was enthralled by volume 1, and somewhat meh about Volume 2.

Volume three brought back the complete batshittery of volume one, and actually gave Rose some interesting roles to play. Originally Bridgette was my favourite character, but I've definitely shifted to Rose, who has a complex role to play across all of the story (not Anglo Saxon; will they be driven out of England as well?)

I'm going for 4.5 stars (instead of five), because of the number of times I went 'oh, FFS' about something in the story was Too Many. The world building continues to be baffling but fascinating, the plot mostly good (although I'm mostly not even attempting to work out what the plot is doing at any given time), the characters are at least interesting even if I'm not invested in any of them, and the story has its hooks in to me and drags me merrily along page to page. ( )

This is volume three of a series about the Arthurian mythos rising up again in modern Britain; I read volume one when it was a Hugo finalist last year. (I didn't intentionally skip volume two; I didn't realize I'd skipped an installment until there were a bunch of references to Beowulf in this one.) It's pretty fun stuff, with strong characters, good art, and occasional moments of genius... but like all the original Kieron Gillen comics I've read, I have this sort of vibe that he's almost but not quite as good as Brian K. Vaughan. Unfair but there you go.

I read this graphic novel because it was in the Hugo voting packet. It was very definitely in the fantasy-horror genre of graphic novels. There are lots of fantasy aspects, since the whole story seems to be about a family who is linked to story traditions of England. ("Seems to be" since this is volume 3 and I haven't read 1-2.) I did enjoy picking up on the folklore and Arthurian legends that I know about. However, the art is on the gory side to fit with the horror aspect, and the plot has plenty of killing and pain. Definitely preview this one before jumping in with both feet (the way I did) but if this is your kind of story, it could easily hook you. It's not really my kind of graphic novel (too much horror) and yet I still was interested enough to finish the volume. ( )