Review - Salt Magic

It's the 20th century, and we've got farmsteads, wars, midwestern accents, witches, and magic, ooh la la!

Hope Larson and Rebecca Mock's Salt Magic was one of the test subjects I nabbed on my mission to restore my library's graphic novel section. Originally, upon reading the synopsis and previews for the graphic novel, I wasn't as convinced about its quality as I was for titles such as Marjorie Liu's Wingbearer, but I decided to pull the trigger and give it a shot, and boy am I glad I did.

I thoroughly enjoy a good fantasy story that takes place in the eras when life out west and in the prairies was at its prime; that is, the 19th and early 20th centuries. The cultures of those decades have always had a tremendous appeal to me, and when you blend good fantasy writing with those times and aesthetic, you can get some pretty wonderful, and unique, results. The free previews for Salt Magic didn't do the book a justice, which was the reason I was at first hesitant to try it, but the full story offered so much more than I with high expectations even hoped for.

So, if you're a fan of this kind of real-world fantasy that draws from a particular aesthetic like I am, sit back and enjoy the ride that is Salt Magic... the review of it, at least.

First things first, Salt Magic doesn't have a familiar feel, compared to how some other graphic novels are written. Right from the first few pages, I could get the sense I was in for a completely different ride than what I was used to, and what I was expecting. The book succeeds at pulling you in in a very timely manner, thanks to its very decisive writing and illustration style. Some things, such as the American settler aesthetic, may be familiar to many people, but because of the novel's focus and the coloration of the illustrations, there is most definitely a unique aura about it, from beginning to end. For me, it was very easy to fall in love with this signature style of Salt Magic. Hope Larson and Rebecca Mock do a superb job at combining their talents in a way that feels seamless, natural, and it works. Salt Magic heavily benefits from the combination of its specific writing and drawing style; if either part was different, it wouldn't be the same. Fortunately, we do indeed have the winning combination.

This signature style that makes up what Salt Magic is not only helps it stand out from other graphic novels, it also helped it come across to me as more of an independent work rather than a traditionally published, mass-marketed book. It doesn't care what the masses like, and tells its own story in its own way. I believe this is one of the most distinguishing things about Salt Magic, though all the other reviews I've seen for this book don't mention anything like it. It's not just a good, different story, its that it goes beyond what most traditional publishers like their books to be about, or what they'd like to see contained in them. Salt Magic doesn't confine itself to any sort of normal boundaries. There's just a different kind of meaning, a different kind of plot, to the point where I was consistently finding every time I expected a certain thing to occur, based on "the norm" of other books, it didn't happen, and instead veered off onto a different path. "I know what happens next, because everytime... wait, what? Well, that's an interesting turn..."

Salt Magic is defined mostly from its more specific, intricate story and illustration details, but there is an overarching, main plot. It's 1919, and World War 1 has ended. Vonceil, the daughter of a farmer living in Oklahoma, can't wait for her brother to return home from Europe... but when he returns, he's grown up and entirely different from the person Vonceil knows. Her brother marries a simple woman, and all seems quiet and well until a strange visitor named Greda arrives to meet Vonceil's brother. It's then revealed that Vonceil's brother first met Greda while he was in Europe, and the two were very close until the brother returned home, leaving Greda behind. Once Greda discovers her expected future husband is already married, she flies into a rage and turns the entire farm's water supply into salt water. Greda is an immortal salt witch, and leaves after cursing the farm. After the disaster befalls the farm, Vonceil makes up her mind to find the witch again and make her lift the curse on the farm... somehow. The remainder of the book is a long, ever changing series of events, filled with character choices, each with their own, sometimes dramatic, consequences. It's virtually impossible to predict, making the ride even more captivating and the style of both writing and drawing more intriguing.

Granted, not everything in Salt Magic is unique and filled with stuff you've never seen before in a book. There are plenty of conventional things that you'd normally see in a fantasy book or one with an old-fashioned western setting: midwestern slang, gritty life on the farm, big families with too many relatives to count, and overall a very standard western aesthetic. But it's still written very well, and most of the more familiar conventions fade away by the time you leave the first fourth of the book. From there, the fantasy aspect fully kicks in, and then suddenly, things are very different. The signature writing style kicks in with full force, and then you're off.

The same goes for the illustrations. Once you enter into the second fourth of the book, there is a noticeable shift in the way the drawings look. Most likely it is just me, but as the central plot became revealed and was set in motion, I started to notice the coloration of the drawings more, and it helped keep me hooked through every page. The thing that stood out most was the blend of white and black. In certain scenes and locations, a dark night could appear much brighter with the way dark and light shading is used. It gave certain moments and character expressions a perfect feel. A sunny day at the witch's estate felt lifeless based on the flatness of the blue of the sky, and there was a subtle creepiness to the way half a scene would be bathed in light while the other half shrouded in darkness. To put it more objectively, when a whole drawing was supposed to have the same lighting, light and dark often blended together as a shade of one color depending on time of day, creating a certain spacious and colder feel; and when sunlight wasn't affecting everything in another illustration, the contrast between black and white was incredibly massive, with little in-between. I say this like Salt Magic is a black-and-white graphic novel; it's not, but color to me seemed to take a backseat while the important mood-setter was everything relating to how dark or light a scene looked. Whether the grass is yellow or green is not as relevant.

I certainly enjoyed how it looks just as much as the writing itself. There are some exceptions to this "it's all about the lighting and shading", but those are always found in more isolated, specific parts of Salt Magic, where the scene or character is intended to stand out by being extra vibrant and colorful.

One common complaint I hear from many readers concerning books is the lack of meaningful character choices, or, to put it another way, the choices that the characters make throughout the story don't have really have important consequences or affect the outcome. It's one of those things readers regularly point out when asked why they didn't like a certain book, almost as common as the complaint about lack of character development. You'll be pleased to know that Salt Magic has this aspect of writing nailed down. There is an abundance of character choices and all have interesting consequences, and many make the story twist and turn in unpredictable ways. Refer back to my earlier point about how Salt Magic is hard to guess and it feels less like a mass-marketed book because of it, this is why I said it. At first, the main plot seems simple and straightforward, but along the way, so many character decisions are made that by the time it's all over, the consequences/results are so much bigger than the originally simple goal. You can't help but wonder why and how it was worth all the trouble, but you can't say that until it's too late to go back. Character choices in Salt Magic is like trying to win a big pot in gambling; you start out believing all you need to give is a little, but you end up spending it all... only to win enough to cover what you spent. This rabbit-hole storytelling is well thought out, but I have encountered reviews that complain it's very hard to keep up with and understand what's going on. Based on my own experience as well as these reviews, I'd say it's something that's more or less subjective depending on the reader in question. Some may find the chains of events to be confusing, others may follow it perfectly. It's different for different people.

Salt Magic has a few cons and things I didn't necessarily like. They weren't glaring or fundamental issues by any means, but they were a bit perplexing and difficult to make sense of. From the synopsis, I understood the relationship between main protagonist Vonceil and her older brother Elber to be an important point of the story. The siblings were inseparable as kids, but when Elber returns from WWI, he's a man, and no longer views things like Vonceil does. Vonceil dislikes Elber's new wife, Amelia, and the book makes much fuss about the resentment Vonceil has for her, along with showing just how different Vonceil and Elber are now. But as soon as Greda shows up and the plot gets rolling, the tension between Vonceil, Amelia, and Elber disappears into oblivion. The very next scene is essentially the last time Elber has any involvement in the story, and I couldn't help but wonder what the purpose of all that character development was if it was only going to be nuked after the first fourth of the story. Including tension between Vonceil and Amelia and Elber seemed kind of pointless in the end, it could've been a happy affair and the witch would've put a wrench in the family all the same. The only thing I can think of is "Vonceil, don't complain about someone marrying a simple woman because a glamorous one brings more trouble." ???

The ending was almost just as perplexing. The main plot effectively ends before the epilogue, but the epilogue carries it on and then some. It's normal for authors to "wrap things up" and put a stamp on it, but I personally would've enjoyed the entire book more if it ended 6 pages sooner. What occurs in the very final pages puts more of a sour- no, salty, taste in my mouth than anything. If you read Salt Magic yourself, you will be able to understand why. Hope Larson was absolutely entitled to end it that way, but it left some people, including me, a little less than happy.

The last thing was the lack of character emotion. Sure, it had its moments, but this isn't exactly a story I'd consider to be sappy at all. The emotion doesn't spring off the pages like the rest of the book does, but considering the actual storyline and what takes place, I can't blame it too much. Salt Magic wasn't made to have an abundance of drama and overwhelming emotion, so there's not much that ought to be changed in the first place beyond a few little moments where an extra touch of heart could've added some more feels. Likewise, Salt Magic doesn't really have a positive message and there's no real lesson that can be learned from it, so you just have to enjoy the story for what it is at face value.

But as it turned out, out of the three graphic novels I've tried out recently, Salt Magic was firmly the one I enjoyed the most, despite its few hiccups. Its uniqueness in a lot of regards is able to carry it just about all the way through, and with the talents of Hope Larson and Rebecca Mock working together beautifully, Salt Magic has found a spot in my list of favorite, most entertaining books to read. Its weakest points are nothing more than minor grievances, and I'd absolutely recommend it to anyone, whether they crave a unique story, a fantasy, a western, or anything in-between. It has a cool setting, well-crafted plot, entertaining characters, and above all, I'm simply a sucker for this sort of fantasy. Feel free to take this all with a grain of salt (sorry not sorry :p ) but I still rate Salt Magic an easy 8.8 out of 10.