House of Clay by Naomi Nowak

Martha Cornog - Library Journal

Beautiful psychedeco graphics spin out a story about a well-to-do daughter sent off to earn tuition for nursing school when family finances fail. The House of Cotton seamstress job in a seaside town drops Josephine into a love triangle with her inscrutable boss and mysteriously mute coworker, Edith, whom she befriends. Fantasy and dreamscape play alongside reality, eventually revealing the source of Edith's muteness as an abusive relationship with the boss. Blood ties it all together-the blood of seamstress needle-pricks, Edith's blood, and Josephine's own bent for fainting at the sight of blood. A more positive anchor is the aged tarot reader, whom Josephine meets in town, with a dog named Keri, from Kerberos, keeper of Hell's gate. The ambiguous tale gradually coalesces as Josephine, Keri, and finally Edith make their way out of the "clay" that has been sucking them under. Nowak's gorgeous pastel art overlays and deepens this self-discovery tale with the power of imagery and masqueraded nightmares. Nowak lives in Sweden and writes in English, and her work is touted as a blend of European and Asian comics traditions. This artfully disturbing tale will appeal to "shojo alumnae" ages 18+.

School Library Journal

Gr 9 Up -Josephine, who calls herself Posy, is a former rich girl who ends up working in a sweatshop called House of Cotton. While there, she befriends a mute girl named Edith and an elderly woman who sees in Josephine a younger version of herself. The story is emotionally affecting and sometimes confusing; it is realistic fiction, but its "reality" sometimes has a dreamlike quality. For example, a small dog guides Josephine to the old lady, who then tells Josephine that she calls the sweatshop House of Clay instead of House of Cotton because it reminds her of the underworld. Nowak's skill as a painter shines in the ethereal hair and expressive eyes of her characters. The artwork seems to exert control over the story itself; even word and thought balloons pulsate and melt before our eyes. The art transcends what readers would normally expect to find in a graphic novel; any page of this book would not be out of place in a frame on the wall of an art gallery. This is a unique book for thoughtful, mature readers.-Andrea Lipinski, New York Public Library

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