Starred Review ALA Booklist (Fri Sep 16 00:00:00 CDT 2022)

Starred Review You walk into a tavern, and a mysterious hooded figure approaches you. "Looking for work?" Such words thrilled many eager 12-year-old gamers back before "gamers" had anything to do with video games. Shiga captures that thrill of limitless possibility in this choose-your-own-path-style maze of a comic book wonder. Here you must procure the Starlight Wand in order to control the monstrous Leviathan, who sinks ships and punishes all thieves, liars, and betrayers. Variety of choice type is high: what "class" of adventurer you are; what direction to go; what action to perform; and, most important, which way your moral compass points. The adventure is, of course, not actually limitless ere are only so many pages, and you must eventually tread the path of the one central quest. But the variety of choices; the tantalizing glimpses of un-had adventures as you flip through pages on your current quest; and the labyrinth-winding, squat-figured, goggle-eyed fun of Shiga's art all invite many return reads. Once you've tracked down all the clues, and perhaps found yourself trapped indefinitely on a desert island once or twice, you will eventually find that the two "proper" endings are surprisingly dark: perpetuating a vast peace-ensuring lie or revealing it in a deranged rant. This ultimately renders the thrill into a more emotionally and morally complicated experience than you expected.

Kirkus Reviews

A clever story requiring investigation, diligence, and the ability to think outside the box.This "choose your own adventure"–style graphic novel uses a unique navigation system that invites readers to decide between panels as well as pages to find clues to several endings. An introductory page explains how to navigate, and the opening scene's basic decision tree acts as a tutorial before the real exploration begins. Cartoon illustrations in a gray and blue palette are spare yet highlight crucial details such as the difference between day and night (players can navigate in daytime and nighttime modes, resulting in different interactions in the same places). The story, involving a legendary sea creature that enforces morality among a medieval island community, is the catalyst for meeting the island's residents and learning their history. Plot progression will depend on the reader, including their scruples toward reading multiple paths at once, though the reveals and lore in this analog video game of a book are most rewarding when explored one panel at a time. The puzzles are designed to challenge and delight; let them. The protagonist-and reader stand-in-has skin the white of the page and is female; other characters have skin that is either white or gray.Gamers and puzzlers will lose themselves for hours flipping back and forth through this book's crafty charms. (Graphic fiction. 10-16)

Publishers Weekly (Fri Oct 06 00:00:00 CDT 2023)

This ambitious graphic novel by Shiga (the Demons series), reminiscent of early 2000s web browser games in which players facilitate their own unique story lines through a series of choices, features an unnamed, pony-tailed protagonist seeking the power to control a frightening sea monster. Operating as the hero, readers must decide what to do about the monstrous Leviathan terrorizing the waters beyond the protagonist’s coastal village, while navigating varying obstacles, which includes obstinate and change-resistant locals. One path leads toward the Starlight Wand, an ancient and mysterious power that can control and, if necessary, defeat the Leviathan. Various choices, including specific conversational responses, examining items, and traveling from one area to another beget one-of-a-kind story progressions, and purposeful narrative dead ends and visually twisty pathing occasionally disorient. Information seeded across locations and dispensed by characters becomes meaningful later, as when a visit to a specific locale nets an answer to unlock an otherwise restricted area. Shiga uses wiry ink and a blue-hued palette to depict a moody environment, while clever dialogue and stout character design impart good humor, expertly composing extraordinary tales that interrogate the lengths to which communities will go to maintain the status quo. Ages 8–12. Agent: Daniel Lazar, Writers House. (Sept.)■