Ocultos - Laura Pérez - ★★

AUTHOR: Laura Pérez

TRANSLATOR: Andrea Rosenberg

GENRE: Graphic Novel

PUBLICATION DATE: September 17, 2024

RATING: 2 stars.

In a Nutshell: A collection of graphic short stories that focusses on the overlap between the observable and the occult. This was too metaphysical and experimental for my liking, so take this review with a pinch of salt.

This graphic novel was originally published in Spanish in 2019. This English translation by Andrea Rosenberg is due to be released in September 2024.

The book contains twelve stories that, though not interlinked, have some bearing on each other while still staying independent in their own content. There is no overarching plot, but there certainly is a common theme: self-discovery. The stories focus on the sense of feeling lost, of being summoned by the unknown, of discovering one’s identity under a mask. There is a recurring motif of a character feeling that someone is watching them when they are asleep. While experiencing this sensation, they try to figure out who/what is calling to them, why they can’t make sense of their immediate reality, and who they truly are at their core.

Each of the above aspects reveals how abstract this collection is, and unfortunately for me and my practical Capricorn head, I don’t do abstract. Even when stories go into the surreal, I prefer seeing some sense in the nonsense, which rarely happens here. There is very little dialogue across the stories, so when some characters across multiple stories resemble each other, it is tough to figure out if they are the same person or if the resemblance is yet another random mystery of the universe.

The world in which the stories are based is strangely oxymoronic, feeling primitive yet futuristic. The belief system seems primeval while the lifestyle seems to belong ahead in time. The set comes a full circle when the last story ends at the same place as the first begins. But don’t imagine a circular path because of this coincidence. It is more akin to a random scribble that crosses over an earlier line than the completion of a narrative loop.

This line from the novel best represents what I felt while reading it: “Something's trying to communicate with me but I can't understand the language.” Well, I understood the written language, but I didn’t get what the book was trying to communicate. As there are twelve stories across 150 pages, each tale gets hardly a few pages to create an impression. The only story that I liked was of the widow who feels comforted by a strange presence in her house. I found this the only subplot with a proper flow, even when it didn’t offer closure at the end. The rest go so meta that it feels like having a weird fever dream. (or maybe, multiple little fever dreams.)

The illustrations do save the book to some extent. The art style is different in each story. The colour palette shuffles between B&W, monochrome green, and earth-toned. The sketches match the mood of the story. If the book was intended to serve as a showcase of the author’s artistic talent and range, it functions quite well.

Basically, I didn't understand the point of the whole thing. It might work for someone who is more in touch with the higher consciousness, but I am of a more earthly bent of mind, and hence this book went above my head.

My daughter read this along with me. Unlike me, she IS of a philosophical disposition (she certainly doesn’t get it from me!), and enjoys reading books that delve into the subconscious and the metaphysical. She liked this book better than I did and found it thought-provoking, but what she enjoyed the most were the illustrations as the graphics emphasised the surrealness of the content.

In short, this book might work for the right reader, one who would enjoy an exploration into unknown realms of the mind and the occult. I wasn’t the right reader.

My thanks to Fantagraphics for providing the DRC of “Ocultos” via Edelweiss+. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book. Sorry this didn’t work out better.