Wytches Review
Scott Snyder puts aside his monthly Batman title to delve into the mythology of witches, giving them a much darker and more twisted approach than previous depictions.
The Rooks family move to Litchfield to get away from the memories of a horrible accident. What they don’t know is that there is something far worse waiting for them- Wytches. Everything gets worse after their daughter, Sailor, finds herself haunted by these creatures, along with the memories of her past. She soon discovers the reason for her hauntings- she has been pledged to the Wytches, meaning she is no longer safe anywhere in Litchfield. After all, pledged is pledged.
The first two pages perfectly sum up what we can expect from Snyder’s Wytches. Page one shows the definition of witches as most people know them, but page two shows the same definition violently scratched out. Snyder accomplishes two things with this- he sets the tone for the book perfectly, and reveals that our conceptions of witches is not what we will get.
The reader is not given a full view of the Wytches straight away, Snyder builds up the tension and pace of the book while only giving brief glances of them. Artist Jock does a fantastic job of showing only snippets, utilising the shadows and trees. The way that colourist Matt Hollingsworth overlays paint splatters, using heavier splatters on more intense pages, is another great method for concealing the Wytches until they are ready to reveal them.
While visually the book delivers it is down to the characters that makes this a great horror graphic novel. Charlie, the father, is not perfect (and has been a very poor father in the past) but he tries to make up for his past, and truly worries about his family which leads the reader hoping for him to succeed. Next is Sailor whose past we see more frequently through her being pledged and her past, with the use of flashbacks, that makes us feel emotionally connected with her and hoping this isn’t her end.
Snyder once again delivers a gripping story filled with sacrifice and trials that brings all the elements of the horror genre together to make a success of a genre of graphic novel where so many have failed before. Tying it in with the artwork, and Jock’s creepy design of the Wytches themselves makes this a fantastic book for all fans.
