With a Victorian and anime vibe, this black-and-white comic series is the story of a young girl who must cope with loneliness, alienation, and cruelty, all because her parents could not tell her an important truth: They are dead.

Living in an abandoned house until maybe twelve or thirteen years of age, Briar Rose Thornton spent that time living with her parents, not realizing they were ghosts. The only member of her family to survive what was known as the night fever, it is not until a distant relative arrives to claim the house as his inheritance that she discovers she has been lied to all her life. Dragged from the only home Briar has ever known to a boarding school for girls, she can barely recover from the shock when she realizes the school is filled with ghosts which, unsurprisingly, only she can see. It isn’t long before Briar befriends a ghost named Everett, who is not only amazed she can see him, but he doesn’t scare her either. Not quite fitting into either the world of the living or the dead, Briar must learn to cope with her new reality.

If you don’t already know, Briar Rose was the name of the main character from Sleeping Beauty. Though the original story of Sleeping Beauty is much darker and violent than this one, the metaphor is not lost on me. Here is a young girl who is “awakened” from a type of sleep to be thrust into the real world, unprepared and threatened on multiple sides. Her only goal is to die in order to reunite with the only family she has ever known. But something is holding her back from making that final decision, and that something is life.

I’m not usually a fan of black-and-white comics, but the style serves Ms. Anderson’s story well. The art is nicely creepy with the occasional jolt from the ghosts. It moves at a nice pace, and I like the different angles in the panels. The characters are fully formed, and you definitely root for Briar in her dire circumstances. The ghosts are the most complex characters, having hidden agendas that we are not quite sure of yet. The horror in this comic is more subtle and psychological than graphic, which to me is much more powerful.

It appears I forgot to back the Kickstarter for Issue 4. I will remedy that in her next campaign.

Creative Team: CM Anderson (writer), Studio Rover (artist/letterer)
Publisher: CM Anderson
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