t know whom to root for – the protagonist (who is more of an antihero) or the antagonist (who is working against the antihero but still isn’t a hero.) Mindboggling!

The setting adds to the eerie vibes, with its messed-up lifestyle more like organised chaos. Anthropomorphic bears interacting with actual bears in the forest as if they were two separate species? A butchery where there are slaughtered pig heads on offer though there are pig citizens as well? Humanised animals having ordinary animal pets? Curiouser and curiouser!

All the characters are anthropomorphic animals of various species, so seeing them with human features and human flaws is utterly weird. I also loved the depiction of the townspeople’s fear and apprehension when they hear of a killer on the loose. The change in the town’s atmosphere is palpable through the graphics. The writing captures the small-town pulse excellently.

I read this along with my elder daughter, and both of us were somewhat grossed out by the proceedings, albeit for different reasons. She was more affected by the lack of morality while I was more predictably affected by the butchery. In fact, both of us were feeling so claustrophobic that we took a break after the fourth comic just to start breathing a bit easier. This just shows how successful the book was in its *execution*. [Pun intended.] There were some scenes that caused us to burst into laughter as well, but a part of me thinks it was more hysterical laughter out of nervousness than a genuine fun guffaw.

The ending might generate different reactions among different readers, but considering the inherent contradiction in the storyline, I was prepared for it and satisfied with it. Don’t look for closure, though. You will be confused about whether to heave a sigh of relief or continue to bite your fingernails.

The two main reasons I am not going higher in my rating are:

1. It was a bit too discomposing for my taste.

2. I’d had loved to see more clarity on the rationale of the second killer. The whys aren’t so convincing.

The illustrations complement the plot well, though it’s somewhat unsettling to see light pastels for such a dark story. The anthropomorphic animals are drawn with somewhat human expressions while the actual animals are sketched more true-to-type. This creates a neat distinction between the townspeople and the ‘animals’. The murder scenes are quite grisly – I watched them from between my fingers. (I think it is the killing of and by animals that affected me so much. I have never had any problem reading graphic novels with brutal human murders.) Many panels contain hidden clues in the background, so make sure you don’t race through just the text bubbles. I loved the font style, with Samantha’s inner thoughts coming in a different typeface.

All in all, the graphic novel has a screwed-up yet captivating storyline with excellent illustrations and many points to ponder upon. This is a debut series, so I am mighty impressed at how streamlined the plot development is. I am definitely going to keep an eye out for the future works by this author, even if it means that I’ll be reading his comics with my hands over my eyes.

Much recommended to horror/thriller lovers who are also graphic novel aficionados. This is one of those brilliant books that I’ll promote enthusiastically to all the right readers, but will never read it myself again.

My thanks to IDW Publishing for providing the DRC of “Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees” via Edelweiss+. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.