Starred Review Contemporary fiction is full of post­apocalyptic stories, but Lee's sly comic about animals left behind after humans disappear stands apart. In a neighborhood littered with rubble, Simon (a dog), Cliff (a raccoon), and Reynard (a deer) are desperately hungry. Subtle, unsettling hints of disaster surround them, like a trashed sign revealing part of the word "quarantine," and it's clear to readers that the animals' long-awaited garbage night, the day of the week when scavenging in trash cans was at its best, will never come. Lee's animal characters, though, don't seem to fully understand what's going on. Simon worries, for example, that his humans will come back when he's not there. These are all classic animal traits, but Lee depicts her characters, dressed all in hoodies, jean jackets, and knit hats like surly teenagers, with unmistakably human qualities. When Simon encourages Cliff and Reynard to follow a snide, borderline cruel dog, Barnaby, on a shortcut to another town, petty jealousies and Simon's desperation for canine companionship create fissures in their friendship. The ample depth of feeling and intriguing backstory are in captivating complement to Lee's artwork. Against saturated, jewel-toned backgrounds of the ravaged landscape, her cartoonish, stylized animals, with their slouching tube socks and churlish attitudes, have a lighthearted, almost playful look. If there's one complaint to be made, it's that it's all over too soon. Let's hope Lee's not done with the story yet.

Three starving animals, a ragtag pack consisting of Simon (an abandoned dog), Cliff (a raccoon), and Reynard (a deer), ramble across a rusted-out, dilapidated world, scavenging to survive. When Barnaby, a slippery, sinewy new dog, joins them with tales of a town still lit up and teeming with garbage, their friendships fray. The adolescent animals in this wrenching, bleak graphic novel wear hoodies, knit caps, and tube socks, and their eyes are tired and worried. Their unlikely authenticity, the hunger and hopelessness rendered in their animal faces and darting eyes, make this woozy, utterly devastating fable terribly effective in acknowledging the people, particularly teenagers, who struggle within America's swaths of poverty and desperation. Lee's artwork does not shield readers from this. Abandoned strip malls, denuded forests, chain-link fences, and boarded-up houses make up this shadowy world of forgotten places, people, and pets. Both readers inhabiting economically depressed communities and those comfortably distanced from them will shudder as they plod alongside this deteriorating group of increasingly edgy friends. Inventive, varied paneling, speech-bubble placement, and shifts in palette keep their story moving even as it sometimes, even abruptly, meanders, just like the halting, confused, listless odyssey of these peripatetic animal kids. Grim, deeply affecting, and timely. (Graphic fantasy. 10-18)

Three starving animals, a ragtag pack consisting of Simon (an abandoned dog), Cliff (a raccoon), and Reynard (a deer), ramble across a rusted-out, dilapidated world, scavenging to survive. When Barnaby, a slippery, sinewy new dog, joins them with tales of a town still lit up and teeming with garbage, their friendships fray. The adolescent animals in this wrenching, bleak graphic novel wear hoodies, knit caps, and tube socks, and their eyes are tired and worried. Their unlikely authenticity, the hunger and hopelessness rendered in their animal faces and darting eyes, make this woozy, utterly devastating fable terribly effective in acknowledging the people, particularly teenagers, who struggle within America's swaths of poverty and desperation. Lee's artwork does not shield readers from this. Abandoned strip malls, denuded forests, chain-link fences, and boarded-up houses make up this shadowy world of forgotten places, people, and pets. Both readers inhabiting economically depressed communities and those comfortably distanced from them will shudder as they plod alongside this deteriorating group of increasingly edgy friends. Inventive, varied paneling, speech-bubble placement, and shifts in palette keep their story moving even as it sometimes, even abruptly, meanders, just like the halting, confused, listless odyssey of these peripatetic animal kids. Grim, deeply affecting, and timely. (Graphic fantasy. 10-18)

This follow-up to Lee-s previous short story -Vacancy- (also collected here) tells a simple yet absorbing tale of friendship and survival in a postapocalyptic world. Simon is a domesticated dog abandoned by his owners after a mysterious disaster; along with his wild friends Cliff the raccoon and Reynard the deer, Simon spends his days scavenging the barren suburbs for food. When the trio meet a wandering dog named Barnaby, they decide to join him and travel to Fallbridge, a far-off town where food is rumored to be plentiful. But Barnaby turns out to be a bully, and Simon must decide where his loyalties lie. Lee-s expansive universe of anthropomorphic animals comes alive through her spare use of detail: her verbal worldbuilding gives readers just enough information about animal society and what came before to spark the imagination, and vivid, expressive cartooning fills in the gaps. The result is a quiet, heartbreaking new installment in what promises to be a tremendously imaginative serial. (June)